Welcome to the board! Here in MD there is a rash of Z28's that have recently been converted to police use. Some are even marked vehicles. It's interesting to see some eye-ripping purple Civic on the shoulder with a baby-**** brown Z28 police cruiser sitting behind him.

On to the mods...
Your primary concern is engine cooling. Due to the duty cycle of a normal police cruiser, you'll need ample cooling capacity for regular running. It's VERY worth it to get an aftermarket radiator (Be Cool radiators are excellent), oil cooler with electric fan, and a tranny cooler if equipped with an automatic. Also, do not neglect gauges. It is VITALLY important to keep an eye on the temps, so that you know if you're having a problem. AutoMeter makes some accurate gauges for monitoring.

If you're doing more highway driving, keep the gars at 2.73. The 3.42 or 3.73 gears are more for back street driving. Stay away from 4.11's unless you're pulling people over at the track. A new 12-bolt rear with stronger axles would be a good idea also.

>>>INFLAMMATORY COMMENT AHEAD<<<

Avoid nitrous. While it is an inexpensive and responsive power adder, it can cause more problems than it solves in a daily driver. Also, avoid turbochargers. They take too long to spool up, and make power closer to the top end rather than the bottom. Go ahead guys... flame away! Superchargers are nice, but remember to do the engine work FIRST! LS6 heads, a hotter cam, and the old bore and stroke work well. Stock, the bore and stroke of the LS1 engine (3.9" bore, 3.62" stroke), properly calculated, gives us a 346 CID, or 5.67L. Bores and stroked to 4" x 4", you get a whopping 402 CID, or 6.6L, while retaining the stock Gen III block. Then the trick is just to let the engine breathe easier, and you'll be running down Vipers for fun.

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

if u wanna put a cam in the car, use the ls6 cam. The guys here say it gives stock idle, doesn't mess with the fuel mileage and really livens up the car after about 4000 rpm.

 

Yeahhhh! LS6 cam definitly on the way here!

 

"The way I see it is that a Camaro has what, 5 inches of travel, so headers or lowering isn't going to affect the "off roading abilities" that much. JMO."

You've obviously not driven a lowered F-body with long tube headers very much. Speed bumps and driveways go SCRRRRRRRRRRAPE!!! No freakin' way would I lower a cop duty F-body. I don't even know if I'd do headers and a Y-pipe. The stock Y-pipe does a fine job with the stock manifolds and has outstanding ground clearance. Aftermarket Y-pipes can't compare in the ground clearance department. I would think this to be very important to a cop.

And a converter wouldn't be a good mod for him??? I can't think of a better mod for a cop. Acceleration is KEY in car chases and that's what a converter is all about. A converter helps rolling races just as much as it helps standing starts. The stock converter allows WAAAAAAAY too much RPM drop on the shifts. A ~3500 stall and a tranny cooler would be a great investment, IMO.

I see you getting some really good and some not so good advice. I would advise spending quite a bit of time on LS1Tech taking in a wide range of info, views, and experiences.

 

You may want good preformance tires, I dont think you should purchase DR's. You should look at nitto they have pretty good hooking street tires. And if you do get a converter which i fully support, you are def. gonna need some good tires. Good Luck man.

WeS

 

Welcome to the board...a Camaro K9 unit...what a dream! My department won't look past the Impalas/Intrepids for patrol cars and Exploders for K9 use. I second the question about fitting a kennel in a Camaro??? (PICS!!) What type of K9 team are you? I'm currently training to be an explosive detection K9 handler here in Pittsburgh. Dog handling is definitely an art!

Anyway, as for mods, I'd agree with what's already been said about headers...the ground clearance issue is for real, as I've discovered with my SS. We bottom our Impalas out all the time and they aren't nearly as low-slung as an F-body! Good luck with the mods...please keep us posted and get us some pics!!

 

I see where you're coming from, but our B4C Camaros were having some serious problems with warping stock replacement rotors. We switched over to drilled and slotted rotors on the front only (and different pads, of course) and the warping problems were solved. Do they wear a little faster? Yes. Are they better than the stock style? In our case. Granted sometimes (almost always it's just with the department leadfoot )they develop small stress cracks between the drilled holes, but never (in our case) anything serious. I know they helped a lot for us.

 

The folks at I Rotors ---->>> Have graciously offered a set of their slotted rotors for our testing. That, and Larry at Carbotech is sending a full set of his Bobcat pads for us to test as well sooooo....we'll see what type of punishment we can throw at them.
I've looked at a couple of locals LS1 cars with both the long tubes and the mids, and I have to say from what I've seen personally, I'm pretty sure that the mids are going to be the way to go. I'm going to try and touch base with a few of the board sponsors and see what they offer in both and ask thier expert opinions. I looked at the 'Q' site today and was impressed by what I see...but I would still like to speak to someone there.
Again, I appreciate everyone's help from this site. I was initially concerned that I may not receive a warm reception from a ton of folks but, I have to say that 99.9 % of the feedback has been outstanding. As for 'get out of ticket free' passes, I can assure the locals around DFW that I would love to stop and meet them personally (without handing them a coupon for the visit)
Keep the ideas rolling.

 

What is DFW... Dallas Fort Worth?

 

My mod list:

*Better cooling/fan mods
*Dark tinted glass
*Strobes in the grill and up high in the rear window so they can see you. That car sits pretty low, especially at twilight, you don't want to get nailed sitting on the shoulder.
*Subframe connectors, BMR weld ins. With all that
extra equipment you'll need the extra bracing.
*For power I'd go LS6= ZO6 cam, idles like stock, you'll get 20 more hp up top. Or 1.85 SLP rockers.Same result.
*Rev limiter increase to take advantage of the new cam.
*I too would get a 3200 Vig or Yank or TCI. Nothing BIGGER than that, acceleration 0-80 mph is more important than great drag times.
*Floor mounted shotgun rack.

 

Fixed.

Thank God for "edit" button.

 

running at the high speeds that a police car usually makes i would recommend Fast Toys Ram Air kit....at those speeds u'll definitely notice some of the "supercharging effect"

 

1) DFW = Dallas/Ft.Worth
2) FTRA is on the wish list
3) Pictures to come as soon as we get everything together.
4) Windows are limo (exempt plates don'tcha know
5) Car has strobes &amp; LED's that rival a saucer from Close Encounters.
6)Shotgun &amp; AR-15 are monted from a bar between the rear roll bar struts.
7) Still a few questions on the converter.
******** ( 8 ) *********
A trip today to meet Lou @ L&amp;M Motorsports has the Z riding on a totally wicked new G2 suspension:
Torue Arm, Adj. LCA's, Adj. Pan bar, Huge X Large front and Rear L&amp;G sway bars and all the new poly bushings and fittings. Car drove home like a slot car!!
LOU is THE MAN !!

 

Colonel, you are right I have never been in a lowered fbody. Thanks for clearing that up, because I wouldn't want to give someone bad advice.

 

You're welcome. Hey, I hope I didn't come across as jumping on you or anything. Anyway---->

 

Its all good. Gotta keep us noobs in line!

 

Unf~#$ing believable! Even the cops in TX have LS1's.
WTF does the Governor drive? a Viper?

 

kevin, i've had my 2002 Z28 for 1.5 yrs and been a sheriff's deputy for 2, so maybe i can offer some unique insight. the very FIRST thing u should do is upgrade your brakes. i'm sure u and i have wasted our fair share of brakes on priority calls and occasional pursuit. this is a problem because our vehicles have very weak braking systems. in your place, i would contact baer for possible sponsorship. whichever braking system u choose, DO NOT get cross-drilled rotors as they will ultimately crack under the conditions i'm sure you'll be exposing them to. slotted rotors are fine. also, i would seriously consider which sfc's you put on your vehicle because of clearance issues. i've ripped 2 oil pans off of my crown victorias and one plug off of my 95 chevy caprice(LT1). FTRA is a MUST for your situation as well. pm or e-mail me for any other question's or concerns. enjoy.