So I took my car out to the drag strip this past Saturday for the first time to get a good baseline of where I stand before I start doing anything to it. I put a good 7 passes on the car and let my dad take it down the track 3 times for fun, so all in all the car made 10 passes throughout the 5 hours I was there and drove home like a champ I'm happy to see it held up to some abuse without any complaints whatsoever.

The conditions were as follows:
bone stock 1996 LT1 on Kumho Ecsta 4X street tires
just fast shifting (not power shifting)
about 85 degrees F
between 40-50% humidity
approximately a 2350 ft. DA
and the bad - running into a constant 20-30 mph headwind that just would not let up at all

I know my 60' times are pretty bad, but I was launching pretty low, around 2000-2300 RPM or so, or otherwise I'd just sit and spin the tires and not hook at all. I figure if I later invest in a set of DRs I'll get a better 60' time since I'll be able to hook better at a higher RPM.

Here's my best time slip of the day after getting some practice (my first one sucked bad ). Just curious what kind of estimated power you guys think my 16 yr. old engine is at right now (I haven't taken it to a dyno yet, but I figured you guys like seeing track numbers more anyway ). I'm car #37 on the left.

 

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Sorry, should be working now I hope.

 

on the positive side you got to the track and got a baseline !

as for power you wont like my thoughts but bear with me lol...

I took my daughters stock ( other than a homemade cold air intake) 4 door 98 buick regal gs to the track to see what I could get out of it and ran 14.4 @96 ( I have owned and raced many of them so I know how to e.t. that particular car) they put out 240 hp , and 280 ft lbs so I would say power was in that range that day but your DA was terrible so I would think your going to run closer to a 14 flat at sea level type DA and trap upper 90's which sholud be around upper 200's for hp

 

That's actually what I was hoping to hear to be honest. So by your guesstimate, my car should, in an ideal setting, still be right around its original horsepower rating? More than anything I wanted to see how much power my engine has lost over its 16 yrs of life from what it was originally rated at. It also has 86,3xx miles on it at the moment. That actually makes me quite happy to hear, thank you!

 

86k miles or 16 years of age are no reason for any power drop off as long as it hasnt ever had an "event" such as an overheat , run with no oil pressure etc..

start with all the routine maintenance items , plugs ,wires ,coils ( distributor cap and rotor I believe also where your lt1) fuel filter , air filter. Be sure to use OEM/GM components or components known to be better than originals to lt1 enthusiasts - use the insider parts not what the parts store guy or the magazine ad says is best. , now you know that your car is capable of taking in air putting out fuel , and providing ignition events in its original quantities/power levels.

clean your maf sensor with maf specific cleaner like crc makes so your pcm is getting good data on how much air is coming in so it can provide proper fueling.

beyond that the only thing I can think of that could cause power to decline over time would be carbon deposits on valves hindering sealing , or deposits in combustion chambers causing hotspots that would make it prone to detonation/preignition which would pull ignition timing so consider sucking a can of seafoam through the intake after/downstream from the maf sensor - I wouldnt recommend any of the other seafoam treatments that involve putting it in the oil/crankcase - you dont want to remve depostis there - let sleeping dogs lie you dont want those deposits back in the oil and spread everywhere oil travles , lots of ugly seafoam stories and this is why.

I own a lot of high miles vehicles , yours is not high miles to me lol so dont assume you need to tear it apart....

of the 5 vehicles I currently keep registerred for myself , wife , and daughter to use there is the 14 sec 120k mile regal gs my daughter runs , my 220,000 mile 2002 identical fwd buick regal gs that has run 13.1 @109 stock original internals eng & transaxle , 99 z28 my wife runs has 170,000 miles , lid , long tubes , cat delete , ory ,gmmg catback so it shouldnt have an issue cracking 12's on dr's again stock internals ,eng/trans/rear , and then theres the 00z28 I have been daily driving except winters that has 233,000 miles stock internals eng ,trans ,and 10 bolt that has been 11.9 @111 full bolt on car - watched previous owner do it with approx 215,000 on it , car wont repeat it now due to not liking shifting at high rpm anymore but still feels like a solid low/mid 12's car even with the slow shifts. The 2500 hd that hauls all my cars around is a 6.0 with 178,000 miles I dont think its even had a spark plug changed , keep fresh oil in it and go !

long story I know but dont let miles scare you condition is always more important than miles

 

Yeah, I wasn't sure how much the previous owner did or didn't take care of it since I got it a year ago, but I've already gone through and swapped spark plugs, bought new wires (just haven't installed them yet), cleaned the air filter, seafoam in the gas tank and vacuum line, throttle body cleaner sprayed in, changed fuel filter, changed the oil twice already in the year I've had it lol. I also detailed the engine and went OCD cleaning crazy on the air box and hoses leading into the intake. Only thing I haven't done yet is the MAF cleaner because I wasn't too sure if it would hurt anything or not.