I've been itching to spend a little bit of money on upgrades, I know there is a million threads related to this issue. My question is, what can I upgrade in my stock LO3 fairly cheap and easily to get a little more out of her? I have a replacement rear posi from a 97 Z28 to put in, but I'm looking for engine upgrades or possibly suspension/steering upgrades. Any suggestions?

 

~Shift kit
~Exhaust
~Headers
~CAI
And there are a billion more..

 

Where can I find a good shift kit at? Also does it matter what kind of headers I get, I.E. long tube, short tube, huggers, etc. What exactly do you mean by CAI? I have three inch exhaust from the cat back to a 40 series flowmaster already.

 

Good shift kit, search the forum, I don't even know which shift kit is in mine except that it firms up 1-2, 2-3 shift a lot. Also the least hassle would be the shorty headers, no work to be done except modify the y-pipe to your exhaust/buy a whole new full exhaust which isn't too expensive.

Edit:If you were wanting to spend about $500. You could buy a new set of GM Vortec heads, you would also need to buy a new intake with that though. But I hear great things about them.

 

Edit: Double post, I meant to edit, not post.

 

If you have exhaust upgraded. headers are #1 on my list with any performance vehicle. have you bumpd up the timing thats cheap and easy. shiftkit id have a tranny shop do that. air induction is key. at least an open element and if u wanna go more a CAI= Cold air induction kit. use the search function on this board you can find loads of information.

 

first off make sure your car is in 100% perfect running condition, do an full peformance tune up and take care of anything else that is necissary first, including suspension, brakes, etc.



for peformance, you will want to start off with breathing in more air, and letting it out, BUT you want that air that ur breathing in to be cool (aka do do an open element filter)

there are several threads showing well made homemade cai's, one version is to relocate the battery (move to truck, this will also help weight distrubtion) and cut an hole in the sheet metal where the battery goes and let your cone air filter (peferebly k&n) stick out under the car but make sure to make an splash shield so your filter doesnt clog up with mud and whatnot.

Is your exhuast madrel bent 3in piping? If not you will want to get new piping. Or for 300 bucks go to bandit exhuast and you can get an very well flowing 3in madrel bent, magnaflow exhuast that flows like no other (Well borla/gmmg but there 800 bucks) Plus your car will sound SEXY!

Then you will want to upgrade to headers, i would suggest hooker 2055's as they include an y-pipe (Which you will need) and they are emmisions legal. Then you will also want to upgrade to an hi flo cat (bandit exhuast sells them for 95 bucks) you can pick up the headers/y-pipe from summit racing.

these few things will make your car wake up and will net you much better times at the strip.



Now lets talk handiling. Your best bet is to again, upgrade your old parts that are now diminishing. So get an pair of kyb shocks/struts, springs (lowering springs if you want), and new peformance tires. I would suggest anything TO expensive in the tire department, but dont buy those cheap ones either.

Now the car should handle an quite an bit better, and if you want more i would suggest defintly an front end suspension rebuild kit, it'll run you high 100's but your car will handle better and be MUCH smoother to drive. Then it'll be an good idea to upgrade to IROC-Z or WS6 sway bars, they are much thicker but your car will handle much better.

At this point your car will not only peform much better at the strip but your be corner carving like no other!



But i would suggest any corner carving before you upgrade your BRAKES!
are cars are known for bad brakes and trust me, they arent getting any better as they age.

And you mentioned how you have an posi unit from an 4th gen, well i would consider selling that off and buying an 4th gen ls1 full rear end as there rear ends are an bit stronger then ours, the brakes are fantastic, and they have great diffrentials+ posi in all i belive. But you will still want to re-do your front brakes (calipers, rotors, pads) and possibly your need new brake lines as they corrode and cave in overtime. So overal this WILL cost you an good chunk of money, but i say its worth it.

Or you other option is to check out Atilla the Fun's brake thread he recently started which he is about ready to sell off an few brake kits. It includes 4 new 1le rotors along with an caliper relocation kit to allow the 12in? rotors to fit. This will set you back about 500 bucks. But you will still need new brake pads and there the possibility of needing to buy new brake lines still. And i belive you have drums in the rear so your need to convert to disk but the swap is pretty easy.

There is also an few more options for you but i imagine these two would be your best bet. You could also do both options having ls1 brakes in the rear and atillas setup in the front (or ls1 brakes in the front also) but this would probaly be an overkill.



Next you might want to consider weight reductions as an option to. This could be little stuff like removing the rear seats, removing your power locks, mirrors, etc., removing washer bottler/fluid. Those are the little things which frankely they add up but you wont notice an huge diffrence.

And then there are the bigger things, like swapping to aluminum heads, alumi intakes, gutting the interior, etc. The gutting the interior would basically free but i dont suggest it. Also keep in mind removing weight also effects weight distribution, but it good be good OR bad but it does help with peformance and braking though.



You also want to remember that things happen all of an sudden, so i dont suggest always blowing you $ on peformance parts to save an little like incase your starter goes out, your battery craps out on your, or and probaly the worst YOUR TRANNY SNAPS! and trust me rebuilding your transmission isnt going be cheap.


Since your on an budget i would probaly just make sure the car is in good shape mechanical wise and do an cai and full exhuast and not deal with the pos and just put on an ls1 rear end, put on decent springs, shocks/struts, and call it good.



Wow that was ALOT, hopefully i covered everything. Be safe out there and good luck!

 

Thanks Iroc, that's quite a bit of helpful info there. I'll take it all into consideration.