hey i just got my 94 trans am and im looking to do some mod but im on a limited budget any recommendations

 

CAI, catback, headers, gears. Those are what I consider the first 4 things you should upgrade on an lt1 car.

 

and I hate to be a ***** but I have headers (Hooker LT) and Catback (Borla) For sale. 900.bucks and you can have them both

 

Get suspension out the way first and drop a second off your time...good benefits from there...then go for intake and exhaust to let the engine take some deep breaths.

 

Auto or Manual?
Get a nice tune up first If you don't know much about it.
Change fluids, check brakes, maybe new plugs/wires... then go from there.

If Auto...
160* Thermostat, Torque Converter (Stall) w/Tranny Cooler, Cold Air Kit, Headers, Exhaust System, Gears, Tune.

If Manual...
160* Thermostat, Gears, Headers, Cold Air Kit, Exhaust system, Clutches if you need them, Tune.
______

 

auto, torque converter and full exhaust.

 

its a Manual thanks u guys a have been helpfull

 

Assuming it's already in a decent state of tune, first thing I'd buy is a cold air kit, Moroso is about the best bang for the buck at around $180ish from Summit and the like (there is also a straight copy of the Moroso for $130ish made by Trans-Dapt but I don't think anyone actually has them in stock). A good CAI has been shown to gain 8-10 rwhp on a dead stock car, great first mod.

Then I'd snag a catback, maybe used if you can find a good one. Not a whole lot of hp gain (4-6 rwhp on average) but it drastically improves the sound which just seems to change the whole nature of the car, at least for me...

If you have the coin/ability to do the install I'd do headers at the same time as the catback just to do it all at once. You can also get alot of decent sets for pretty cheap used. Doing the whole exhaust at once would be worth at least 20+ rwhp on average. The install is fairly time consuming especially for a novice but there is nothing particularly complicated, getting the old crap off is probably the hardest part. You can change the plugs and maybe wires while you're there too.

After that I'd look into a tune, mailorder is the best bang for the buck since it's cheap and the gains are fairly well documented, should be worth 13+ rwhp at this point as the other bolt ons will be constrained a little by the stock tune, plus you can have the fans set to come on earlier to coorespond w/ a 160 degree thermostat, etc. If you have a laptop already you can get a cable and purchase a email tune from madz28.com or pcm4less.com that you can flash into the PCM yourself, saves a little more money and you get the side benefit of then being able to do datalogging with software like Datamaster to get data on just how your car is running, great stuff.

Anyway, those are the basic mods I've added to my car and as a package the gains were excellent. Car sounds excellent and runs significantly harder than it did when stock, not to mention it seems to get better MPG (tune leans it out a bit compared to stock) and stays nice and cool even in the hottest weather in traffic around here. That's a easy bolt on package anyone can do w/ just a little effort and basic tools. You still have room for stuff like a underdrive pulley set, 52mm throttle body etc if you want to add just a couple more things. But I'd do the core first, intake, exhaust, tune. Just my .02

 

What catback are you using?
My Loudmouth netted me almost 15 hp.


The stock exhaust on the LT1 is pretty shitty.
I've seen people just change to a flowmaster muffler and get around 3-5 more hp.

 

I'm running a magnaflow, the early basically straight through design, however I've not dynoed it. I'm basing the numbers off one of the few before/after catback dynos that I've seen that is decently documented, a mag test of a B&B Tri-flo exhaust on a 95 I believe it was 6spd Z28. It hit around 5 rwhp over stock. I have the article scanned around here somewhere. I don't have the article handy but I'm almost positive I've read of a edelbrock catback gaining around the same 5 rwhp. I don't know, I thought the factory catback wasn't all that bad when I ripped mine off, decent size and decent bends. Now the factory exhaust manifolds/y-pipe were some crap...

I prefer to estimate on the low side anyway, better to be pleasantly surprised with results versus being disappointed...

Edit to add scan of the mentioned article: http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/s/jstriet/LT1article1.jpg