jimsalone

Thanks to Jason and the rest of the guys at Katech for the warm welcome and for the ride to the airport after dropping my 2010 ZR1 off for the stage 4 upgrade. It's gonna take about 7 weeks to pump all 800HP into it and the wait will be hell but from what the guys at KATECH tell me.....just wait....your not gonna believe it.

Thanks guys! See you in 7 weeks!

Jim

Gary '09 C6

please report back on any measured valve-guide wear...

it has been mentioned by some in the LS7-related posts that Katech has stated they've seen this;
would like more current information if available...

G-L with your build !

dwiemers

Why does it take 7 weeks to mod the car? Seems like a long time, am I missing something?

ZR1Cat

Geez, 800HP?! I can't handle the 638 HP.

Keep us posted on that valve guide wear thingy. I lost an LT4 engine due to crappy OEM valve guides.

frc

Congrats! Its in good hands.

Boba Fett

I thought Katech was in Mi....Ur in NY and just dropped off ur car with them...
anyway...good luck n keep us posted...

jimsalone

They are in Michigan but as you'll read all over this forum.....It's either Katech or Lingenfelter if your gonna mod your ZR1. I chose Katech based on alot of reading. Don't read into that cuz I do not have anything bad to say about the other guys at all. I know that 638 horsepower is plenty and yes I'm sure alot of that 638 had yet to be used on my car. I typically trade my vette everytime they build a fatser one. My last trade in cost me 30K for a 2007 Z06 I had that had only 3K miles on it. Sooooo if I spend around 14K for the full monty including the corsa exhaust.....nothing GM will come out with in the foreseeable future will touch my 800HP katech-ized beast. If I traded my Zr1 in in 2-3 years for a new ZR1 (if they make 1) I would lose at least 40-50K so as you can see.....spending 14K on this upgrade is actually saving me money. I drove through canada which was beautiful and it only turned out to be a 5 hour drive.

gonabite

LPE or Katech were your only options that you saw on this forum? I guess you didnt do that much reading. Lets see.... Starting on east coast, East Coast supercharging, Redline Motorsports, Vette Doctors, Vengance Racing, County corvettes, over to Texas.... Lethal Racing, LG Motorsports, Dallas Performance, Late Model Race Craft hmm are they in texas..oh and Hennesey oh well, west coast well the west coast all I can think of is West Coast Corvettes but there has to be more lol.

Sorry to any shop and many shops I left out im sure but you had several options to choose from and most (I say MOST ) that I named are very reputable and have put out some bad azz rides.

Im not saying by any means you made a bad choice and Im sure you didnt, Katech does nice work from what I have seen. Just saying you had alot more options than just them or LPE.

Good luck with the build and enjoy it!!!!

jimsalone

I meant nothing by that and I'm sure all of the forum sponsors would have been a good choice. Please don't think I was slighting any of these or other tuners. I'm sorry if that came across the wrong way. Most of the upgrades for ZR1's that I read about were either LPE or Katech. What is good to know is that I should read up on the sponsors we do have closer to me so that in case I need support down the line.

Many apologies if anyone was offended

Jim

Boba Fett

Pretty cool,and I def think ur in good hands with Katech. Hopefully by the end of this week Ill will have my ZR. Im a huge modder and choose not to fool myself, the ZR eventually will get modded. I was in a toss-up for a while between the new purchase or just completely rebuilding my Z with twin turbo. After lots and lots of reading and research, I had decided to let RPM in Delaware do my build for the Z (b4 deciding on the new ZR).
When its time to mod the ZR, Im pretty sure it will be going to RPM.

meadowz06

Those two builders are the best! Period! Good luck with the build.

Redline Motorsports

Good luck with the car Jim! Katech is a class act and will do a great job! Tough call between them both...
We do quite a bit with LPE and could have helped you if we were still based out of Albany!

Please keep us posted on your results!

Howard

Ultraworld

What drive train mods does this include? Will the trans & diff & shafts tolerate this? Any chassis mods to deal with the increased twist?

jimsalone

Katech is an all round racing shop and I'm sure they know what the limitations of he drive train are. There are other cars out there with the stage 4 upgrade and I personally have not heard of any issues

jimsalone

Heads are off and have been sent out to be ported.......off to the races...pardon the pun!

Gary '09 C6

^ any observed issues with the valves/guides ?

jimsalone

Jason promised to let me know and then I will report it back to you guys. I only had 1k miles on my car though and never tracked

Gary '09 C6

thanks in advance... and, G-L with your engine build !

(didn't know the car had such low mileage)

jimsalone

Well here is what the skinny is on the valve wear guys. Can someone explain to me what this means to me? They sent the heads out to be ported so I am hoping that any of what this says will now be fixed after getting the heads back from the shop they use to plane them.

"50% of the intake guides could not be measured due to the excessive wear at the top and bottom of the guides. They were off the dial of my bore gauge. The mid section of each intake guide measured at .0025" +or- .0002". The exhaust guides consistently measured .00024" at the top and by the bottom were at or near the max wear limit of .0037". Some as large as .0043" at the bottom." and i quote.


Thanks

camirocz

they sent the heads out to be ported????????By who?I must me missing something here.You ignore shops that are in your area then you take your car to a shop that sends your heads out to another shop to be ported.Please explain i simply cant follow.