My only mistake so far has been buying a SLP smooth air bellow, it keeps my lid from fitting properly!

 

Don't feel too bad about your lid not fitting, SLP & Whisper lids are notorious for ill fitment.

My Whisper never did fit properly even with the stock bellows. I ended up giving up on trying to keep those rear tabs from popping up and just drilled tiny holes through them and screwed in little self tapping screws to hold the damned things down. Worked just fine too!

I don't have the GM air box/lid setup on my new 427 Darton sleeved motor. It was shown to be choking off significant HP on the dyno, versus just pulling air straight through a 78mm ported TB. Believe it or not, it was a difference of over 40 RWHP with the lid removed. I had an LS6 intake on it at the time. Now I have caved in and got the 90mm LSX manifold and the 90mm FAST TB.
I had a 4" diameter intake tube fabbed up that comes straight out of the TB, bends around and ends up over where the battery used to be. Using an HKS filter on the end of the Jet Hot silver ceramic coated tubing. The HKS is used by many turbo applications. This setup is much less restrctive than any modified GM air box and lid. (thinking about a patent on it)

 

Volant intake, I just don't like the thing, it clamps to the MAF using hard plastic

 

Modding my stock y pipe. Custom y pipe bangs even after three trips to the shop that fabbed it up.

Hopefully Mufflex exhaust "bump-stop" mod (@Thunder Racing) will fix it. If not, then I guess it's time to install the Prothane poly engine mounts I have sitting in my garage.

 

QTP y-pipe...JUUNNKKK!!! After myself and 2 experienced muffler shops..couldnt get it to fit. I was called inexperienced by qtp's great customer care, guess it musta been my inexperience. Lesson learned the hard way w/ this piece cost me over 700 bux after all said and done and all i'm left w/ is a pile of crappy y-pipe in my garage.

 

I haven't had any problem with my Whisper lid (knock on wood)

Mistakes:

Not buying SFC's before I did anything else- now I have a rattle trap on my hands.
Buying one Aluminum intake (which will remain unnamed) and not getting a LS6 intake.

 

Going to the track on street tires.


Funny part, I still haven't learned....

 

well the stupidest thing i have done was when installing a slp oil pump i over tightened the the pump bolts and now i have to rep thread the holes. But as a far as the flowmasters go, i have a fm set up on my t/a and on the dyno it only restricted about 2 hp not much of a diffrence..

 

man you guys slam slp but I have had great customer service from them and I have been buying stuff from them going back to 1991 for my TPI cars and they are good guys. They have very good build quality on there parts and there prices are not that bad.

 

1. shorties... biggest mistake of my life. wasted i dont know how many hours installing the stupid things. spent the next 2 weeks convincing myself it was faster. only to do some research and get lt's a few months later.

2. bellows. just stick with the accordian.. its not that bad...

3. hpp3 - good for changing your speedo for different wheels. gears. thats it

4. crimping off my egr system, so theres a little pony tail sticking out of the damn intake manifold. -just dumb, wait and get an ls6/x.

its all part of the learning curve though.. no regrets here. -g

 

my first mistake was my 3rd gen. i blew the motor 4 days after i bought the car and then dumped about $7k into it.

second mistake was wrecking my 2000 Z28 1 1/2 months after i bought it. havent really started modding it, lid, lca, adj panhard.

but i look forward to the modfest once i get it back.

sitting in the garage waiting for a Z28 are sfcs, short stick, center mount exhaust and ss cat back.

 

This sticky is absolutely amazing, and extremely helpful. My 2002 Z28 came with Borla exhaust; I'll probably keep it on for now. The info on the SLP/Whisper lids was helpful, MTI Lid on order. I'm now looking into TB, MAF, filter, and headers.

Why are Granatelli's TB's so trashed, no power? Quality? I will be staying away from them because of this thread.

I am definately going 100 wet after my bolt-ons are complete. Grad school is coming up tho, so I'm going to be broke...

Time to consult the exhaust sticky for header recommendations!

 

My SLP fits like a glove, stock bellows. No issues whatsoever

 

My mistake... Ordering a SLP loudmouth II..... On order for a month and SLP would not give a firm ship date. Finally canceled the order and got the Magnaflow catback

 

Spending $1000 on a nice Y-pipe and catback just to go with duals in the end. I think I always knew it would eventually happen!

 

 

Well, I didn't actually make the mistake, but even considering getting a catback over a converter. Just got a cutout, 50 bucks including installation, and it sounds great.

If you have an auto, make the converter your first mod (other than something like a lid), I can't believe the difference it makes without even touching the engine.

 

selling my Z28

 

that has to be one of the most common ones ... hell i bought one and sold it before even installign

 

buying used 3.23s gears, now i want something bigger, and now im getting an annoying howl at 45-60 MPH

when these go out im bumping up to a 12-bolt