underdog1495

I hope I posted this thread in the correct location, if not someone please pm me if you moved it......

I get so many people asking what I did to the Vette this year, so I thought I’d just put an article together about the updates and how this all took place. So it all started back in early March 2013, I knew I wanted to get some new mufflers, something louder as the car is so damn quiet I couldn’t stand it. Only muffler mind you. I was researching different mufflers and listening to sound bites trying to make a decision and was leaning towards some Corsa’s. During this time I happened to see Denny Davis make a comment on facebook in the ‘ticker’ telling someone they didn’t have a clue how to do a good burnout, … or something like that, so I clicked on it to read further and I ended up joining the MAEG group on Facebook. I quickly find out I liked the group and saw a lot of people I already knew. Two people quickly friended me, Jack and Jon. Jon owns Huron Speed and sells C6 exhaust systems and Jack owns Grace and installs them. After some chit chat I end up purchasing an entire exhaust system, Headers-Xpipe-Mufflers all in stainless steel for a great price and Jack would install for another great price if I wanted to do it, so I did. I had to wait a couple weeks for the snow to melt enough to drive it over to Marne and so it all started. Jack did a great job getting it all on the Vette and with a small tweak it fit like a glove. Here is an image of what it looks like off the car.



Here is a video of it after the new exhaust was put on.

So Jack posts the video on facebook and Denny Davis made a comment that will end up costing me about 5k, he said “sounds like a dump truck”. Yeup and he was 100% right on the money with that comment, I hated the sound of it…..needs a cam for sure  And so the LS3 update begins. First I came up with a goal, that would be to have Z06 power out of it, 500hp or 425 rwhp would be what I’m trying to target. I had heard and read many comments on EPS camshaft lobe design so I thought I’d try them out. I expressed to Geoff what I was looking to do with the car and that is cruise it, it is extremely important to me that it’s streetable as we just love driving it, so he spec’d out a baby roller cam 226/234 @ 0.05 and 0.605 lift, Geoff has Cam Motion do his grinding and he doesn’t buy China cores neither which I liked. Next I decided to order some LS3 cylinder heads, why? Because they are cheap that’s why, at only $700 fully assembled, so one phone call to Summit Racing Parts and they are on their way. Next up is a LS3 Intake which I purchased ported from BareEssentialRacing, why? Because he’s cheap at only $200 with my exchange and his ported stock manifolds flow more than the expensive LSX ones. Okay fuel system, found out my fuel pump is fine for my goals but I did need to get some ZR1 Bosch 56lb injectors, so just a phone call to my friends over at Lingerfelter and they shipped them right out. Next, hmmm, oh cold air inlet, so Halltech Super Bee w/Bee Hive and a mass air sensor will do the trick. So at this point I’ve assembled most of the major components I wanted to put together and everyone had them in stock and to me with a few days. So misc smaller items. ARP head bolts, I needed offset roller rockers for the LS3 heads a stock GM part will be fine, Cometic gaskets, LS7 roller lifters and trays. All the GM stuff either came from Berger here in Grand Rapids or Scoggin Dickey Parts Center in Texas. If you’d like to see any of the images of this stuff, you can visit http://s39.photobucket.com/user/unde...?sort=3&page=1

Jack gave me a great price on installing all the parts and was excited to do the project since I just didn’t have time to get it done in a quick timeframe. I dropped the car off on a Friday night and we had fun tearing it down, it came apart a lot quicker than I thought it would. The next day the heads arrived from Summit and I took them over to who else?? Yeup Dave Visner to do some magic bowel work, valve grind and assemble the titanium retainers for me so all we have to do it put them on….I know I know, you all are saying wtf? As I always have done my own work on heads/intake in the past, but not this time, I was just to busy to deal with it and I know VED does awesome work, so they got the job and hit my deadline as well. As Jack was busy getting everything assembled, I did some research and decided to purchase HP Tuners Pro Software and a wide band for the x-pipe, after talking to Ryan White at Steve Morris Racing, it was all planned out to dyno tune this beast when the time was right. During all of this stuff going on Jack thought it would be a great idea to put a Comp Tunion kit in the roller rockers so they are much nicer,….oh what the hell I guess, why not right? I have to say I bugged the **** out of cptjack, I’m surprised he’s still talking to me, LOL. It ended up taking him a little longer than he had hoped, life does get in the way, but after a few weekends it was alive again.



First start up video……notice it doesn’t sound like a tractor anymore Denny 

So results, everyone wants to see results. Well it exceeded my goal on performance, it drives like it’s stock, it hauls *** when you have the pedal to the metal, it sounds stock during cruising with little to no drone, gas mileage is a tad better at 27mpg and I stayed within my 5k budget, what more could I ask for, love it !!

Chassis Dyno Numbers


Chassis Dyno Video

First time at the track, 60’ suck, it’ll run high 10’s with a good tire under it, but can’t do that until I get the rear end updated as it’ll break for sure, just need 5K to do it right  Maybe next year, we’ll see. Gotta love the et on this car, at 3100lbs it wasn't tough to get in the low 11's




……………..so what’s next you may ask ?? Well we’ll just have to wait for next spring to find out !!

davidtcpa

It's amazing what a little modding does to the performance of these Vettes!!!

FloydSummerOf68

Nicely put together build with good results...nearly 129mph is really moving out! 10's for sure with a tire under there.

I also have the Huron speed exhaust (mufflers) mated to catless longtubes and love them. Very agressive sounding from outside the car but quite tame inside the car. Sounds deep like borla but doesn't drone nearly as much as the stingers I previously had.

Mr.Nubain

I cant wait to try their headers, great price too. Saving as we speak

peter pan

Very nice results on the dyno and track

Flh Den

Awesome results and 1/4 mi times.

ProfessorDeath

Great results, but all that because someone thought your car sounded like a dump truck? It's your car, but I would have to disagree with the dump truck sound.

underdog1495

well...one thing led to another, lol, I just used Denny as a scapegoat for my out of control spending. I've been know to get a bit out of control with car mods in the past so I really had to keep it down this time, as I stated I just love driving the car, not just race. Last car was a true 10" tire nmca x/s Mustang that ran in the 8's, nothing but wrenching all the time, it was like a second job. So I sold it and went back to my street roots, now it's fun again.

underdog1495

I have to say, I really thought this thread would have a bit more interest.

davidtcpa

Move it to tech.

boraxman

FloydSummerOf68

I thought my car sounded like a dumptruck, or similar, with catless longtubes and the modded Z06 open at idle. It's one of the reasons I got rid of it for the XS Power exhaust. Couldn't stand the idle sound in the open mode.

1bdvet

Justasheet

Do you have an automatic or manual?

underdog1495

Manual. Z51 car also

Gering

OP: Great write up! Congrats on your new found HP/TQ!

underdog1495

I'm going to start a 427 short block next. Thought I had a good deal on a DHS block but it fell through, doing some more research, not sure if Dart has theirs out yet or not.

underdog1495

Update:
1/4 mile
60 ft was 1.791
ET 11.221
MPH 128.87

This was the best time I could get with the run flats on the car. With traction control on, I wasn't able to get it below 2.000 seconds. It was a fine line between not slipping the clutch enough and flat spinning the tires, but with traction control on it was a pig out of the hole.
With some drag radials I strongly believe the 60ft time will be in the 1.6's, but I won't be trying that until I get an updated strong rear end in the car.
The track I was at let me run 4x and said don't bring it back without a roll cage next time since is a vert. . . well I won't be doing that so I'll have to hit up another track if I so desire.

underdog1495

Update:
MT Drag Radials on the car, early Nov.
1/4 mile
1.5739 60'
10.774 et
127.60 mph

There's nothing more in this setup.

su8pack1