keng

Hey guys, this is my first post. I used to be on teh dark side and sold my ford mustang for a 97 Z28 6-speed. I love this car, but what are some good first mods to do or what can I do to make sure it is running top shape.
Any mods you have in mid please let me know. I was thinking of gers, exhaust but I want it loud, asn shifter, what else do you reccomend?

lamb110

lol man i sold my 88 mustang for a 97 z28 m6, i'm so glad i did. Long Tube headers, are a great way to free up some HP, if you want your exhaust loud go for a cutout, there isnt any real power gain from them but belive me its LOUD. Cold air intake is another one, followed by a good cat-back if you dont already have one. Stay away from the Hypertech crap, if your going for a tune go thru, Madz28 here on the board or PCM for less, both will do a good job.

keng

What about gears, what is a good gear ratio to go with.

I have had tehZ28 for 1 day and I do not miss the mustang.

whiteslpz

I would say get a cold air intake first IMO as for the gears if you are going to racing around i would say get some 4.10's other than that i would get 3.73's IMO

lamb110

i was going to do gears but, if you have gears your going to need drag radials for the best results, and gears and DR's= broken rear-end

teke184

gears are a good mod, but not a first mod i don't think

my suggestion

cold air kit (K&N, morosso, SLP)
exhaust (either a full catback or just a cutout...or both)
shifter or short stick (will help make you a pro shifter)

My94T/A

Welcome to the Board and congrats on your new car. This is a great board lot of helpful people are here and they are great on advice. Well you have a M6 so most likely your rear end gears are 3.42. Lot of people with M6 change the gears over to 4.10. It will make it harder to hook and your top end might suffer. 3.73 is another good gear ratio. Lot of people with A4 like myself have them. (Which better then the stock 2.73 ). There are few free mod you can do. Such as Descreening the Maf and Throttle body bypass. But becareful. Another good way to learn about stuff in this board is to do a search. I did a search and found out lot of people with free Maf mod were having problems so I stayed away from it. Throttle body bypass haven't done it yet so really can't tell you how it is. Sorry. Also lot of people I noticed change the Therm from 180 deg to 160. Makes the engine run cooler. A CIA would a great mod to start with. There are lot of companies out three but a good cheap one is Lingenfelter. The K&N filter is huge. I was told it's bigger then the SLP filters and the Moroso filter. Please correct me if i m wrong. Also noticed you want your car loud. As suggested a cut out would make it loud. It makes it little rough and raspy IMO. IF you ask me I would suggest getting a catback exhaust. Lot of companies out ther and depends on you preferce and which tone you like. I just put on Magnaflow wit a gutted cat last weekend. and Ideling it loud and if you are below 2000rpm you can stay right next to a COP and they won't bother you. At 2000rpm gets pretty loud but at WOT it will put a smile on your face if you like your car loud and fast. I am sure more guys will deff have better suggestion then me and good luck wit the new car.

P.S> Here's few websites i came to use with good prices

1. http://www.lingenfelter.com/home.asp

2. http://www.proficientperformance.com...ot_pontiac.php

3. http://www.thunderracing.com/custome...n=view&ccid=32

4. http://www.slponline.com/

A great help and how to do website: http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech1.html

Antz97ZNJ

first mods should be a cold air and and catback....LPE Supertube is a great buy for a cai 159.99....If you want loud you could either go slp loudmouth or tsp rumbler from texas-speed...both very reasonably priced

oneslowz28

if you want it loud then i would scrap all of the cat back ideas and scrap the cats too get a set of dynomax bullets and have truduals ran. people say that it cant be done but i have it done. the dynomax bullets run about 35 bucks from jegs www.jegs.com. with 2 of these on my car the thing is so loud its unreal. so i would invest in a set of these and trash the cats. have a good exhaust shop run tru duals and some nice tips. and dont descreen your maf imo. ever since i did the car will drop idle some times to 550-600 rpm. a cai is a good first mod too. if you dont want to spend 150+ on one get a k&n like i did its over 11" long and 8" wide and it will clamp on to where your airbox clamps on. do a search of my post by clicking on my name and the post thats titled look what came in today will have pics of on the 3rd page along with a filter number

IrocManiac

Ok let me start off by saying congrats and welcome to the board.
Get a CAI, I have a lingenfelter and love it.
Get a Catback exhaust (gut the cat if you can) I have a magnaflow and absolutely love it.
Gears...I dunno if I would do gears. I went from 3.42 to 3.73 and there is a difference but its not a lot. 6th gear however is much more usable now it doesn't lug at 60mph like it used to and downshifting is no longer a necessity on the highway. My highway fuel mileage suffered slightly, like maybe 1mpg and thats it. 4.10s is too much gear if you're goign to spend much time on the highway, at least in my opinion it is. They are fun though...
Headers and a short throw shifter are also good.
I haven't dynoed my car since the mods but I picked up about 5 or 6 tenths with my mods.
How many miles are on your car? what color is it? got any pics?

keng

HEY YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME,
Thank you for all your help. I can tell this is a great board by eveyone willing to help, sorry i did not do a searc but i did not know what to search for now I can. Hey is there a way to turn an exhaust with out cats? Will this throw the computer off? What is this throttle body bypass? Also is there a way to check the code for the "service engine soon" light? I looked on ebay for a cold air intake, any recomendations?

teke184

ebay is a good place for used (and new) parts. just watch out. there are alot of "generic" parts that won't gain you anything. particularly in the CAI stuff. stick with one of the name brands.

97 is an obd2 computer, meaning it has rear o2 sensors to monitor the cats. if you remeove them you need to either have o2 simulators to fool the computer or have them programmed out. although not doing this and just living with the SES light for a while will be fine. the code for the rear o2 sensors has NO AFFECT on the running of the engine.

throttle body bypass re-routes coolant lines. hot coolant is plumbed through the TB in order to help warm the car up faster. once hot all this does is keep the TB very warm, increasing the temp of th incoming air...in turn dropping hp. i've seen dyno sheets show 5-6hp from this mod. it's not really "gained" hp...more like "regaining lost hp"

as for codes, you need some kind of scanner to read them. call around your local auto parts stores, some scan for free. i know AutoZone use to.

disco192

I think a 383 stroker is a good 1st mod

IMO there is a progression of mods:

Free Mods (i dont suggest descreening MAF, trust me, tuning is hard enough... )
Intake/Exhaust
Headers/gears
Valvetrain (cam, rockers, lifters, pushrods, timing set)/suspension/TB/clutch or tranny rebuild
Heads (ported or aftermarket)
Stroker and/or Blower/rear end

Add nitrous or sticky tires anywhere you want.

Thats how I see it. There are quite a few more mods than that, but thats a basic overview.

FYI - a little info about F-bodies. The intake manifold is NOT a restriction for the most part like 5.0s. LT4 manifold is NOT a mod. 4.10 gears are FINE on a 6 speed. 4.10s @ 70 comes out to 1800 rpm cruise speed, so its not like a stang. A stock LT1 can handle about 125-150 shot of nitrous. The weak points of the LT1 is the optispark and the rear end. The optispark is the distributor for our car and can get fouled out VERY easy because of water. The 10 bolt rear end is very weak compared to ford rears. I would recomend a rear end girdle when you start modding it.

Hope that helps.

keng

Wow, man this is weired, the Z28 has everyting th emustnag is'nt, but the few things th stand has the camaro does not. Like a strong rear end or ans weak ignition.

aso for the ignition, do need to change a cap or rotor every tune up how does that work?

disco192

No, but the distributor is a VERY poor design and can crap out on you at any moment. Alot of people convert to coil packs.