I have a whole list of mods which can be found at my other post https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=167228 But as much as I want to do ALL these mods, it's just not possible at this moment with my current cash situation. what i would want to know is which mods would i do first, to see the MOST drastic improvement. i heard to keep ignition till last, but i want something quick where i can really feel the difference. my thoughts are
1.)put in the rear end...like the gears and differential,
then
2.)open element.
Would i get crazy better acceleration, move through the gears quicker that way, or would i need more power from the engine and do some engine mods too (other than air)
or....
do engine mods first like air filter, spacers (tbi & injector), fuel press. switch, fan switch...what else... let me know

Once again...I just want something quick, i want good acceleration, without really losing top speed, i would still like to stay around the 100-120 range, so is my choice of gears and diff good? or should i go with 3.73? I just want to accel fast, don't intend on going fast highway speeds. also which one would be more fuel economic?

 

If you're looking to feel a big difference right away in the feel of the car and the acceleration you're going to want to go with the rear gears and posi first. You'd be a little disappointed with those little engine mods you listed they won't really show you much difference right away. As to gear choice I think from what you're saying that 3.42's would be a good choice as you selected in your previous post.

 

i would do 3.73s, the mileage difference between 3.42s and 3.73s is not huge by any means

 

The biggest gains SOTP gains will be from Gears/posi or from headers/3" cat. I would go with 3.73 gears. 3.73 gears and .7 over drive give you a theoretical top speed of 150+ and ~100 mph in 1:1 ratio (auto 3rd gear)

All the other mods are small potatoes except maybe the cam IMO, but it NEEDS prom/chip tuning to get the gains that gears or headers give you from just bolting on.

One thing to keep in mind with gears is that it will affect your speedo (making it read "fast"), so if you still have a ~110mph speed limiter that will now limit your car to an actual speed ~90 mph. The speedo gears in the tranny tailhousing can be changed to fix the error. The limiter is very simiple to remove from the chip though.

An open element only costs like $15, but on 2 occasions I have seen no gain(very slight loss) from a new paper open element vs. K&N stock filter. My IAT readings seem to show that the open element makes the air entering the engine ~30* warmer.

 

I did gears as my first mod, went to 3.73 posi and there was a huge difference in the way the car felt. It was easily the best mod I have done besides the LT1 cam, and I only lost about 4 or 5 MPG total so it wasn't too bad on gas
Jesse

 

brodyscamaro:what do you think would be the overall top speed with 3.42s and 3.73s?

Beast5spdGTA: SOTP? what is the .7 od about? i'm not familiar with that, if you could please explain...the cam, does THAT need the chip tuning, or do the gears headers need it also? How do i fix the speedo from making it "seem fast"? The limiter, is it necessary to fix if I don't intent on driving that fast? Will it affect the lower speeds?

Thanks again everyone, for getting me closer to what i'd say is one of the first "major" mods i've done so far.

 

brodyscamaro:what do you think would be the overall top speed with 3.42s and 3.73s?
speed vs rpm calc Tire radius of 12.85" and RPM of 5000, gives you 112 mph and 103 mph in 1:1 ratio(3rd gear auto) with 3.42/3.73 gears respectively. With .7:1 ratio(4th gear OD=overdrive) you get 160 and 146 mph. These are theoretical max speeds that will need a certain amount of HP to achieve.

Beast5spdGTA: SOTP?
SOTP = Seat of the pants

what is the .7 od about?
See above

the cam, does THAT need the chip tuning,
Yes the cam NEEDS custom chip tuning. Without tuning I only ran .1 sec and ~2 mph better in the 1/4 mile after my L98 cam swap. I was running pretty fast for my mods already I guess.(It will be faster in the next few days due to timing and fuel adj.)

How do i fix the speedo from making it "seem fast"?
The speedo gears inside the tranny tailhousing have to be changed (I think there's a tech article about this)(on a T5 is a PITA=pain in the a$$)

The limiter, is it necessary to fix if I don't intent on driving that fast? Will it affect the lower speeds?
Assuming your current rear end gear ratio is 2.73 and stock chip speed limiter is 108 mph.

108/(3.73/2.73) = 79 mph Meaning that your speedo will read 108 mph and your computer will think it's going 108, but you'll really only be going 79 mph when the limiter cuts your fuel. So if you put in 3.73 gears, you'll need to fix the speedo gears in the tranny and/or get rid of the speed limiter in chip to go faster than 79 mph.

 

out of the list you had posted, I would say the hyperchip computer chip would give you the most SOTP feel (It did me except for the head porting) - which brings me to the next mod: If you have some time (and I mean considerable time, like 40 hrs or more) port your heads dude.
Porting heads is cheap and gives you the most gains out of any of the stuff on this post (except for maybe the gears).
I bought heads on ebay for my car (the pair) for $50 so I could port them and yet still be driving around the camaro.
Beyond that you might spend $100 to get them checked out and cleaned up at a shop. and maybe $40 in other parts and misc.
I highly recommend it!

 

i spoke to my mechanic and he said that its fine if i do headers and the gears, but he said not to do the torque converter because it could cause transmission damage...is that true? also, if i was just to do the gears, would that damage anything like the transmission or cause extra strain on the engine, or is it good like that? also, would gears really be the right thing without heavy engine mods? right now, my situation is that if i floor it, the car will do a quick chirp of the right wheel, and slowly accelerates when i'm flooring, like it really doesn't throw me back in my seat like i feel it should, so would the 3.73 gears do the trick, burn some extra rubber and get a lot better acceleration that would make my car look faster without major engine mods.
My thoughts are now to just do the gears and differential, then i guess later on possibly in the summer do headers and some other "small" mods, i'm not looking to rebuild my engine completely, just something temporary that will give it some extra "juice" thanks for all your help guys, i'm a 17 year old learning more and more day by day.

 

changing the torque converter will cause your transmission to run hotter, which can destroy it without a transmission cooler, you'll probably want to get one of those anyway though, they're only like 50 bucks, its just putting it in a good spot that a bitcch, so look into that. The 3.73 gears will put more strain on your engine because it will constantly have to run at about 1000 rpm just to turn the wheels, but the 305 can handle the strain, its a pretty tough engine. Causing the engine to constantly run at a higher rpm will cause the rearend to catch at a much better time in your power range, which should cause a rather nice kick and much better acceleration, but can hurt your gas mileage. a good mod after that would be intake and driveshaft, so that the engine doesnt have to work as hard to get the power from the engine to the rear wheels. Correct me if im wrong anyone.

 

Do NOT buy a Hypertech chip, it's junk. Your stock one is basically just as well off.

If your talking about the L03, 305 tbi engine, then don't bother porting your heads. They are the crappy swirl port design, in fact I'm not even sure they can be ported/polished. Anyone help me out on that one?

If you wanted to do heads for cheap get the 305 tpi heads off e-bay. Don't waste any time with stock tbi driveline stuff.

My .02 cents.