I bought the car last friday and took it to the dyno on saturday only because my friend was hosting a dyno day at his shop. This is my first American car btw! I put an LS6 w/ cam in my 1994 RX-7, but sold it last year to a guy from Prague - Czech Republic.
My car is a 2002 Electron Blue Z06 with 23k miles and the ONLY mod is a K&N drop in. I came off of the interstate and went straight on the rollers. There was maybe 10 mins of cooldown while they strapped it down.
Car made 348 rwhp / 337 rwtq and it seems to pull pretty good. I was dissappointed in thier dyno fan (standard shop fan and was UNDER the car), and the shop temp was 103 deg! I am also worried about the low TQ #.
So I take is these numbers were pretty decent for a stock car considering the conditions.
Anyway, I am looking for a primer of mods and what power each mod makes, but have not found one yet. Does anyone know where there are some comparisions of stock cars and parts and such?
Since I like to autox and would love to run SS, I am considering getting a programmer and the removable throttle body insert to see if this will increase power. Anyone know if these parts would be worth the money? I need to have them removable (ie - dyno tuning not an option), so is this power worth the money?
Also, anyone got any other ideas on legal mods for SCCA Super-Stock?
Thanks,
Patrick Harris
Last edited by HarrisRacing : 06-25-2008 at 08:37 AM.
Reason: added pictures and words
Welcome to our family.....site!
Congrats on the new ride!! That's nice.
I'm not sure about the SS class, I know it is really restricted, good thing you found an '02.
As for the programmer, are you thinking of the Predator? That is supposed to be a good piece and should help you.
I run NCCC autox, but don't run SCCA autox; here's a link to the rules: NOTICE: SCCA Rule Books available ON-Line
IMHO, for autox, suspension, alignment and tires perhaps more important than power.
Perhaps if you look at the class rules ... see what's allowable ... and then plan your mods around that.
__________________
^VIR Turn 3 '08^-MungoZ06-'03 QS/ModRed - NCCC, NASA NCM Member - Z06 Fest IV,V,VI,VII
The first place to go is a harness bar and 5 or 6 point harness to keep you in the seat. I had belt pass through inserts put in my seats so the belts could come over your shoulders correctly and make them legal for open track events.
Second I would use high temp brake fluid and stainless steel brake lines.
Third put some good street autocross brake pads in. I had very good luck with Portfield R-4S pads, mimimal dusting and more stopping power. Remember you can always brake harder than you can accelerate. You can make up more time in braking vs. getting power down to the ground.
FYI..I have been autoxing for 10 years and teach autox locally a couple times a year. But thanks for the information anyway, I'm sure someone will benefit from it (I don't think Stainless Steel brake lines are legal in stock class unless the car is older than 1991 - BTW).
I ran the car in SS with stock tires and ended up 8th in PAX and 8th overall out of 60 drivers. This car can definitely be a competitor in SS, but I got handled by my friend's lotus pretty good (he's on new Hoosiers I was on stock tires). I am hunting a set of wheels and hoosiers now.
I also took the car to No Problem Raceway (No Problem Raceway Park) and ran 1:24.3 in it. In case you don't know that is a VERY fast time for a stock production car (or any car) on street tires at that track. I can tell you the stock pads and tires were really hurting those times as I wasn't hitting my braking zones perfectly due to fade. Also it was 93 degrees out and the oil temps were SOARING = 304 degrees. I called Mobil 1 and they recommended an oil cooler at anything sustained over 280 def, but that would knock me out of SS class in SCCA. He told me that those numbers are high and that while the oil keeps protetction, it starts breaking down twice as fast. He suggested a thicker synthetic for added protection at higher temps just in case. I also got Chevrolet to do some research and the high oil temp warning comes on at 320 deg. Perhaps GM knows what the motor will take with the oil they choose. I gotta believe they did their homework making this a reliable RACING car, especially in stock form.
I still can't figure out why this is the case on these motors...I am wondering if it has to do with the BATWING oil pan because my friend's Ls1 transam racecar doesn't have any oil temp issues at all with no cooler. I think it might be from where the exhaust wraps over and around the batwing. I'm going to try to put some sort of heat insulation between the exhaust and pan to see if that will help.
I didn't get the trans overtemp warning like some others have, but I will wrap the exhaust and perhaps make a little undercar airscoop just in case. I don't plan on tracking it much, but I don't want to have to worry about it when I do.
There is always some dyno variation, and car variation. But, ther eis a good thread on here which shows what most folks dyno stock. The accepted norm seems to be about 350-360 RWHP. I removed my airbox lid and did what I have referred to as the "Zip tie mod" you should be able to find info on it here. That put the car with no other changes to 372 RWHP. Still the stock box and stock paper filter. That may be legal for the class you want, or you could cut the stock lid up.
If you look here, and on the road race auto-X forums you will see high oil temps are a known issue. Oil coolers and trans coolers are pretty much mandatory for HPDE, or extended hard driving.
The oil will not live no matter what it is at high temps. As a side note, probably the best of the Mobil 1 oils these days is the yellow top 5W40 truck and diesel formulation. The 30W stuff degenrates into a 20W oil almost immediately.
The other option is Castrol 0W-30 synthetic which is made in Germany. You can do a search on "German Castrol" to find relevant info on it.
Programming on a stock car is probably worth about 5HP at most I'd say. That is mostly due to leaning out the car at WOT as the stock tune is safe on the A/F. But basically, the stock tune is pretty good as is. If you mod the car, of course you can tune the car to make power.
If you want to do SS autocross and be legal, don't use the braided steel brake lines, don't modify your airfilter airbox, or most of the other suggestions that appeared here: you'll be wasting your money and won't see much improvement.
Single biggest item you can change and be legal is to get some Hoosier A6's or Khumos. I prefer the Hoosiers.
Next would be a competition alignment (there are alot of variations here depending on preference. Try asking a few local Corvetette drivers what they are using and start experimenting).
If you decide to change shocks (if you have more than 20,000 on stock shocks you're probably due anyway), I would put on some adjustable shocks, preferably double adjustable if price isn't a consideration. This would actually be step 2 if you're planning on doing all this in fairly close order, since alignment may be affected by changing ride height and changing shock valving will alter how the car handles.
Do as many events as you can. Seat time is probably more important than all those other things put together except for a few gifted drivers. Even driving the car or a similar car on the street at a normal pace will help.
There are other things mechanically that will help, such as performance brake pads and air filters, but those things will not give you much more than a few tenths of a second on a typical course unless there is a problem.
The great thing about stock classes is that a good driver in a good basic car can still win against the cars that have had cubic dollars spent on them.
Another really good choice for shocks is the stock Z06 2004 shocks. Not quite as good as adjustable high dollar shocks, but quite good right off the shelf and cheap.
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