Looking for power on a budget... Nitrous???

[Chris_32212]

i feel as though i have done almost everything i can in search of more power without spending many thousands of dollars with only minimal power gains for the buck. so far i have done the following. any power adding suggestions would be appreciated!!!

SW headers
Chip from Exotic Muscle
Fidanza light weight flywheel
B&B tri flow with X pipe
Magnaflow high flow metal core cats

i want to do a set of under drive/light weight pulleys, maybe a better chip if there i can find something better or possibly have one done for my car but i need to find out more information about that process. also i have heard that tunning can have a decent reward but i dont want to do that till after i get my car set up the way i want it and i am thinking nitrous is going to be the best way to get the power level i am after. not sure if i should tune the car before nitrous or if i should tune it with nitrous. also, how does elevation affect tunning? if i have it tunned somewhere with a higher altitude like here, Salt Lake City 4,600' about sea level. how would that affect operation at lower elevations? also not sure what power level nitrous to use. im thinking 150hp shot would be sufficient i dont think it would be wise to use more than 200hp shot. is there anyone out there running nitrous? any reccomendations?

Chris

[tomtom72]

Check out these links:

http://www.zr1netregistry.com/ZR1_mods.htm

http://www.zr1specialist.com/

There you will find some thinking on the LT5's upgrades that may help you make a decision.

[Chris_32212]

my whole point is that i have already done most of the upgrades that are budget friendly, all the upgrades except brakes that are talked about on the ZR-1 mods page you listed are already on my car. what i would really be interested to know is if there are any ZR-1's running nitrous and what kinds of setups are popular if any.

Chris

Well, Nitrous is a dirty whore........ at least in my opinion.

It may be working fine one moment and then having issues the second. Most of time I see problems with it is when people get too greedy for power.

But as far as cheap hp, you do wind up paying a toll over the long haul. I'm not sure how local regs are down by you, but if the cops catch you with a nitrous tank that is completely plumbed on the street, they go crazy.

And yes a tune at 5,000 feet in slc will make the car run different at sea level.

[Chris_32212]

the way i see it, initrous is the only way to get to the HP level i am looking for. i cant afford to spend 30 grand for a 415cid conversion to get me up past 600hp. plus MPG goes down the shitter when you do that anyway. so the extra cost of filling a bottle would probably be offset (atleast to some degree) by the extra fuel cost of driving a 415cid over a stock LT5 anyway. i know bottles are for babies and i traditionally shy away from it also. all im saying is that getting the power up to and above the 600hp mark with out it is prohibitively expensive by any other means. i thought about a centrifugal supercharger system but the motor has such a high compression ratio that i wouldn't dare run more than 5psi of boost which probably wouldn't be worth it HP wise. has anybody successfully tried to lower the compression? is it possible to increase the combustion chamber of the heads? are there thicker head gaskets out there? im guessing that the head gaskets are pretty limited. i have no idea what the laws are here about nitrous, that is something to consider and something that i would need to look into. i also think that the car would respond well to the nitrous up here at 5,000feet because the air is so thin and there is less oxygen up here. so i have a hunch that even a mild shot of nitrous would do wonders for the motor.

Chris

Originally Posted by Chris_32212

the way i see it, initrous is the only way to get to the HP level i am looking for. i cant afford to spend 30 grand for a 415cid conversion to get me up past 600hp. plus MPG goes down the shitter when you do that anyway. so the extra cost of filling a bottle would probably be offset (atleast to some degree) by the extra fuel cost of driving a 415cid over a stock LT5 anyway. i know bottles are for babies and i traditionally shy away from it also. all im saying is that getting the power up to and above the 600hp mark with out it is prohibitively expensive by any other means. i thought about a centrifugal supercharger system but the motor has such a high compression ratio that i wouldn't dare run more than 5psi of boost which probably wouldn't be worth it HP wise. has anybody successfully tried to lower the compression? is it possible to increase the combustion chamber of the heads? are there thicker head gaskets out there? im guessing that the head gaskets are pretty limited. i have no idea what the laws are here about nitrous, that is something to consider and something that i would need to look into.

Chris

You would be quite surprised with your fuel mileage on a stroker car. Dwight still gets in the upper 20's with his 415 and 3:73 gears. I'll float around 30 with my 368 when I'm cruising the highway.

For changing the compression ratio, it can be done, but if you are doing that most people will upgrade to a 4 inch piston and go the 368. and Randy Woods does have a small blower he is putting the final touches on. Last time I talked to him he was in the final stages of the intercooler.

No thicker head gaskets, factory gaskets are getting limited, but are still out there.

[Chris_32212]

i certainly am not questioning what your saying but mathmatically that doesnt make sense. not to say it isn't still possible but bigger CID motors are moving a larger volume of air at the same RPM as a smaller CID. air fuel ratio's being equal, the smaller CID motor will move less air/fuel at the same RPM. i built a 600+hp 8200RPM 314CID SBC for my 73 camoro specifically for that reason. nice thing is that a different crank and rods and that motor would be 750hp 383. maybe it has something to do with more torque at low RPM that helps to push the car down the free way in a very high 6th gear. you said it is possible to lower the compression but is it possible to do without pulling the motor? i more than likely would not attempt to do it if it requires pulling the motor. if the motor is out, it might as well get the bigger pistons you talked about and a good bottem end rebuild to freshen things up probably wouldn't be a bad idea. but all that starts getting expensive. there is no way i would pull the motor to do that unless i had to pull the motor for some other reason, say balancer. lol. with 92,000 miles i wouldn't be surprised if i end up needing to do that sometime in the next couple years. so i guess anything can happen. how much of a power/torque gain does the 368cid conversion net?

Chris

[jonszr1]

a good person to talk with about this is either jeff who has shared with you or corey henderson 210 867 6286@ henderson performance tec. both are 2 of the most respected builders of our engines . i know it sounds strange but what jeff has shared about the fuel milage with the strokers is very true and well shared among the folks here .he doesnt do anything other than tell it like it is . a 368 unshrouds the valves in our motors a decent 368 with porting can make between 460-500 rwhp depending on cam timming . believe me its plenty of power for a street car . going to 385 or 415 adds 5k at least to the bill due to the fact you need a different crank that has to be made 1 off by bryant or another custom crank builder . i would stay away from nitros as jeff has shared if it goes bad it gets ugly and expensive quick . nitros is a engine builders best friend . hope this helps

[Chris_32212]

yeah i appreciate it. i understand what you mean about nitrous not being very motor friendly but i also know that the guys that blow their motors using it are typically guys that have done something wrong. something driving wise or something in the nitrous setup was done incorrectly. i bought a book on nitrous so that i could understand it better however it doesn't have any suggestions for the LT5. lol. but i would rather use nitrous and take the chance of causing the NEED for a rebuild(in which case i would go big) then go spend 30grand on a conversion for fun. if i wanted to spend that kind of money on a car... sorry to say that it wouldn't be a corvette. i love corvettes and i love my ZR-1 but if money were not quite as tight for me right now, i would start an Ultima GTR project car. The Ultima is in a class of its own and there is nothing out there that can match its overall performance. 0-60? 2.6sec. 0-100mph in 3.6sec. 0-100-0mph in 9.4sec. for well less than a 15th of the price, it out performs the Veyron in every catagory. about a 10th the price of most world class super cars and its faster and out performs them all. did i mention its powerd by a small block chevy?

Chris

[Zr1 Destroyer]

Do a nice nx wet kit and you'll be just fine with a 100-150 shot.....also get a bottle heater so your bottle hits hard every time. Other then that I'd say maybe invest in a cheap aem wide band to keep an eye on at the track!


If you have the cash I'd do the 415 cuber since the power is always on tap.......I had spray on my old 90 zr1 with ported heads and I will say it was fun on the cheap when compared to my stroker build.