What MODS Have You Done To Your ZR-1??

[Blue Flame Restorations]

Originally Posted by Fully Vetted

I "modified" my intake by "ripping" out my secondaries.

[RICKYRJ1]

My list is :Haibeck 500hp pkg.
2 stage bright silver paint of engine
SS bolts
CT Machining coolant pipes
Arizen Racing custom seats
Mark Coplon air filter housing, serial #09
Corsa exhaust (polished)
Spare tire delete bracket (customized)
Complete polished suspension frt/rear
Custom Powdercoated ZR-1 half shafts & front knuckles
Custom GS gas cap (base machined by CT Machining) perfect!
SS headers
Findanza flywheel
Haibeck chip
SS brake lines frt/rear
C6 Z06 brakes frt/rear
C6 Z06 wheels 18"/19"
DSV custom steering wheel Napa leather w/red stitching
DSV napa leather center console
DSV napa leather shift boot
Brey-Krause harness bar
Simpson 5 point straps
Polished C-beam
Powdercoated drive shaft- black
2 stage bright silver painted transmission
Powdercoated bell housing (black with chrome bolts)
Changed black interior to red hush panels and red door panels
Hurst shift knob (blk)
MAF relocated
No Cats
Hurst shifter
Complete paint wet sanded to remove all orange peel ( blk mirror now)
3:73 gears ( thanks Phil & Jim)
Polished batwing & rear carrier
Rear hatch window tinted black
MAF Mercruiser cover
Alternator Powdercoated black
Chrome throttle linkage cover
Chrome alternator cover bracket
SS plenum coolant lines
Not all mods but figure I would give complete picture
Future wants are:
Coil over suspension
New wheels & tires
Custom interior Napa leather/ Alcantara /carbonfiber mix (most plastic will be covered, dash/door panels will be done also)
New custom steering wheel( will lose the airbag option for better design options)
49th street rockers
Custom hood
LED lighting
More Power! Strocker or TT I don't care
Custom center exhaust
My car is not to every bodies taste but I enjoy messing with it as much as I do driving it.
Thanks to all my Z Brothers for making ownership a great experience

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Dynomite

New meaning of the term NCRS all stock

Just noticed new additions in your Signature Pete....very good

Pete's ZR-1 Garage


Pete's def of NCRS:

Nothing
Can
Remain
Stock

I was reading thru the posts and was LMAO too funny,good stuff.

You can make the power key work even with the secondaries removed it will work like a rev limiter i.e.you can set low power not to go past choose any rpm 2500-5000rpm.

Pete

[Paul Workman]

Good thread!

Mods... It's like a desease!

Beautiful as she was, I wanted a Z since 1990. And fortunately, someone(s) took good car of mine untill I could afford her!

In the interim, I bought this beautiful 95/ZF Vette...



...but kept looking for a nice Z. One day it happened; got a phone call from a dealer friend of mine, climbed into this fabulous red 90 and went for one test ride. Whata rush! I tossed him the keys to my 95, and never looked back!



It was at the Crown Point Corvette Club's shootout where I first saw the potential of "The Beast". Pete, followed by Dominic, ended the scoffing and smirks by many sitting in the bleachers when these "C4s" came up against their club's mighty C5/6s. But when Pete and Dom lined up for their second passes, the bleacher sitters went silent...except for one voice that said, "What's a ZR-1?" The dye was cast: I was going to do "some" performance mods!

I come from a long history of modified hot rods; beginning with alcohol fueled dirt track racing and the usual gear-head series of noisy, nasty, street rides. But, the ones I always got the most pleasure from were the "sleepers" - a V8 Vega and an L79(427) BBC El Camino...were a couple of my favorites!

Coming to the line with a "RACHETAH-RACHETAH" BBC with huge cam overlap sounds nice (menacing!). But, being fast is expected and comes as no surprize. BUT! Coming to the line without outward signs of being nasty...and blowing away a RACHETAH ride...is ever SO sweet! So, after seeing just that happen on Pete's first pass - cutting an 11.4x @ 129.x and chewing up a couple C6 Z06s with his "stock" 5.7L LT5...I just HAD to do some MODS!

And, it is my great fortune that I live in FBI country where performance and racing flows in the veins here! And, it was with the collective guidance of Marc, Pete, Al, Bob G, Kevin C, et al, that allowed me to make mods (see my signature below - except for "just a few" FBI secrets, not listed - on pain of death) that significantly increased performance without jepadizing the reliability.

I did my porting in stages; top end and headers first - starting out by uniforming the runner sizes to approx 36mm on the plenum and the IH's, and tapering the runners in the heads down to the valve guides. I never had issues with my secondaries, per se', but after the porting, the butterfly plates no longer fit the space they now occupied; NOT to mention they're technically in the worst location, far as laminar flow in the runners goes. (I also sleeved the inside of my air duct between the K&N filter housing and the air horn - mostly to keep the duct from collapsing, but also to smooth the air flow somewhat.)

With SW headers and X pipe, and 3" pipes to the muffs, I was near 400 rwhp...Not a bad boost for a "bolt-on" mod (OH! And one of Marc's chips). But, good as the increase was, it only whetted that "WANT MORE" monster within us! So, when I discovered a leaking exhaust valve (likely the result of a bad OEM injector), I took the opportunity to complete the porting of the heads, according to the "FBI" patterns.

(Head porting of the LT5 is NOT for the faint of heart, BTW. There is "quicksand" one can step in if one isn't kerful! I did mine for my own to learn first hand about these LT5 heads. But, I'm not in the bitness. So, unless you are a welder, or have a welder friend experienced with aluminum heads, I say it's prolly best to let Marc or Cory et al do the porting, or have Pete CNC them for ya...just sayin!

Add a nice mult-angle valve job and a "few" tricks from Pete and Marc, and I installed a Fidanza FW (amounts to approx 15 hp on the dyanamic dyno) and I'm at 432hp at the wheels. Voila!!

A stock bottom, stock cammed 5.7L motor that gets 26+ mpg hwy, crisp throttle response, and nobody would know from looking at the motor or listening to it idle that it was modified...UNTIL you whack it. Then it screams like only the LT5 can do!

Is there more to be had? I think so.

• The TB is stock, except for coolant bypass.** Money is tight (again), but I intend to bump it to 63mm soon as I can.
  
• **Reduces intake temps, especially when staging at the track where every degree of heat is working against ya!!
  
• The Magnaflow muffs neck down internally from 3" inlet to approx 2.5" abruptly! Those are going to be replaced with the Dyanmax 17228s and fixed with the Z06 type vacuum actuated gates that seem to work so very well 'round here!
  
• And one other item to be tested that Marc and I are fooling with - might be worth a pony "or so" at the wheels.
  
• Considering an electric water pump - good for maybe 8-12 horse, but recent failures of same in Pete's car resulted in having to replace the motor. So...That gets back to that "reliability thing". An additional sensor/warning light for current draw on the pump motor might be the ticket, methinks.
  
• "Ripping" the AC compressor might save some weight!
  
• Moving the battery to behind the passenger seat makes some sense, from a weight distribution standpoint.

Something else to ponder... E85 and FI in combination is "interesting", tho there's that reliability thing again.

And, then maybe someday there's stroking and sleeving...OMG...Nuff said!

Well, in the end I gotta say, I LOVE the way she drives now. It is perfectly happy to cruise anywhere in town, in traffic. And, as Pete says, when you "whack it", all hell breaks loose! This is the way they should have come from the factory, IMO. And, if anyone else was contemplating modding the LT5, just ask anyone from FBI land what they think of their car's performance NOW!

P.

[WARP TEN]

I started with a stock 95 with 20k miles. It now has a Haibeck 510 package (with cats but without Fidanza), Corsa, 4.10 gears, Hurst, refinsh of engine to look fairly stock and a few other small mods. A Gentleman's FBI car. -- Bob

[FU]

Pete..... Would ya leave the 441 stock please ?

[cvette98pacecar]

Yes, Yes and Yes.

The 91 Purple CAB had major work done by previous owners. Once Mega-squirt and Ron get the new ECM sorted out a Twin Turbo (big Cube) is in her future.

Now to the Ruby, She is pretty much bone Stock except for some Callaway enhancements. She is going to stay just the way she is.

Last but not least is the 91 Steel blue, Steel blue She is getting a big cube 396, fully ported heads, big cams, Siamese plenum, IH, 63mm Throttle body, two stages of Nitrous, Shinoda body kit.
She currently has 9k miles on her, So I am looking for another Engine to build the Big Cube Motor.
Current Configuration:

Future Configuration:

[Blue Flame Restorations]

Originally Posted by cvette98pacecar

Yes, Yes and Yes.

The 91 Purple CAB had major work done by previous owners. Once Mega-squirt and Ron get the new ECM sorted out a Twin Turbo (big Cube) is in her future.

Now to the Ruby, She is pretty much bone Stock except for some Callaway enhancements. She is going to stay just the way she is.

Last but not least is the 91 Steel blue, Steel blue She is getting a big cube 396, fully ported heads, big cams, Siamese plenum, IH, 63mm Throttle body, two stages of Nitrous, Shinoda body kit.
She currently has 9k miles on her, So I am looking for another Engine to build the Big Cube Motor.
Current Configuration:

Future Configuration:

That Shinoda will be a work of art, for sure. A conv would be nice

[efnfast]

Ceramic coated headers.
Ripped out cats (sorry Scott)
OBX exhaust.
M.H. chip
K&N air filter
85 watt Hellas
Porting to follow.

[Blue Flame Restorations]

I drove the 95 today and then the 91. OMG, what a difference between the two.

In the 95, I can hear the radio and my thoughts. It's staying bone stock.

In the 91, I just smile to the exhaust music. That's literally all you can hear anyway. I thank Pete everytime I fire it up. What a wonderful KLUDGE.

Traveling to Detroit this week to go play with the Challenge car for a day or two. It's at a friends collection for Winter storage. Applying the correct decals on the car.

Mods, mods, mods, mods, mods, etc., etc.