Just bought my dream car!!!!!
04-26-2009, 11:15 AM
#21
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vero Beach, Fl.
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Congratulations on your C5 purchase. Some of the first mods a lot of new owners make are Cold Air Intakes. Many C5 owners, including myself feel that the Vararam vrb2 is by far the "best bang for the buck". I live in Florida and drive in the rain all the time with absolutely no water ingestion problems. In mine, and any of the other thousands of vrb2 users opinions, that rumor is pure bu!!s#!t. Show me one person that actually had a problem.
Longtube Headers/X-pipe are another initial mod you'll want to consider. Kooks, Lgs are some of the most highly respected for our cars, but if you check on the corvetteforum, many, many people there swear by the OBX systems. Infact there is a group buy going on there now, for around half the price of other systems. Personally, I have Kooks headers/catted X-pipes. Some X-pipes fit only matching headers from same manufacturer, and some will fit many. You have to research before committing.
While your in the exhaust vicinity, you may as well get some high flowing catback mufflers too. Corsa, B&B, are just a few of many. Do a search and check around, and you'll get plenty of opinions.
Keep in mind, if you add the headers/X-pipe, cai, hiflow exhaust, then you'll need a tune to get the most out of these mods. You have a few choices here. You can go to a professional tuner and have them set it all up for. This usually runs around $400-500. You can also buy a handheld tuner such as the Diablo Predator tuner, and set everything up yourself. I believe that cost around $375 new, but many times you can purchase a used one. If you do buy used, be sure that the tuner is UNLOCKED from previous car it was used on. Otherwise, it is useless. A couple good things about having your own tuner are, you can add performance tune, adjust fuel trims to accomodate new boltons, change shift times on auto trans, adjust fan operating temps, among other things. You can also hook it back up and readjust to your liking, download/upload data to computer, return stock original tune to car, and receive custom tunes via the internet from DiabloSports.
These are some good basic starting mods for your C5. From there, the sky (your wallet) is the limit. Heads, cam, supercharger, turbos, etc.. Once you start getting into high hosepower you'll have to beef up your drivetrain, or you will surely be doing some expensive repairs. Good luck with your new purchase. Mike
Longtube Headers/X-pipe are another initial mod you'll want to consider. Kooks, Lgs are some of the most highly respected for our cars, but if you check on the corvetteforum, many, many people there swear by the OBX systems. Infact there is a group buy going on there now, for around half the price of other systems. Personally, I have Kooks headers/catted X-pipes. Some X-pipes fit only matching headers from same manufacturer, and some will fit many. You have to research before committing.
While your in the exhaust vicinity, you may as well get some high flowing catback mufflers too. Corsa, B&B, are just a few of many. Do a search and check around, and you'll get plenty of opinions.
Keep in mind, if you add the headers/X-pipe, cai, hiflow exhaust, then you'll need a tune to get the most out of these mods. You have a few choices here. You can go to a professional tuner and have them set it all up for. This usually runs around $400-500. You can also buy a handheld tuner such as the Diablo Predator tuner, and set everything up yourself. I believe that cost around $375 new, but many times you can purchase a used one. If you do buy used, be sure that the tuner is UNLOCKED from previous car it was used on. Otherwise, it is useless. A couple good things about having your own tuner are, you can add performance tune, adjust fuel trims to accomodate new boltons, change shift times on auto trans, adjust fan operating temps, among other things. You can also hook it back up and readjust to your liking, download/upload data to computer, return stock original tune to car, and receive custom tunes via the internet from DiabloSports.
These are some good basic starting mods for your C5. From there, the sky (your wallet) is the limit. Heads, cam, supercharger, turbos, etc.. Once you start getting into high hosepower you'll have to beef up your drivetrain, or you will surely be doing some expensive repairs. Good luck with your new purchase. Mike
04-26-2009, 12:14 PM
#23
Thanks for all the replies fellas. I can't wait to drive it! It's sitting at the dealership, just waiting on me. It sucks i gotta wait 3 wks before i pick it up.
As far as low cost mods like a pulley and ported/polished stock TB, can i expect the same response from my fbody? Does anyone have a dyno comparison of the most popular cold air set ups? I tried a search and couldn't find much. What are stainless works mufflers like in comparison to magnaflo, slp, borla, corsa and z06 titaniums? Are the suspension parts from the c6 interchangeable? Or should i just slook for zo6 and z51 upgrades?
As far as low cost mods like a pulley and ported/polished stock TB, can i expect the same response from my fbody? Does anyone have a dyno comparison of the most popular cold air set ups? I tried a search and couldn't find much. What are stainless works mufflers like in comparison to magnaflo, slp, borla, corsa and z06 titaniums? Are the suspension parts from the c6 interchangeable? Or should i just slook for zo6 and z51 upgrades?
04-26-2009, 03:41 PM
#24
First off i'd look into an LS6 intake, Vararam with airbridge(peice that goes over the radiator between intake and t/b) Don't do a Pulley right now as this requires you to pull most of the front accessories and steering rack outta the car. Not really a worthwhile mod for the amount of labor involved. Now if your doing a cam then might as well do it while your there. I went with Texas Speed headers and offroad Xpipe. i LOVE them. It was like $8xx for the whole setup shipped to my door. They did have a fitting issue with the Xpipe to the headers. it was a SMALL problem compared to how much a saved on them. All i had to do was spread the front pipes of the X apart 3/4 of an inch to get them to slide over the header ends. A Tune would be advisable if you do all those mods at once. You could get by with out it but your gonna leave power on the table. As for other exhaust. You may not mind it at first BUT be careful what aftermarket exhaust you use. The issues with them is DRONE. With LT's and Offroad X it won't be horrible but if you heads/cam the car you will regret it. I have B&B and am seriously thinking about going back to a stock set of mufflers. Corsa's are about the only aftermarkets that done drone. My suggestion is get a set of Z06 Ti's(titaniums stock on Z06) and do what they call the bypass mod on them. Search corvetteforum.com and they can show you what that is. All it is is a small peice of pipe welded in. Problem is finding somebody that can weld titanium. OR the cheaper alternative is take the stock mufflers on your Vette and have them do the bypass on them. Works the same but won't be as sweet sounding as the Ti's with the bypass. That has a very exotic sounding exhaust. If your stocker exhaust has chrome tips then it would be fine for now if you don't want to buy mufflers. i honestly highly recommend you SHOP on the exhaust. i really used to like the sound of the B&B but i'm getting sick of the drone now.
