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I finally got around to modding my '04. I dropped a K&N panel filter into the stock box about a year ago, but never touched anything else on the car. I was sick of not being able to hear the car, and frankly feeling a bit bored with it. I bought a set of Kooks 1.75" headers, along with Kooks high flow cats from MarylandSpeed. They gave me a great price and were very easy to deal with. I had PCM of NC install them for me and do the tune. The cat-back is OEM. The car has 67k miles on it, running 93 octane. I also had them do new plugs and wires while the car was apart, and added some Teknofibra heat shielding to the motor mounts. PCM was also excellent to deal with. The were very professional, the install looks perfectly clean, and they had my car back to me in about 28 hours.
Below is the dyno. I got +29 HP / +25 TQ, which I'm definitely pleased with. Obviously the added area under the curve is awesome in both cases, with a healthy gap over the stock curves at all RPM's. You can definitely feel a bit more shove in the mid-range, and power delivery is nice and smooth.
The sound level came out just as I had hoped. I went with only the headers and cats (I skipped an intake and cat-back) because I didn't want my car to be obnoxious for daily driving or long trips. I like it fairly quiet and calm when I want it to be. As I had hoped, the headers/cats really don't make much difference when you're just cruising around. With the windows up at low rpm's, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference vs. stock. Absolutely no drone, etc. When you lower the windows and lay into it though, you get that glorious howl. Outside of the car at idle is definitely louder, but still pretty darn quiet in the grand scheme of things. I'd say a stock Corvette is louder.
Anyway, I figured I'd post this up for anyone else looking for a little more juice without too much added racket.
Yes, I'm in the Belmont area. They seem like a nice bunch for sure.
A +28/29 rwhp is a nice gain for headers/tune.
Yeah, but how does it sound?
Sounds sooooo much better! It's still pretty darn quiet under most conditions (which is what I wanted), but it gives a nice yell when you lay into it...particularly a nice wail at higher RPM's. I used to own a C5 Z06 with longtubes, and not surprisingly it sounds the same as that...just a bit more subdued in the car. I think there was more a of volume increase outside of the car. The other day after the install was the first time someone on the side of the road actually turned their head to see what was rolling by.
Is that baseline the stock car or with the headers and no tune?
The baseline is the totally stock, unmodified car.
A properly ported LS2 gives just shy of a FAST 90 increase in power at a lower cost.
I cannot shoot out Fast 102 or even 90 for you all comment on how its too much for the investment. Step it down to reality and you have two options, swap to a ported LS2 or buy a LS6 intake with a larger mouth to accommodate the 90mm TB...Either way i am sayin a 90mm TB is necessarily the first step up
I've never personally read of someone taking an ls6 intake off and putting an ls2 intake on in my life. Just something to think about.....LS2 is a larger engine with more bore and didn't make any more power with the same heads...
A properly ported LS2 gives just shy of a FAST 90 increase in power at a lower cost.
I cannot shoot out Fast 102 or even 90 for you all comment on how its too much for the investment. Step it down to reality and you have two options, swap to a ported LS2 or buy a LS6 intake with a larger mouth to accommodate the 90mm TB...Either way i am sayin a 90mm TB is necessarily the first step up
10-16-2014, 03:31 PM
'04 CTS-V Dyno Graphs: Baseline --> Kooks 1.75" + High Flow Cats + Tune 
It's still pretty darn quiet under most conditions (which is what I wanted), but it gives a nice yell when you lay into it...particularly a nice wail at higher RPM's. I used to own a C5 Z06 with longtubes, and not surprisingly it sounds the same as that...just a bit more subdued in the car. I think there was more a of volume increase outside of the car. The other day after the install was the first time someone on the side of the road actually turned their head to see what was rolling by.
I'm not sure if that is a serious statement. 
