I'm stopping at ported LS6 heads, a 228/232 on a 112 cam, and the cadillac lifters for the M6 for internal mods. My exhaust setup is LT's, ORY, Spintech chambered exhaust with a dynomax bullet in the I-Pipe. It's not much louder than stock, even at WOT, and I expect the cam to be drivable. An LS7 clutch shouldn't chatter I turned my GN into a track car, I don't want to make that mistake again. I think my mods will be almost exactly as far as I want to. IF I want to go faster, I'll go lighter. Trying to stay with GM parts as much as possible should help.

 

I had a 232/236 cam and 4400 stall in previous car at its peak of being modded. Went back to a 228/224 cam and 3800 stall when I started driving it more regularly.

A quiet exhaust and good low low end torque make my current car still pleasant to commute in.

 

Are you really me?...I feel that way everyday....cept my squirels have been run off my block for a while now....I get up and leave the house around 6 every morning to work out...my neighbors hate me when I fire her up..I have to admit that I like the smell of the true duels....my budyy hate when I come to his apartment, cause I laugh my *** off when I start setting off the car alarms...it's more fun than watching the bug zapper.....lmao

 

1999 SS... what head/cams did you try out. Why didn't you like them? Thinking about doing heads/cams myself.

 

Sounds like you want a Baby Dick cam, and are really picky and OCD with your car....


Just get somthing small, or big cube setup....

Im looking into doing a TREX or somthing along that size because nothing bothers me at all...

 

Good stuff. And people are always amazed after 9 years of owning my TA, it is hardly modified.

I already have one car that stinks everything up, is a bit much for daily duty, etc. The TA I like to keep mild so that its reliable and just a nice car to take out and (as long as its nice out )

To each their own really. Some people have higher tolerances for the things that drive another person nutz. Its difficult to build an all motor car that puts down awesome numbers at the track and is as refined as a fairly stock car for everyday use.

Forced induction setups help put the great power down without having the radical motor but as with anything, they cost a bit of money..

Nitrous is a decent choice for inexpensive, but if you get too out of control, then the motor needs to be up to par. The bottles can get pricey to keep refilling though.

 

The car you just described is the C6 Z06... I've driven 3 of them now... (fortunate to have friends that bought them and like to hear how they sound at 130 mph flybys w/ the headers and corsas ) The car drives like a stock C6 and is so tame cruising around... but in the hands of the right pilot (Ranger) can run 10's.

 

I have been debating this to death myself with my current car. (02 SS with only 9K miles)

I think you can get good power and drivability even keeping the stock cam. Look at the test on the TFS heads. They made ~360 RWHP with just a head swap on a bone stock car.

If you had a 2002 car (like I do) you could keep the stock cam, run TFS heads, Fast 90/90, UD pulley etc and probably make close to 380RWHP through the stock 02 manifolds and cats. I think that is very impressive and the low end torque overall driveability would be awesome.

 

I have to agree with this thread for the most part. Since I bought my hawk new in Dec 2001, I knew I wanted to mod it some, but over the past 5 years - I have always chosen the mods to 'MY' liking.

Most others agrued and came down on me for some of the moderate choices I made, and wouldnt understand that its the way I wanted my car to by done up. I especailly got flak from a little sheed shop in the area.

So I'm not going back to stock or down grading parts, but I can understand how some of these cars turn out to be more than the owner bargined for.

 

I think this is a good thread. I took my 96 SS from dead stock to where it is now, and there are things I would do differently. I think the discription of the detroit locker was funny. I had the eaton HD posi in my 12 bolt, it would skid and chatter the tires arround a turn, then it broke a spider gear after 2-3 passes (P.O.S.). I replaced it with a spool as a temporary fix, it ended up staying in the car for the rest of the summer due to the lack of reliable posi's that fit 33 spline axles. That was by far the worst thing I did to the car ever. It was so annoying to do anything but go dead straight, good luck in tight parking lots. It sounds like something is going to break and I lost a good portion of the tire tred just scrubbing arround every time I turned the wheel. I ended up with the Detroit truetrac (like torsen), it's absolutly perfect. You don't even know it's back there. It's smooth as stock arround turns and sticks both tires hard. I hope it lasts, but I am jaded after the eaton $500 diff so I'll just waite and see.

I hot cammed the LT-1 and ran it like that for 20,000 mi then built 2 more LT-1 engines for it heads and cam for each. The hot cam was the best possible cam for the stock engine. I made 345 rwhp & 346 tq and it drove perfect and had a nice clearly noticeable lope. The gas smell started here, but I also took the cat's off which plays a big part in that.
The next engine was a cheap 355 with a set of ported stock 190cc heads and a HR cam in the low 230's. It made 395 RWHP and drove decent, but there was surging and one of the POS comp lifters came appart. I took the car appart and was dead set on building a turbo car, but it's a bigger deal than I originally thought.
Which leads me to my current set up that is another cheap 355 with stock ported 200cc heads and a SR cam not much bigger than my hr. Now it makes 480 RWHP & 419 rwtq. This thing drives about as nice as my old hot cam under 3K and is on a mission to 7K. Check it out http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...7c00207164.htm

I ran an X-pipe in the video link so it's not that loud on the street. Most of the surging is in the tuning (so I have been told), and it seems to be true because this new set up is smoother than the old HR, and it was mostly a mail order tune from CAM. I am told that it will smooth out even more after it's tuned properly.

Here is what it sounds like 99% of the time.
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...63001d65d6.htm

I have had the SLP 2OTL since stock, and I am very glad to not have removed it. The car got louder as I put on free flowing heads and headers, so I never had to change the exhaust. My friends hot cam, ORY and corsa LS-1 is louder than my my current 355.

Gear whine is directly related to the installation. I have set up quite a few rear ends (ford and gm) and every time there was gear whine the contact pattern was not perfectly centered on the ring gear. Other things like using a solid spacer instead of a crush sleve will keep the noise away by keeping the pinion firmly in place. 1 hard launch on slicks can pull the pinion into the ring gear, further crushing the crush sleve. It won't change it much, but it can be enough to start making noise. With that said, all of drivetrain related noises and problems all happened after using slicks.

I guess the fuel smell is some thing I could easily live with out, and my weldon FP is a coffie grinder, but other than that I really can't complain. Other than the drive train and sound system the car is stock. I love crusing it arround.

Looking back, I think that simply replacing the pisons and rods, and installing a mid-sized turbo leaving everything else alone (except fuel system) would be a very nice and flexible way to get the power you want and keep the car you love. Or, simply learn to love another...c6 ZO6, M/5, ferrari, porche (I guess fast and refined makes the price sky rocket )

 

Chris, I seriously doubt that a FAST 90 would add much on stock cam and stock exhaust car, even with heads. Put a -12 overlap cam and the story might change.

While not an issue for your M6, for an A4, the FAST 90 results in a slight change in part throttle shifting because the shift tables key off of Throttle position and the amount of Throttle needed is a little lower for a 90mm since it has a bigger opening for a given blade angle. Easily adjusted in tuning, but one more thing to watch for that stock feel.

 

1st of all LMAO! Great quote!

Im with you 100% on this one. Even though i have been through so much crap with this car and modding it, when it comes time to play-Oh yeeeaa! nothing better. I always have other car's to drive so when it comes out, i enjoy it completely

 

 

I DD mine all the time. I have no regrets on the choices i've made. The TR224 is a baby with no driveability issues if tuned right. I also run a Catted Y & Hooker muffler to keep the sound very civil. I have QTECs if I want to be loud.

I can easily see why guys get tired of the TD exhausts, huge cams with too much overlap.

Keep a quiet catback that still flows well
Choose a conservative cam
Enjoy the car!

 

I've got the stage 1 PRCs and the Torquer v2 from TSP. And I really don't have a problem with either of them. I can start my car up with an inch of frost on it and it fires rite up warms up ok and has never had a surging problem. I've got the Supermaxx with the catted y hooked up to a hooker catback so it is very quiet at idle and low rpms at all. What has had me pissed off is ever since I had the cam installed the damn car bangs the rev limiter between gears so bad you can't take it to the track at all. I just had the tranny rebuilt and it still does the same thing. Its been back and forth to the tuners who says its the tranny and the tranny shop that puts a tranny analizer on it and proves to me it hitts the rev limiter before the CPU sends out the siginal. I have considered 1. buying an aftermarket controller for the 4L60E or 2. putting in a turbo 400 (but I would lose my od) 3. replacing the 98 CPU with another 98 CPU ( to check and see if its malfunctioning) 4. Replace the 98 CPU with a later model CPU or putting in a manual 6 speed and just say F*uk it. I'm about at my witts end with this bitch and I really don't know how to fix it. The tuners done all he can for it.

 

this is a good post to get the "other sides persepctive!!" My TA is stock as a rock, only has the K+N panel filter, and since I bought it I vowed to keep it stock(which I have, but its very very very tempting to start modding...and then....IT BEGINS!). The car itself runs amzingly and has good performance for an everyday DD, especially in stop and go. i would like to get her into the 11s, but at this point, I would probably want to buy another car to do that to

 

The only thing that might bother me in the future as I turn in to an old man might be my exhaust. It is in no way quiet, but I still love it. It does grab a TON of attention, though, good and bad. Every time I drive my girlfriend's car (2001 Celica GTS), I'm amazed at how quiet a car can be. But its lack of power keeps me wanting to drive mine. My dad's 2002 Chevy Silverado is also a nice change of pace too...it doesn't have a personality, but then again, I also don't have to worry about where I park it when I need to get some batteries, milk, underwear, and shotgun shells at Wal-Mart.

 

Only thing that bothers me, is the chatter from the clutch and the extremely loud exhaust. Several times I have left my house and my neighbor is standing outside his front door in his boxers staring me down with his hands on his hips lookin pissed. he actually looks rediculous, but its annoying. So I will be putting bullets in the y-pipe. So I am modding it more technically, not less.

 

I agree with many of the things being said on here. I own a '90 LX 5.0 that I'll be converting over to an LSx setup pretty soon. The way the car runs right now with all the work I've put into it and all the driveability I've lost (it's my DD) has made me realize that a bigger, better designed motor with a smaller cam will get me at least the same (but probably better performance) with way better driveability.

So, my plan is to put a 5.7 in with a 216/216 .588/.588 114+2 cam in to get some of my driveability back. I'll have 3.55s in the 8.8 and full A/C and P/S. I'll put the cats back on the dual exhaust and keep the 3-chamber flowmasters. The weight of the car (around 3,000lb fully loaded) will help too.

In my opinion if you want a good daily driver you need the following:
1) smaller cam (not necessarily stock) with no overlap
2) cats
3) A/C, heater, and power steering
4) an clutch as close to stock as possible
5) NO squeks and rattles (those bother me the most personally)

I'll be putting in sound-deadening material and will have full interior too.

 

I am fortunate to be old enough to have learned common modding mistakes such as over-camming on small block Chevys. Cams & other hot-rod parts are so much cheaper for small blocks vs. LS1s. So making mistakes wasn’t too costly to correct.

When I started modding my Z28, I knew what I didn’t want to deal with. Because of the “arm-n-leg” investment for LS1 performance parts and associated tuning, I had to decide early on what my modding goal was to be and I had to stick to it. So, I decided to build a strong street car and use mods that were relatively street friendly or reversible.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see how well my mild performance package can hold its own against more track modified cars. I recently re-installed my stock stall converter since our track closed. I’m very happy with the way the car drives/sounds right now. Plenty of low end torque makes for great street manners. Mild performance builds are underrated!