LS1 power upgrades?

[daveb91]

Is there any power upgrades for a LS1 that would be a good first or second mod? Like intake upgrade or exhaust do they make a big upgrade or should i start somewhere else? Dont know much about this motor just know its a big push rod beast!

[Jay]

Depending on what year ls1 you have, it could have the ls1 or the ls6 intake. From 2000 on they had the ls6 intake, which is by far a better intake. As with any vehicle the exhaust should be set along side the road for the scrap man to pick up. Long tube headers will hang down a tad low under the car but nothing severe. Combine those with an after market Y-pipe and a nice catback an you will have a mean sounding, free flowing ls1. The ls1 has one shitty designed air intake, inside of the air box, on the air lid I believe? It has some sort of baffles in it. You can buy a new lid like an SLP or something equivalent. Biggest change however, once again like any car, is gears. Depending on if you purchased a 6spd or an auto as well as what you intend to do with the car (i.e. daily driver, weekend warrior, ect.) will be a deciding factor there. With a 6spd I have seen 3:73's as well as 4:10's. While with the 6spd I tend to favor the 4:10 setup, if you have an auto 4:10's are just too low for interstate driving ect. So if you do have the 4L60E I wouldnt go any lower than the 3:73's. Under drive pulleys.. SUCK! Headlights dim, alternator doesnt charge properly, for some reason and I dont know why every set I have seen on an f-body absolutely suck ass. If youre wanting to free up some HP going that route I suggest runnin an electric waterpump. Im not real sure how much you can rely on them but I had one on my stang an it seemed to work out fine.

If im not mistaken headers are around the $500 range. Alot of ppl use the ceramic pacesetters. I have heard alot of good things about them as far as fittment goes. BBK makes a set, an I dono if we got ahold of a bunk set or what but they were crap. Worst header install in history..

Catbacks will run you around the $300-$400 range, plus f-body's sound absolutely awesome with a good catback such as a loudmouth or borla.

Not sure what an SLP lid would cost.. prob in the $100 range or so? Check ebay.

Gears, $200 give or take. Figure another $150+ to have them installed and setup.

Waterpump, Not sure.. Mine was $300 for the 5.0

[Jay]

Oh yea..

I wana see pics of this beast!~

Stats man?!

6gear?
t-roof?
is it an ss?
color?
leather?
does it have superman stickers on it?
import eater stickers on the back glass?
blackouts on head and tails?
cherry bomb mufflers?
lol

[MnAiXsImMoA]

what did you get?

[RobbieNelson]

6gear?


Less than 5? :?: :wink:

[Jay]

what did you get?

Can you name more than 2 cars which are f-body's?
lol


6gear?


Less than 5? :?: :wink:

huh?

[daveb91]

99 T/A LS1 4L60E

Um thanks Jay that should give me some things to think about. Oh and of course picks are coming.

[daveb91]

It was at the last appetiser night well actually twice I had to give the car to my wife it was a present. That was the only time I drove it she has had it since.

[MnAiXsImMoA]

what did you get?

Can you name more than 2 cars which are f-body's?
lol



i cant name one give me a hint

[Jay]

what did you get?

Can you name more than 2 cars which are f-body's?
lol



i cant name one give me a hint

ugh.. damn rice burner drivin generation..
He allready answered it.

99 T/A LS1 4L60E

Um thanks Jay that should give me some things to think about. Oh and of course picks are coming.

[BluByU]

Ahhh nice to see another real car on here :twisted: ..lol just playin...i know i got one of the slowest cars here 99 Trans Am M6...but anyway stay away from flowmaster cat-back...and any slp stuff..i know SLP but seriously don't buy that shit.....air lid is a good cheap upgrade...shop ebay great deals on there.
Try and go in this order of parts just to start out ....unless u got the cash flow for LS6 kit then that would be the way...but if not------
Smooth Bellow
Air Lid
MAF Sensor-maybe-i got one,some ppl say it hurts you...some don't...up to u on that one
Air Razor=23mile per gal=TOWN thats what i get
K&N
Pacesetters Long Tubes & ORY-Pipe
3"cat-back
CAM and so on
Don't buy the intake yet...i'd wait till u can do intake and the cam and heads..just to see a really big diff.
That should be good enough to get u started or stuff to think about....ill have to take a look at the beast too...always nice to see another LS1 out there....if u ever see RED trans am out..blacked out windows thats prob me....i might try and get there on thursday and ill bring mine out that night

[BLUEVOVIII]

It was at the last appetiser night well actually twice I had to give the car to my wife it was a present. That was the only time I drove it she has had it since.

Hey Dave drive it to the next App. night, I will be there I would like to see it!

[narfdanarf]

I would never buy pacesetter anything.

[Jay]

I would never buy pacesetter anything.


Lookup their f-body headers, they are exceptional. All you hear is praise about them.

[daveb91]

Have the pacesetter header on the neon its about the best you can get because of the length. Some say quality is bad and it will rust but mines been on since 99 and its still fine. The cat backs are a different story cheap materials and they rust easily.

Blubyu nice list between you and Jay I got a start. Whats a power solonoid for the tranny? Acts like a shift kit i guess?

[Jay]

Not real sure to be honest with you.

[daveb91]

Well I guess my first mod will be simple, going to remove the baffles out of the air lid and see what that does. Also looking into LS1 edit and hptuner laptop based ecu tuners as it reminds me of turboedit which is what I use on the Honda. These seem to kick the hypertec and other handheld programmers out of the water. going to check it out.

[ben2000formula]

Hey dave Congratulation on the purchase they are wonderful cars!

first off i have to disagree with not buying anything from SLP, I had a lot of parts from them on my car, and the fit was awesome. The price was good too.

I would start off with the air box lid, this was my first upgrade and i can tell you tht you will notice a difference, alot better throttle response.

then i would go with an exhuast, now i bought a Flowmaster cat-back for mine, but this is when there where not very many exhausts out yet. if i could go back i think i would have went with the SLP loudmouth, it has a great sound, you can hear a sound clip here http://www.ls1sounds.com

Depending on where you want to go next is up to you, I would get the smooth flow bellows kits, and upgrade to a an ls6 intake manifold.

I WOULD NOT BUY THE AN AFTER MARKET MAF UNIT. this was the most money that i wasted on a mod, the stock is more then sufficient for whatever you need, and with an aftermarket one you run into tunning problems, especially after you were talking about ls1EDIT.

But anyways Dave enjoy the car and if have any questions about the car please ask i think i have some spare parts laying around for it too if need anything, i.e. waterpump, egr, MAF, stock air box lid.

Check out http://www.ls1speed.com they have great prices on all parts

[daveb91]

thank you and thanks for the link all new info is appreciated. Smooth bellows would seem to be a nice quick early mod.

[daveb91]

Looked at the SLP Loudmouth exhaust didnt think too much about it at first but then read some reviews and found out it was Stainless so this will probably be the exhaust on it by summer. They say it sounds awesome and gives good power gains anyone in the area have one?

[ben2000formula]

no but my setup was similar to that one if you remember how mine sounded, i had a dynomax resonator instead of the slp one, it sounds really sweet

[Jay]

Looked at the SLP Loudmouth exhaust didnt think too much about it at first but then read some reviews and found out it was Stainless so this will probably be the exhaust on it by summer. They say it sounds awesome and gives good power gains anyone in the area have one?

I believe Nester's t/a had an SLP catback but im not positive. It sounded flippin awesome

[recobra10]

nestors t/a had borla exhaust

[Jay]

nestors t/a had borla exhaust

Ah yea.. that's right
Maybe it's his SS that has SLP
Ask Channell he would know

[daveb91]

The borla with the built in cutout? Yeah that sounds awesome! Too badts almost $900.

[WS6Guy]

Is there any power upgrades for a LS1 that would be a good first or second mod? Like intake upgrade or exhaust do they make a big upgrade or should i start somewhere else? Dont know much about this motor just know its a big push rod beast!

Depends on how much you want to spend. A good couple good first mods are lid and filter, and be sure to bypass the throttle body. My lid, filter, and MAF were already changed when I bought mine. Headers are are always a good option as they are quite the bottleneck. I would start small then move on up.

[daveb91]

I did the TB bypass on my CRX if it did anything I didnt notice.

[WS6Guy]

Its not a huge difference on the WS6 either...maybe around 6rwhp if you're pretty liberal about it, but every little bit counts, lol.