2002camaro-z28-5.7ls

Looking to add more power. Not trying to make a race car. The car is bone stock with a 5.7ls in it. Just wanna add more power. Just basically a street car with power. I will take it to the track and make hits but that’s it.

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

What's the budget? What is the power goal?

2002camaro-z28-5.7ls

$5,000 and around 500 in horsepower

Y2K_Frenzy

$5,000 is going to make it tough for 500 horsepower maybe. You’re looking at $1k’ish probably just for headers and something like a 15-20 horsepower gain.
Maybe look for a turbo kit.

Tommy42088

Understand what your getting into, 5000 goes fast in mods, not to mention what's the condition of your car? Stock transmission? Stock suspension? Stock convertor? Stock rear end? Stock fuel system? Should I keep going? Budgets have never worked out for me. Maybe others feel different.

2002camaro-z28-5.7ls

I plan buying everything piece by piece. I’m in no rush. Planning on taking my time to get it right. So really it’s no limit. But I’m not planning on racing it. Just want it to sound good and have power. But it has the SLP Package. Its stock I was looking at the BTR stage 3 cam kit

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

@2002camaro-z28-5.7ls You're probably looking at, doing as this you say - piece by piece, long tubes and exhaust, then heads, cam and intake. Given this is a street car, i'd go easy on the cam, 500 N/A whp in an LS1 is asking for grief. You can turn a fun street car into a miserable pile you don't want to drive, simply with a cam that only looks great on a dyno. Brian Tooley is probably a good place to go to with your goals and let them steer you a bit.

The added performance will also highlight issues with the driveline and suspension. Is this a manual or auto car?

fst100

iTrader: (5)

500hp crank or at the wheels? is this an auto or manual transmission car?

Tommy42088

Also depend on if your doing the work yourself or paying someone. 5000 will go much further if your doing the work, but I'd start with contacting btr and telling them your goals and get cam and springs from them and I'd pull the heads and go ahead and port n polish them while I was at it and get an intake, headers and exhaust and I'd throw a convertor in it and then get it tuned. Then next step I'd look into work be drive line, suspension, gears, things of that sort and keep in the back of your mind your tranny mind be somewhere on that list at some point. I made that mistake and made a few good pulls and track runs and everything seemed fine and then a daily drive led to a check engine light with transmission code and a slipping transmission.

2002camaro-z28-5.7ls

It’s an automatic. Thanks for all the input.

fst100

iTrader: (5)

for an auto, and on a budget, try adn get some items, not all items, used such as headers and intake. that'll keep costs down. if you want quick and close to 500hp (crank) which equates to about 400 at the wheels, itll need a tune to unlock alot of its potential. you can either go aftermarket cam route or nitrous route to get to your 500 (crank) hp. adding in a decent higher stall like a 3600-3800 will get you in the powerband quicker.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I don't believe in chasing hp numbers because they're an abstraction. The questions revolve around how quick do you want to be and how you want the car to drive. Having said that, I agree with the piece by piece approach.

It's old wisdom on here that the first place to start on an A4 car is with a good hi-stall converter, at least 3000, ideally 3600 or more. That installed with a good shift kit (Transgo, Sonnax pieces) with a good tranny tune will revolutionize the car's performance.

You already have the decent LS6 intake; get long tubes installed with a free-flowing catback, a lid, and a tune and you have decent breathing. If you decide you want more, then a cam and bigger intake. However, you may be like me and decide that the bolt-on/stall level provides enough performance for you and stop there.

Y2K_Frenzy

I hate to keep beating a dead horse but.. His budget is too low for anywhere close to a 500 horsepower n/a build. If he’s paying labor his $5k will probably have been spent after a new torque converter, headers, and tune. I’m guessing that he threw out that 500 horsepower number because new Camaros and the likes are making close to that. If he’s wanting to run with those guys without sticky tires and a 3k rpm launch I don’t think bolt-ons are going to cut the mustard.
The ‘98-‘02 LS1’s were “fast” when they were new so “budget builds” were a little more fruitful back then. But now since we’re playing catch up the return on the investments don’t seem as great. With a $5k budget why not an entry level turbo kit with stock everything else other than fuel and tune? It’ll still probably be hard to stay under $5k but he’ll get more power per dollar than if tries to do it n/a.

madmike90

after breaking the stock rear end in every fbody I’ve ever owned with just bolt ons I would say first and foremost, get a rear end. They can be had for $2000ish and are not difficult at all to install. I’ve done 3 of them in a gravel driveway laying on my back, alone. After that weakest of links is taken care of, only then would I look at doing some power mods. Power mods are useless if you’re just going to have the car out of service anyway with a broken drivetrain. Granted, you having an auto trans is a huge help towards keeping the stock rear end living, it would still be on borrowed time regardless. If you order a complete rear end you can also order it with taller rear gears which will be a big seat of the pants upgrade. And as mentioned a good torque converter with a higher than stock stall will make the car feel much quicker as well. All that would set you back about 3000-3500.

then if you wanted to do some power mods knowing that you have a solid platform and won’t have to worry about breaking the car, you can start looking at things like longtube headers, cam, tune, etc.

a good set of headers can be $1000 by themselves, or a good budget option that I had luck with in the past are the pacesetter headers which if I recall were around $450.

im not sure how mechanically inclined you are, but a cam swap is really not that difficult at all, just time consuming mostly. But you have to take into account that if you want to do a big cam like a stage 3 from one of our vendors, or really any cam bigger than stock, you’re going to need to do valvesprings and pushrods. And you’re going to need the tools that come with doing the swap. Harmonic balancer puller and installer, spark plug hole air fitting and an air compressor to keep the valves up while you swap springs unless you take the heads off or stuff a rope in the cylinder, pushrod length checker, etc etc.
it all adds up and it really depends on exactly what you want to accomplish and where you’re comfortable spending your money.
if you want more power all the time, do the above mods. If you want more power only for the track or for once in a while on the highway, I would just do a good quality nitrous kit and be done with it.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I wouldn't worry too much about the stock rear with an A4. I went many seasons cutting 1.6 60-foot times on the stock 7.5 on a sticky tire, never heard a peep from the rear. And the next owner of that car continued racing it with the same rear. You can certainly break it even with the auto, but that's usually due to wheel hop or a serious amount of power (not likely with bolt-ons or even a cam).

My car was pretty much the rule, not an exception. Here's a great thread with tons of examples regarding the real world durability of the stock rear behind an A4 (and how much weaker it is behind an M6):

https://ls1tech.com/forums/gears-axl...ock-7-5-a.html

lees02WS6

iTrader: (5)

Agreed, especially since he stated he was not trying to build a race car. That added unsprung weight, and potential gear noise from a heavier duty rear end isn't worth the hit to ride quality or the wallet. A 10 bolt can even live behind an M6 just fine. The stuff about "i broke it backing out of my drive way" always seem to omit that it was already hanging by a thread from the copious abuse it took prior. Of course he has an auto, so he's in the even more unlikely to hurt it crowd.

FirstYrLS1Z

iTrader: (4)

Agree with the 2 above posts. Put a GOOD stall in it and afterwards you might 2nd thought about any engine mods because the stall put it way beyond what you were expecting from a stall.
And rear end gearing, whatever they are from the factory 2.73s' or 3.23s', will be good with a GOOD stall.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Agreed and agreed.

I definitely LOL'ed at the "i broke it backing out of my drive way" comment!

dannyz

You can make 500hp to the crank within your budget.
A nitrous oxide wet kit with an Lnc 2000 to pull timing will get you there.
Easily.
It has a couple drawbacks though.
Mainly, it may not always be "ready on demand" because of bottle pressure, like on cold days.
It can take up to 20 minutes for your bottle heater to bring up the pressure to an optimum level.
Other then that it works and works very well.
But I can totally understand that many people are put off by the thought of nitrous for a variety of reasons.
So, as mentioned above, the best bang for the money will be a good stall, a 3600-4000 Yank SS converter with a cooler would do very well so long as you put good tires under your ride.
And I would recommend MIckey Thompson SS Drag Radials, no smaller then 275x60x15s.
All told, the Stall, rear tires/ wheels and a tune will set you back around 3500.00 give or take a few.
And you still have money left for that nitrous kit if you decide to go that route

Y2K_Frenzy

Drag radials- What if he wants a car that can do corner reasonably well as well? It’s hard to build a car to do all things.