J-Rod

Howdy,

I myself am a Z06 owner, but, I am helping a friend work on his 88 Callaway. And since he is rather computer illiterate I am posting instead of him. He has decided he would like to upgrade the car performance wise. Since it appears there are some of you out there who have upgraded your cars I guess I am asking what you have done, what works, what doesn't.

Some of the avenues we have been looking at is to put another crank in the car and make it a 383. Also we have been looking at putting on another set of heads (190cc AFRs for instance). I was wondering what folks had found to be the limits of the stock turbos either in terms off boost or in CFM and if anyone had upgraded their turbos. If so, what they rplaced them with. Of course we are alos looking at new cams ans possibly a new intake.

In talking with TPiS about using a mini-ram, there is a picture on their website showing one, but they claim to have no knowledge about it. Also, TPiS and ASM both seem reluctant to even consider doing a modified PROM for the car. I guess I am just looking for a little direction.

TIA

Jarrod

8388

Whats been done to the car so far ?
Whats your friend trying to acheive with the car?
How much is he willing to spend ?
Are you planning on doing the work yourself ?
And the big one : How reliable do you want it to be ?

90Callaway

I don't have much time to reply right now but I will give a quick bit of info. My first bit of advise is NOT to re-invent the car. You can make close to 500rwhp and 650rwtq without scrapping the TPI setup, cam, heads or the turbos.

My car may be one of the most heavily modded on the forum. Not to say that it's all good. I'm working out some bugs that Callaway seems to have introduced to the car. I am certainly not the expert here either. I think turbocat owns the mini rammed TT.

I can't really take credit for the 'keep it simple' statement. I have to credit that to Matt G and Sam (UltraSlow and 8388) as they are the real Callaway gurus.

It surprises me that AS&M doesn't want to make a chip. They had my car in 1994 and did lots of work including a cam, heads, turbo work, chip and more. If you call them you want to talk to Ed. He's the manager now but was the mechanic that worked on my car.

I be away for the next few days but would be glad to share any info I can when I get back.

Ultra Slow

Its very simple to get the power he wants. 383 is not the answer. All that is going to create is the need for more air from the turbo/intercoolers. I personally think the callaway would be faster if it was a 300CID motor as the airflow is lacking in the CFM dept in the upper RPMS and a smaller motor would get more boost and more CFM from the callaway system. Cubic inches are not the ultimate answer on turbos. Look at all the small motor turbo cars out there. A 350 is a good combo and does not require reinventing the wheel as would be a must with the 383 and you might have less power when you are done. Callaway has whats called the "wonder bar" upgrade. It is a part in the front of the car that will allow more air to flow through. This really is a major improvment and is more of a correction to a design problem on the cars than an upgrade. With this you can turn up the boost to 55-58 on your gauge, use good gas, put a decent free flowing converterless exhaust on the car and have close to 500HP on a dyno and close to 700 on torque. The total price is under 2K if you do the work yourself as long as the car is 100% to start with. If you want more, add a ported intake system. Look at my pictures and you will see it. This only adds about 50 more HP, but it increases the inherantly low power band of the callaway almost 1000RPMS, and this is major. The biggest problem you will have when your car is done right is finding a clutch to hold the power. I have not found the right one yet, and centerforce is not even close as it will spin out at 2500RPMS in 3rd gear if I give it full power abruptly. These cars are a powerhouse when set up right and I have never even had the valve covers off mine.

J-Rod

I just want to thank you all for your responses.


I am glad to hear that the power levels my friend wants can be achieved without destroying the car. I myself was kind of worried about to many mods destroying the inherent value of the car.

I hope to discuss it further with you guys, but it sounds as if the wonderbar mod, a little work on the stock intake, and possibly a little more boost and the car should really wake up some.

Again ,i just wanted to thank you for your responses, and I am sure I will be back with more questions.

Thanks again,
Jarrod