skunkIROC

heres the down n dirty = i have a 88 iroc with the L98, it has headers, a k&n air-filter, and a flowmaster exhaust kit. all else is stock. so basically, i've done all the cheap mods everyone suggests in the post regarding that.

my question is as follows = is there a bolt-on accessory that will help out (read- NOTICEABLY) for under $1000, or do i need to go with internal mods first? or does neither exist for under $1000? i'd like NOT to go internal if its possible. so let me know, am i dreaming of mods that just dont exist or are they out there for that price range?

any help is very appreciated, thanx

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

NOS 5151 $550 150 hp increase

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

i would go with no2 but be careful with your plugs and timing or you could go booooom

skunkIROC

so if i'm careful with plugs and timing, i can istall the 5151 NOS kit on the engine with the above listed mods, and expect to gain 100-150 hp without harming my engine?

skunkIROC

i looked up the kit online, sounds like the way to go. THANX

i realize this is a very open question, with many variables, but here it goes= a good running L98 with headers, flowmaster exhaust and the K&N airfilter, roughly (yes i understand this would be a very rough guess) where would all you iroc gurus estimate my HP to be (at the crank, not rear-wheel)????? then obviously the nitrous kit would add around 150 to that guess when in use.

what do you guys think? where would you estimate my car is / would be in the horsepower world?

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

It should run in the 12 second range with a 150 shot ontop of a decent bolt on motor but i would also invest in some runners and a manifold if you look around you should be able to pick thoes up used and stay around your 1000 dollar tag and be haulin ***

skunkIROC

thanx for all these tips so far. i'm a harley guy making an attempt at getting into modding my cammaro (i can wrench on v-twins all day, but this whole TPI/ V-8 thing seems to be alot more touchy)

what brand / style manifold and runners would you recommend for my application?

also, i was guessing that with the bolt-ons i already have, that my present horsepower was probably somewhere slightly above 300 or so (since it made 240 bone-stock). would you say i'm close, or am i over-estimating my engine as it sits?

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

Well your off to a really good start but the major restriction on a factory tpi system is really the runners arizona speed and marine runners are a very good choice there siameased runners will help on the top end if that what your going for but as far as bang for the buck goes you cant beat a set of slp runners that can be hogged out for good gains. Or you can ditch the TPI all togeather and swap out to a stealth ram for high rpm sweetness.

skunkIROC

i looked up the slp runners, not a bad price.

i also went to summit online. what about getting edelbrock heads ($589.50), edelbrock intake manifold (little under $200), and throwing a carb on there? would that extract more power than nitrous and new runners? or would that route be too complicated to be worth the difference (if it would even be more power or not) in power gains versus the nitrous & runner route?

theory A = heads, intake maniflod, carb

theory B = nitrous, runners

what do ya think?

browncamaroz28

iTrader: (1)

theory B- you have fuel injection, theres no point in going backwards if you can make the same power when you want it, have better gas milage, and have better daily reliablity. Plus the bottle looks real cool when you peek into the hatch.......

leeperryracing

if you just want a little more pep from the car, the easiest and cheapest way to get that is to throw a bottle to it. I prefer the old fashioned way(heads,cam,gears etc.) but that is gonna be more expensive so it all boils down to what YOU want..good luck and welcome to the board!!

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

I would stay fullie it will serve you better as far as drivability goes and you keep your computer diagnostics

skunkIROC

so far, theory B seems to be the way.

i DID look up the stealth ram intake manifold. its $300, plus it says you need a throttle body ($349 from holley). so thats $650 so far. if i then added the 5151 NOS, i'd be at $1200. that would only be 200 over what i was shooting for (but who DOESNT end up going over) and i could live with that.

could i put the stealth ram, the throttle body, and the nitrous on it without needing antyhing else? or is there more stuff that i will need to do those mods? i would assume that combination would summon some horses =yes/no?

or should i just stick with theory B, and get nitrous and runners?

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

You can use the stock TB with the stealth ram, but you will need to get the fuel rail kit, and line to connect your stock fuel lines to the rails. Have a look at stealthram.com for more info on this.

That sounds a lot like my set up.

I have, stock heads, but ported, and milled, 1.6 roller rockers, stealth ram, 52 mm TB LS1 injectors, Headman shorty headers and y pipe, all the other bolt on and free bees, (K&N, coil, wires, etc)

And the 5151 kit. Unfortunatly I am just getting the car back together and have not been able to test it yet.

Oh, before I touched the motoer, I did the suspenion, the stock set up will not hook so there is no use in building more HP if you can't use it!

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

All told a stealth ram will usually cost about 600 but I think its worth it

skunkIROC

QUOTE FROM JOHNNY BLAZE - "oh, before i touched the motoer, i did the suspension, the stock set up will not hook so there is no use in building more HP if you cant use it"

i already have MOOG springs all around, KYB gr2 shocks all around, and spohn sub frames. i think that should be enough for now, right?

how long until you guess yours will together? i'm very curious as to how it will do.[

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

A lot of that depends on you, tuning, condition…

My 87 formula 350 runs 13.5’s @ 100 with basically a cold air intake and a cat back. it weighed 3710 (race weight after making those runs) which most “dragstrip calculators” will put at somewhere around 295hp.

BTW, same car with a 150hp shot ran a mid/high 11 @ 116.

E-brock heads for $589? Maybe 1 head. FWIW, I’m not sure that they are really worth the effort. Most of their increase in flow over cleaned up stockers is in the higher lift ranges and you’d have to be running a big cam to _really_ see it. Of course, you’d shed 50lbs off the nose of the car…

N2O will make more hp. You’d have to go with heads, manifold, cam… basically the whole top end + exhaust to see something in the 450hp range that the spray would get you, which would require reprogramming and a lot of other minor hassles with the FI or a whole load of changes to convert to carb.

Um, if the stock suspension is in good shape it works quite well, I’ve seen 3rd gens run 1.5x 60’ times with stock suspensions (and I mean stock). I regularly run sub 1.8’s in all my f-bodies with an assortment of suspension parts, but nothing major. The only thing that I consider a requirement to change in the suspension for dragstrip use is the pahanard rod, and you won’t see the difference in the 60’ time but in further down the track: basically, they have a tendency to flex on a hard shift which causes these cars to jump sideways on shifts.

skunkIROC

i was told that SLP is good with f-bodies. so, i checked out their website. they have a cold-air induction ($249.95), flow booster piece ($34.95), and intake runners ($334.95). that comes out to $619.85 total.

has anyone tried these parts in conjunction with eachother, or have any thoughts on if they'd make a difference?

the thing is, the SLP parts come out to $619.85, SO = i could still get the 5151 NOS kit and NOT go too far over my $1000 range.

BOTTOM LINE = SLP parts $619.85 + 5151 NOS kit $550 = $1169.85 ......... good power-adding-combination for the price range i was shooting for??????

skunkIROC

help? anyone?

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

WEll, my car would just light the tires up as soon as you hit the gas. Esp. after I got the stealthram on. You just tap it, and the tires would spin. This was after I added, springs shocks, boxed control arms poly torque arm bushing and adj. panhard rod.

I then added LCA drop brackets and MT et streets, now you have to brake torque the car to brak the tires loose.

Hopefully it will be on the street in the next week or so. It was running, but I think my ignition switch fried.

I don't know if i will get around to spraying it this season or not though.

Got to take it and get the subframe connectors welded on too, that will help even more.


Personally, I'd go with the stealth Ram over the SLP stuff. Even with big runners the stock tpi does not support rpms. And to me, it seems they produce more torque than these cars can usfully put to the ground, hince the easy wheel spin, and poor wet weather driving. ( I'm sure others will flame me for that coment)

skunkIROC

the SLP stuff costs about the same as a stealth ram. the SLP stuff seems pretty simple to install. not to sound pathetic, but ease of installation does mean something to me (like i said before, i can wrench on harleys all day, but this v-8 with eletronics stuff seems way more touchy).

so that being said, how much of a "bolt-on" is the stealth-ram?????

PhLaXuS

I've never done one, but it looks like a pretty simple bolt-on for an L98. There have been many posts here with accompanying pics for the Stealth Ram. Just do a search for "Stealth Ram" and you'll find all the info you need.

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

Again, go to www.stealthram.com for all the info you need on this swap. IT is not to bad.

skunkIROC

well, that website answered my question about comparing the stealthram to the SLP set-up. they had a dyno comparison of the two, and the holley was much nicer on the graph. granted, whats on paper isnt everything, but it seems to have answered my question.

so thanx again, you guys are a great help to a new guy who knows that he sounds pretty naive about most of this.

thanx

PROCHARGEDTA

I NO IM LATE ON THE SUBJECT BUT,I HAD NOS ON MY 92 CAMARO
Z28 5.0 TPI WITH A 5 SPEED TRANS AND 150 SHOT AND THE CAR RAN 12.73@109 WITH ONLY A CAT BACK EXHAUST AND K&N AIR FILTERS.GET NOS!

skunkIROC

was it the 5151 kit?

PROCHARGEDTA

YES SIR.IT WAS
AND YOU CAN ALSO UPGRADE TO A 175 SHOT WITH THE CORRECT
JETS (SORRY I DONT KNOW THE JET SIZES)BUT YOU SHOUD BE
ABLE TO GET THE SIZES FROM A SPEED SHOP OR SUMMIT RACING.

skunkIROC

yeah, but i'm a little skeptical about running more than 150shot in a stock engine.

thanx for the input though

Free Bird

iTrader: (1)

109mph would be ~12.4 if you hooked. Very impressive w/ a 305 though.

skunkIROC

sounds like the engine was moslty stock, but how about suspension mods?

formula350sd

iTrader: (2)

I wouldent worry about suspension there are plenty of people going pretty fast with stock suspension and good tires

PhLaXuS

I felt like I gained about 30 HP after pimping my suspension -- but then again I would bottom out while driving down the road. I went with all Energy Suspension polygraphite, KYB Shocks/Struts & Moog springs. Feels pretty tight now. Next is a cage and subframes.

Fred91GTA

Hey Skunk, not to badmouth SLP, but I'd be wary about some of their parts after my experience. I ordered a set of SLP runners awhile back and ran slower times with them because they were finished like crap on the inside. After spending a lot of work porting and polishing out as much of the inside surface as I could, THEN my car got a LITTLE bit faster. If you look inside your stock runners, they are smooth and extruded. The SLP runners have a cast finish inside and are very rough. My runners even had a gash in it that looked like somebody had punched a hole though and then rewelded aluminum in there to seal it.

And no, it wasn't my car. I have a 52k mile L98 GTA that runs perfectly.

Also, since you have a Camaro, I wouldn't get the SLP cold air kit. I think that kit was meant more for the Firebirds because we had a crappier intake system than the Camaros had. A Ram Air setup can be made for the Camaro for a lot cheaper using the existing parts if you check in the Tech Articles section of the page.

skunkIROC

wow, thats the first bad thing i've ever heard about SLP. i'll definately take that into consideration now. thanx for the heads up

the stealth ram seems to be the one that NOBODY has negative opinions on.

so before i go order one, anyone have any addtional thoughts on the stealth ram (other than how good it works)????

Fred91GTA

Sure. Do you need to pass emissions? Because the Stealth Ram certainly won't if they do a visual check. There's no provision for an EGR valve.

Do a search for SLP runners and quality. You'll find a lot of negative comments on them. If you can get your hands on the older style SLP runners, they are much better quality.

SLP does good work on F-bodies... 4th Gen F-bodies.

skunkIROC

that is a very good point that hasnt come up before. thats the same reason i havent gone with edelbrock heads & intake manifold and switched to a carb.