LTs w/HF & CAI + Tune and Thoughts

[Nor Cal ZL1]

Adm or forza exhaust controller will quiet it up in town. Run npp always closed, stock, or always open.

4k for headers/cats, cai, plugs and a tune sounds pretty steep. Thats like over 2 grand for the install and tune. Figure 120 an hour thats 16 hours of labor. Anywho glad your knocking is gone.

[angryBits]

Originally Posted by Nor Cal ZL1

Adm or forza exhaust controller will quiet it up in town. Run npp always closed, stock, or always open.

4k for headers/cats, cai, plugs and a tune sounds pretty steep. Thats like over 2 grand for the install and tune. Figure 120 an hour thats 16 hours of labor. Anywho glad your knocking is gone.

Parts were quoted at $2600 which is a little higher than I could have acquired them for but letting him do it for a small premium was worth it to me.

He charged $600 for the tune.

He charged $120/hr for labor.
1hr for the RotoFab CAI.
5hr for the Headers.

I thought $600 for a tune was a bit high, I'm used to about $300 to $400.
I would have had to pay extra for the baseline dyno.

So all considered, I think I paid a little more, but his location and availability was good. He also said that he has a good relationship with the local Chevy Dealership and if I do the work through him, the dealership shouldn't give me any trouble with warranty work. I didn't get that in writing but we'll see. If its true then it was well worth the $ if not, then it was still worth the gamble.

[Homeless Man]

Wow $4K just for that stuff? CAI takes like 10 minutes not an hour

And headers I installed it myself and before then I had never even used a jack or changed my oil

[Nor Cal ZL1]

Originally Posted by angryBits

Parts were quoted at $2600 which is a little higher than I could have acquired them for but letting him do it for a small premium was worth it to me.

He charged $600 for the tune.

He charged $120/hr for labor.
1hr for the RotoFab CAI.
5hr for the Headers.

I thought $600 for a tune was a bit high, I'm used to about $300 to $400.
I would have had to pay extra for the baseline dyno.

So all considered, I think I paid a little more, but his location and availability was good. He also said that he has a good relationship with the local Chevy Dealership and if I do the work through him, the dealership shouldn't give me any trouble with warranty work. I didn't get that in writing but we'll see. If its true then it was well worth the $ if not, then it was still worth the gamble.

Fair enough. I know the relationship with the dealer, so that alone may pay off. I would have taken the opposite route and had the dealer do the install with self provided parts, and had them farm the tune to the tuner as they do. That way your building two relationships on the same job, for less cost.

[Aliveguy5]

Originally Posted by Mechzl1

It is pullied 10% my exhaust is just freaking loud

It's the lack of cats. No cats = very loud exhaust.

[DrkPhx]

Headers and no cats is super loud on these cars. I have Kooks LT's with cats and the ADM exhaust controller for stealth mode. I also have a Magnaflow x-pipe which I think helps it sound more "tuned" and less like a truck.

[angryBits]

Originally Posted by Nor Cal ZL1

Fair enough. I know the relationship with the dealer, so that alone may pay off. I would have taken the opposite route and had the dealer do the install with self provided parts, and had them farm the tune to the tuner as they do. That way your building two relationships on the same job, for less cost.

Good point. I will definitely do that next time.

[angryBits]

After spending some serious alone time with my car and its new mods and tune, I think I've acclimated to the changes and I'm liking it. Previously I was unsure and resisting a bit as things were "different" but now that it's grown on me I'm really really liking it.

I was withholding the name of my tuner in case I ended up not liking it, I didn't want to sling mud, but now I've had time to adjust and I really like it, I will reveal (though I think a few of you already know).

I took my car to Rick @ Synergy Motorsports in Livermore and I would definitely take my car back there again.

Rick tuned my car just the way I asked and he did it right, ZERO knock retard -- that was priority 1 and that is what is most important. I still made power and it seems I even got +2mpg ... wtf?

Only draw backs are price is a tiny bit higher but worth it so far.
I also would have liked a baseline dyno, but all you gotta do is ask, so I'm trying not hold it against them.

Rick @ Synergy Motorsports = 2 Thumbs Up!

[marticus24]

Do you have any vids of the exhaust with the LTs? Been debating pairing long tubes with the stock cat back. Don't want it to be too loud or drone in cabin. I've been there and done that in my 2011 SS that I sold to get the z. It had Borla s type catback, kooks headers with cats, and rotofab cai. I loved the sound especially after cam, but it bordered too loud for regular driving and droned around 1900-2000 rpms making highway trips challenging. Paranoid about that on the zl1, if I just add headers to the npp. So, if you have a vid, please post it up or shoot me a pm. Congrats on your gains!

[angryBits]

Originally Posted by marticus24

Do you have any vids of the exhaust with the LTs? Been debating pairing long tubes with the stock cat back. Don't want it to be too loud or drone in cabin. I've been there and done that in my 2011 SS that I sold to get the z. It had Borla s type catback, kooks headers with cats, and rotofab cai. I loved the sound especially after cam, but it bordered too loud for regular driving and droned around 1900-2000 rpms making highway trips challenging. Paranoid about that on the zl1, if I just add headers to the npp. So, if you have a vid, please post it up or shoot me a pm. Congrats on your gains!

I don't but I can tell you it is VERY loud... AMAZING... But LOUD.
No droning that I can tell so far.

When you are cruising, its fine and sounds good, when you accelerate at about 30-40% pedal it gets loud, when accelerate at about 50-60 it gets mean, when you accelerate +60% it's downright evil and nasty.

Here is a video on youtube of someone else that did similar mods that I think somewhat approximates what I hear with mine.

[Mechzl1]

I agree with what angrybits said. If you are just cruising around normally it's not bad at all. 50% pedal is decently loud and wot is freaking screaming.

[winterboy8]

Originally Posted by angryBits

Hey everyone, I just got my first round of mods and I wanted to share what I got, why, and how it turned out.

What I got:
- American Racing Headers Long Tubes
- High Flow Cats
- RotoFab CAI
- TR7IX Plugs
- Tune for 91 octane (I live in California).

Why:
I traded in my 2013 Shelby GT500 for this car and there was very little that I missed. Power wasn't an issue, the difference seemed minor enough, however I did want more sound, drop a little weight (up front if I can), and get the car to run right on 91 octane as I was experiencing some minor knock on my crappy local gas.

How it turned out:
For now I won't say where I went to get the work done because my review is very subjective and I don't want to cause any negative feelings...

I did not get a baseline dyno. Apparently I asked for it too late, I thought this was standard practice but thats my bad for making the assumption. Given the lack of baseline dyno, I don't really know how much power I made but my gut tells me I was below average given the crappy 91 octane and VERY VERY frequent knocking, though minor, still enough to cause a significant retard and always running in the low octane table.

So based on those details above, my gut tells me I would have been below average baseline... maybe 475, not because it was a low reporting dyno but because of the crappy gas. After all is said and done, I got 530rwhp. If my guessing is right (and thats a big IF), then thats about 55rwhp gains? and that is about in line with where I expected. I specifically asked for a VERY VERY SAFE TUNE.

In any case, more than numbers -- how does it feel?

Sound:
The sound is phenomenal. It sounds like a banshee when I do WOT blips. I love it and have zero complaints, this landed exactly where I wanted. Great growl when I'm on it, far better than you hear on youtube and far far louder so be careful. I'm actually scared to romp on it in town now because I'm certain I'll get pulled over... Awesome. CAI woosh sounds nice too plus a little extra supercharger noise, all good.

The knocking:
Completely gone as far as I can tell, but that is only seat of the pants for now. I have an HPTuners reader and will do more diagnostics soon but I'm well pretty convinced it's running knock free. So this was my primary concern and all seems well.

Performance-Weight:
Believe it or not I can actually feel the weight loss, hopefully it's not just my imagination, but even if it is, I like it. Can't say for sure how much I dropped -- I'm crossing my fingers at maybe 50lbs off the front of the car between the Long Tubs, cats and mid-pipes.

Performance-Driveability:
This is where I may need some getting used to, or maybe something isn't running right and I'm a bit disappointed. I definitely do not "feel" any power gains, maybe even a bit of loss in low end torq and maybe some high end power? It's difficult to gauge because I rarely went WOT with the car before since I was afraid of the knocking. This may just be the first time I'm really able to feel the power of the car and its coming up a bit shorter than I hoped, whatever I'm not too worried about this -- if I don't acclimate then I'll get it dyno'd elsewhere for a second opinion.

The last thought on driveability is, I seem to have gained a hesitation when stepping on the throttle. Maybe this is from the less restrictive headers (total guess)? In any case, now when I go WOT the boost kicks in 1/4 of a second later where it used to feel instant. I wasn't expecting this and not sure if its normal.

Here's the result dyno sheet:

Since you got your car a little earlier than I and I think I joined the forum about the same time, I've been seeing and reading a lot of your posts. I like what you've done with your car and am glad you go the KR issue fixed with your upgrades and tune. I think I'm going to end up with similar mods as you, except I think I'm going to go with the SW chambered exhaust. I'm hoping that will give me the sound I'm looking for.

Otherwise, I'm assuming you're happy with your mods and enjoying how your car both sounds and performs. I can't wait to get my break-in complete so I can add similar mods.

[angryBits]

Originally Posted by winterboy8

Since you got your car a little earlier than I and I think I joined the forum about the same time, I've been seeing and reading a lot of your posts. I like what you've done with your car and am glad you go the KR issue fixed with your upgrades and tune. I think I'm going to end up with similar mods as you, except I think I'm going to go with the SW chambered exhaust. I'm hoping that will give me the sound I'm looking for.

Otherwise, I'm assuming you're happy with your mods and enjoying how your car both sounds and performs. I can't wait to get my break-in complete so I can add similar mods.

Congratulations on the car!

I was originally going to do the SW chambered also.
Sounds like we have similar taste.

My tuner talked me out of SW, he said ARH is better. I think this is subjective but it turned out really well so I can't argue. I think if you do headers AND exhaust, you'll find its too loud. The stock NPP exhaust with headers and high-flow cats is really the max I'd do if you intend to drive it on the street. Any louder and you may regret it. Honestly I already cringe just slightly when I need to go high-throttle in town -- not driving like an asshole, rather those legitimate moments where you need higher than normal throttle.

Slight cringe -- I still love it. I'm about worried what will happen if I do pulleys. I've even considered putting the NPP fuse back in or maybe installing a switch for in-town driving.

[marticus24]

Originally Posted by Mechzl1

I agree with what angrybits said. If you are just cruising around normally it's not bad at all. 50% pedal is decently loud and wot is freaking screaming.

Originally Posted by angryBits

I don't but I can tell you it is VERY loud... AMAZING... But LOUD.
No droning that I can tell so far.

When you are cruising, its fine and sounds good, when you accelerate at about 30-40% pedal it gets loud, when accelerate at about 50-60 it gets mean, when you accelerate +60% it's downright evil and nasty.

Here is a video on youtube of someone else that did similar mods that I think somewhat approximates what I hear with mine.

Thanks for the feedback guys! Going to stay tuned to see how you feel in a few months. I'm out of mod of mod $ for the year so have plenty of time to figure it out. The vid DOES sounds just straight-up angry though, would love to hear it in person.