New LS1 Owners - Newbie Tech - What mods will i need?

Looking for some advice on the what kind of work and mods i will need to keep up with some of these modded 03 cobras.

Currently i've invested 17.5k-18k for my 02 SS Camaro M6 (This was price of the car). What kind of mods am i looking at to keep up with the usually modded 03 Cobras? (chip,pulley,exhaust,intake,headers) Extreme Case: KB Blower. Also, how much more will it cost me? I dont want to go the nitrous route because i want something that is always there. Anything else is Fair game. Keep in mind this is my only car... and its a daily driver. Needs to pass Smog in CA.

Would it be cheaper to sell my SS and get me an 03 Cobra? or keep my SS and Mod it?

Can someone shine some light at what my options are and what mods i need to be looking into?

Appreciate any advice.

heads and cam , bolt ons. those modded cobras are very quick, head and cam package (check some of the sponsors) >>>>>
with that package you should be in there playing field easily. they can run you from $1500 - $3000 depends on what heads and labor.

can you afford a cobra? An SS is considerably cheaper car. i mean you can find em for $10-15K in low mileage. I doubt you're gonna find any m112 cobra for anywhere near that.

cali sucks ass mod-wise, so unless you can find a CARB exempt blower i'd skip it. and the gas sucks there too ;)

Well, pretty much any modded Cobra is going to be over 400rwhp, so heads and cam for sure, along with exhaust work. You'll be over 400 with this also. You mientioned a KB Cobra. Good luck keeping up with one of those. Well over 500rwhp with that (I'e got a couple friends with these, the bastards!!). You'll need some type of power adder. Take your pick, N2O, Turobo or Supercharger. Depends on how deep your pockets are.

sam,
he already has the SS and is looking to mod it.

guy,
a cobra with chip,pulley,exhaust,intake,headers is going to be in the range of 400-450rwhp maybe a little more but, they have IRS so you could get them out of the whole cause we can launch better. I'd say do all the free mods, LT headers, cam, and a 100 shot would be able to keep up well.
base 02 SS rwhp low guess
310 stock
all free mods + 5
LT headers + 15
cam + 20
100 shot + 100
total = 450
but pushing that much power traction will become an issue as well as your 10-bolt blowing up on ya. A 12 bolt with 4:10 gear and LCA's and Pan-hard bar would go nic with the stuff mentioned above.
hope this helps
Rok

I would have to sell my SS to afford a cobra and make payments on the rest..
Would it be worth the hastle to sell my SS and get a cobra? Will it cost me less in the long run to keep my car and mod it or just sell it and buy the 03 cobra? Im looking for a way i can keep my car and just mod it to beat modded cobras.

I dont want to use Nitrous because its something that is not there all the time. Definetly a good mod, but not for me.

With a nice heads and cam setup will i need to change my springs every 20k+ miles? Thats not something i would look forward to doing.
With a Heads & Cam package will i only be able to take Cobras from a dig on a 1/4 mile. Or from a Roll also?

I dont want to go the nitrous route because i want something that is always there
^^^ you forgot that part of his message.

Problem with those modded cobra's they have MORE TORQUE under the curve than anything but a big block high compression motor is gonna have.

You might have 500whp and he might have 500whp
but if he has 500wft/lbs@2000 and you don't torque wins.

Gotta look at the whole powerband, blowers have a serious advantage especially when they can hook. torque under the curve. Peak whp is great for honda's n stuff and it sells, but doesn't win races.

btw, kb's are more like 600whp and close wft/lbs and SERIOUS low end torque. those twin screws rock.

Why don't you strap one on your car and use a sandwicher intercooler and fight fire with fire. you could probably do it for less than 10 grand.

how long it will last? Well factory supercharged cars will always be less of a pain to deal with.

And emissions wise california places generally know that an LS1 doesn't come with a blower/turbo on it.

...a cobra with chip,pulley,exhaust,intake,headers is going to be in the range of 400-450rwhp...
470rwhp is more along the lines with those mods. That's around 11.5 @ 121mph in the 1/4 mile on DR's with a good driver.


...they have IRS so you could get them out of the whole cause we can launch better.

Unless you have a 12 bolt, you're not going to launch better than an '03 Cobra if it has DR's or slicks. It's true that the IRS is weak, but we can still cut 1.6 60's on it with no problem. It's just more liable to break. It's a common misconception that Cobras launch poorly because of the IRS. Ever see the vid of the '03 Cobra with an IRS pulling the wheels on the street? ;)

I would say do the following mods to keep up with the "normally" modded Cobra:

Heads
Cam
Full Exhaust
Intake mods
Tires

...or you can do all the bolt-ons and reduce your raceweight. Lots of guys get into the 11's with bolt-ons only, but it's not an easy thing to do.

To keep up with a KB Cobra (they make 600rwhp with no problem), you'll need to do the following:

Heads
Cam
Nitrous
Full exhaust
intake mods
tires
Rear end

or forced induction, big cubic inches, etc.

Hope that helps...

470rwhp is more along the lines with those mods. That's around 11.5 @ 121mph in the 1/4 mile on DR's with a good driver.


Unless you have a 12 bolt, you're not going to launch better than an '03 Cobra if it has DR's or slicks. It's true that the IRS is weak, but we can still cut 1.6 60's on it with no problem. It's just more liable to break. It's a common misconception that Cobras launch poorly because of the IRS. Ever see the vid of the '03 Cobra with an IRS pulling the wheels on the street? ;)

I would say do the following mods to keep up with the "normally" modded Cobra:

Heads
Cam
Full Exhaust
Intake mods
Tires

...or you can do all the bolt-ons and reduce your raceweight. Lots of guys get into the 11's with bolt-ons only, but it's not an easy thing to do.

To keep up with a KB Cobra (they make 600rwhp with no problem), you'll need to do the following:

Heads
Cam
Nitrous
Full exhaust
intake mods
tires
Rear end

or forced induction, big cubic inches, etc.

Hope that helps...

That does help.

Heads n Cam? What would you recommend? What would be a good choice for this project. I need this to be Streetable in CA Traffic + weather. Reliable. My only car so its a daily driver.

Full Exhaust: Kook's headers and possibly Corsa or Borla Exhaust?

Intake Mods: FTRA?

I suggest hanging out in the internal engine forum for a while. There are plenty of H/C packages. Do some research. The search button is your friend. Also, check out the dyno forum for result of cam swaps, heads, etc.

just curious but your screen name is camaroguy???? i would think that it would mean that this guy must like camaros and and right now youre doubting the ls1. im not saying that camaros are the end all be all in cars but with you contemplating buying a 03 cobra just cause its a little faster stock vs. stock and with a name like camaroguy just has me confused. why not...... camaroguyhummmmmaybe????

sorry man just had to ask

I've had my screen name for awhile. Its the same on other boards. So its nothing new.

I've owned my LS1 for almost 2 years now and do love it. Its paid off. Its close to stock (with the exception of 3 mods) and i do like to drive it hard. I want to keep up with some of these modded 03 cobras, but you know with little mods those cars can go fast.

I'm looking for opinions of what i could do. I'm not looking to throw out 10k on my car and get smoked by a cobra with 1k in mods. Instead i would have put my 10k towards an 03 cobra.

Thats its.




just curious but your screen name is camaroguy???? i would think that it would mean that this guy must like camaros and and right now youre doubting the ls1. im not saying that camaros are the end all be all in cars but with you contemplating buying a 03 cobra just cause its a little faster stock vs. stock and with a name like camaroguy just has me confused. why not...... camaroguyhummmmmaybe????

sorry man just had to ask

The problem I see is the emissions thing. By the time you do the heads/cam/exhaust, you most likely ae not going to pass emissions. Enter: Nitrous. Yes, it isn't there all the time, but it won't bother an emissions test either. You could do a mild cam (Like a 220/220 or something similar), a nice set of heads and a decent exhaust with cats along with a 150 shot and still pass emissions. Go for a big cam, though, and forget the emission testing. With the mild setup with N2O, and you're still over the 500rwhp mark. Nitrous=best hp bang for the buck.

if your looking to throw out 10k why not a 383 or 408 and 12 bolt. then slap the shit out of stangs like no other being naturally aspirated.

oh yeah are you in CA? go buy a house in tahoe city where they have no emmissions regs. a friend of mine did that. heg got a 408 lives in the bay area and registers his car at his house in tahoe

You need FI.

No other solution will keep up with the stangs.

My advice:

Get a forged shortblock, about $2700

Get a supercharger or a turbo kit. Maybe the QMP kit? It seems to work well with a stock top end.

You'll have about $10,000 invested, and you'll smack around most anything on the street. Hell, you'll even be able to run with some of those guys on two wheels.

A H/C f-body isn't going to cut it against 600 rwhp.

Will the ATI P1SC be good enough? And how much boost?

What quarter mile times will a ATI P1SC running on the safe side, So about 6 PSI pull on 1/4 mile?

if you mount a bottle between the back seats.....its always there :nod:

With about 6 PSI of boost on a ATI D1SC or P1SC setup. How much horpower am i looking at?

Could this be enough to be some modded 03's? Or will i need more boost?

is the ATI kit CARB approved? If so go for it ;) if not, better have someone thats gonna pass you on emissions. It's pretty obvious to referee's out in cali.

I think it is, but not sure.

If it isnt then im sure ill find someone that will make it approve.

is the ATI kit CARB approved? If so go for it ;) if not, better have someone thats gonna pass you on emissions. It's pretty obvious to referee's out in cali.

sure sure its only about $25-35K to get it carb approved..

With about 6 PSI of boost on a ATI D1SC or P1SC setup. How much horpower am i looking at?

Not enough.

PSI isn't a measure of power. 6 psi on a stock motor isn't much. 6 psi on a 422 with stage 3 heads is a whole lot more.

Could this be enough to be some modded 03's? Or will i need more boost?

No.

There will always be someone faster. My advice is to build your car for what you want and let the chips fall where they may.

What you want to happen is gonna take some serious money.

You want perfectly streetable and more than 600 rwhp. Take a look around the site. There are only a handful of guys doing that without a bottle, and really there aren't that many that are doing it in streetable cars with nitrous.

How much can you spend? If you can't put $15,000-$20,000 into this you probably aren't going to get what you want.

The problem I see is the emissions thing. By the time you do the heads/cam/exhaust, you most likely ae not going to pass emissions. Enter: Nitrous. Yes, it isn't there all the time, but it won't bother an emissions test either. You could do a mild cam (Like a 220/220 or something similar), a nice set of heads and a decent exhaust with cats along with a 150 shot and still pass emissions. Go for a big cam, though, and forget the emission testing. With the mild setup with N2O, and you're still over the 500rwhp mark. Nitrous=best hp bang for the buck.

Couldn't have said it better. The above is basically my exact setup, and I'm right at 500rwhp. I've got the Thunder Racing 224/227 cam, intake stuff, LT's, high-flow cats, SLP Loudmouth, and 125-shot nitrous.

One good thing about this setup is that it makes TONS of torque, and without nitrous and the cam, I hung with my buddy's stock '03 Cobra, and with the two, I outran a 550rwhp '03 Cobra. And I didn't spend a lot of cash to do it, either.

Just to get a power output idea of my setup, I made max: 483rwhp and 584ft-lbs. So rolling, those numbers are boosted by the ram-air stuff I did. The good thing about cam/nitrous is that I made that 584ft-lbs at 3,200rpm, and maintained over 500ft-lbs until about 5,000rpm. I'm making over 400rwhp at around 3,600rpm, and 450rwhp 4,700rpm with peak hp of 483rwhp at around 5,600rpm.

No, nitrous isn't always there, but how often are you dogging your car, just going down the road? Plus, it's gonna get you to your goal without spending thousands. These LS1's just LOVE nitrous.

Just my opinion. My setup works, and I stand by it.

Guy,

I would do Head/Cam and N2O. I know that you said you don't like it that much. But on a budget this is what your looking at.

Head/Cam package - Patriot heads/231.237 Cam will cost you around $1800 plus install. You will need a tune, and full exhaust to include headers, Y-pipe, Cat-back. All in all around $4000. That will be enough to hang with the 03 Cobra's and the juice will run you around a G...use it against the bad boys.

I would also contact some sponsors. If you tell any one of the sponsors what your goals are they can help you set up a plan to reach it.

Texas Speed is really good, and if you have the money look into MTI. They build some of the fastest LS1 powered cars anywhere.

Money no object? Buy a Turbo Kit. QTP has good kits. Really get crazy do Head/Cam and Blower or N2O.

Or last choice....just buy a Cobra...$1500 into it and it will be a beast.