Drew182

I've saved a bit of money to spend on my car this winter and wondering what to spend it on. 2009 bone stock ZO6. I would like to keep the car drivable on the street and stay away from any forced induction.
I'm thinking LG Headers, Mild cam, CAI and a good dyno tune.
Maybe intake and throttle body if needed.
Are there any proven combinations?

tiresmoke69

What will you primarily be doing with the car? Drag, Road Racing, ect..?

Jeffro_510

I know you say you want to stay away from Forced induction, I am curious why?
FI is more drivable than heads and cam, unless you get a cam so small that you don't notice.
FI will net you the most power for your money as well.

Drew182

The car will be mainly for the street. I'm not really into drag racing, but i would like to track it when I find some time and a good group to do it with.

Drew182

Maybe I'm wrong about FI, but I would like to try and keep smooth linear power and not have it all up top in the rpm's

Homer3D

Exactly what I was going to say. Doing heads/cam would almost always change the cars driving characteristics. Even with my small-ish cam (228/232 @ 115LSA) in my 2005. you could tell it was slightly rougher.

FI is going to be your best bang for the buck and still keep it stock-like in terms of drivability. The super/turbo charger will only kick in when you mash the gas pedal.

For 10k (or less) you can pick up well over 100 rwhp. To get that from a heads/cam package, you will probably have to sacrifice some stock-like drivability.

DillingerRadio

You are wrong about forced induction. You're thinking about turbochargers when you think high RPM power band. Superchargers (commonly called blowers) induce a positive air pressure value at all RPM, providing a linear power curve versus the spool up power of a turbocharger.

The difference between the two is the setup. A turbocharger utilizes a high impeller resistance that requires exhaust gasses to spin up. At low RPM the exhaust pressure is not enough to spool the impeller and force the gas back into the intake at high pressure. Once you hit a specific RPM however, the turbocharger impeller spools up and creates the boost. This is known as "turbo-lag".

A supercharger, on the other hand, is spooled by the engine itself utilizing a belt driven crank- you lose some of the overall power gain (while still netting a substantial amount) due to the increased resistance on the engine crank. That power is ALWAYS present, due to the fact that the belt mechanism spools the impeller of the super charger creating positive displacement in the intake at all RPMs (going higher as you increase speed up to a maximum limit as defined by the pulley radius).

With $10k, you'd be best served by working with some of the various installers (LPE/Hennessy/Callaway) to try and determine if they have a specific forced induction package for your price range; or if they're willing to work with you. The installers tend to offer packages which not only include the superchargers themselves, but the labor, improved engine internals to handle the new power, and a custom tune. All this is combined, typically, with their warranty on their parts and labor- providing a safeguard against engine failure under normal driving conditions for the duration of the warranty.

[EDIT]
LPE offers a 600HP Supercharged package for $10,995 (+IN tax, unless you have the car trailored back to you)
http://lingenfelter.com/engine-packa...percharger-600

Callaway does installed packages, but does not list prices that I can find on their website (they do have a vendor on site though that you can probably ask for a quote within your budget).

Hennessy offers several upgrades packages as well, but requires an e-mail for a quote. I could have sworn they had prices listed but don't see them.

JAvery20

Supercharger or Turbo. I have kicked about every HP idea around to some of the top tuners/shops and it always comes back to FI.

More power, none of the draw backs(cam lope, gas mileage loss, replacing retainers/springs), and about the same costs.

tiresmoke69

If you plan on adding power for track days (road course), I would go with heads, cam, valve train, and bolton upgrades.

As far as drivability, it's really up your personal tolerance of noise levels, vibration, clutch engagement, ect... on the street.

Drew182

Thanks for the advice guys,
I've done some reading and I think I like the sound of the A&A supercharger.
Looks clean, safe, and easily upgradable.
I'll have to stop in at my local corvette shop and talk to them.

Jeffro_510

Of course you could always go with a maggie or edelbrock roots style blower, and have no issues road racing.

debo

I was thinking the same thing, FI is more drivable, day to day than having internal work done.

0Livernois Motorsports

Drew182

All of the packages we offer are proven packages. We duplicate our packages for hundreds of customer vehicles, and they have proven to stand the test of time. Whether you are looking for an all motor package, or forced induction we do it all! I see another concern for you is drive-ability. Let me assure we pride ourselves on how we maintain factory like drive-ability with all of our packages. PM me for a quote or give us a call.

Brandon

Bodieism

I have a bone stock 09 Z06 as well. I've been searching around a lot for naturally aspirated engine mods and I'm starting to lean heavily towards the Stage 3 Livernois package, which is around 11k. It looks like it's 1k or so cheaper than the Lingenfelter 660 package. I'm thinking the Stage 3 is 610-630 rwhp while the Lingenfelter # is at the crank. My biggest concern is the driveability. One post I read said that city driving was fine as long as you went 1 gear lower than you use to and that surging was minimal at 70+ mph in 6th, which I think I could live with.

So did you end up deciding to go NA or blown?

CMY SIX

With an LS7 you want to stay away from FI, why do you think GM used the LS3 in the ZR1?

DSOMC6

You must have cut/pasted the bolded from 20 years ago?

Turbo lag is non-existent with current tech twin turbos set-ups on LS engines. In fact you will make more tq in lower rpm range and have a much flatter tq curve through the entire rpm range vs a blower. (Not to mention all the other benifits of a TT set-up vs a blower). Although on a Z06 with a $10k budget tt's are probably not going to happen.

Just to give you an idea.... My lil ol TT LS2 (with stock heads at the time) hit 500ftlbs of tq just before 3k rpms and carried that out all the way to 6000rpms.

LS2 7lbs of boost/11 deg timing 91 octane.


TT set-up is a bit more costly, but is more efficiant and produces gobs more tq through out the entire rpm range.

Joe_G

CMY SIX I agree with you again. The LS7 isn't the optimal engine for forced induction IMHO.

If I had 10k to spend on mods on a z06, based on my years of modding Vettes (12 years now) and observations of countless builds of my friends Z's and Vettes, they would be:

Headers
Katech Torquer cam
Have the heads redone to ensure longevity and have a bit of porting while they are off by a well known shop.
Tune

And I'd save the other $3k for some new tires which I will need. Frankly, bone stock traction is an issue, adding more power to marginal traction isn't the best way to spend money.

With the fast computer in the c6 and c7, there is virtually no drivability penalty to heads and cam. I've daily driven one for 12 years now. On the c5, yes, that slow computer had a bit more drivability issues but he c6 is light years ahead.

DillingerRadio

No, it's still as valid today as it was 20 years ago. The physical mechanics of the two systems have not changed.

I presumed with the budget given that a twin-turbo set up was highly unlikely. So I listed the pros and cons of a single turbo vs. supercharger.

I'd also stay away from a turbo set up personally. I can appreciate the recapture of energy, but I also don't like the idea of pressurizing hot exhaust and then forcing it back into the engine block. You have a lot more heat to deal with.. And I've seen turbos pop (and bring the engine with them) on more than one occasion. Of course, that last bit is most likely due to improper installation (or running boost levels higher than the engine compression can handle). It's enough for me to be personally biased towards a supercharged installation vs. turbocharged.

corvetteflier

If I had 10k, blower, no question. Many good packages out there for the Z from established guys, Edelbrock, Callaway and Lingenfelter good places to start simply because they've been around forever. Livernois seems to have a good reputation, as well. There are some questions about the Z with FI around, but again, these guys have been doing it since the LS7 came out.

Joe_G

Don't forget to budget for tires. Or else all the other money you spend will go up in smoke, literally

And you might end up in a ditch. Or worse.