c5 z06's

[mellor_21]

hey i know there are a lot of z owners on this forum so...
i might get an 04 black z06 next week, what are these cars like? how is the cost to maintain/upgrade? this one's mostly stock, what would be your first mods? what do you think they're value will do over the next while?
and is there anything i should know about them or watch out for? or anything specific i should check on the test drive?
btw 07 z06 rims on a c5z are sick :burnout:

 

[Luckybob2485]

If i were to get a vette, my first mods would be intake, exhaust, cams, and slicks.

 

[mellor_21]

sorry i mean more specific, i have no idea on how different exhausts or intakes sound and how much they improve these. any preferred brands?

 

[01SaleenS281]

If it's that particular one then the first mod IMO should be some lowering springs. They look sick slammed!!! :beer:

 

[Zoie_daGT]

good looking vette^^^^

Personally, I think exhaust is the most priceless mod for V8s.

 

[mellor_21]

lol let me put this another way..
i fully plan on putting all the bolt ons on this car, i just don't know any of the brands or which specs to go with ie which type/size of exhaust, which lowering springs and how far, which gears... etc
the other half of the question is stuff to watch out for, like i've heard you don't want to go with FI because the cylinder walls are pretty thin

i'm sorry, i know this is a primarily mustang forum, but i trust and respect a lot of the advice on here and it seems like there are a lot of z enthusiasts here as well. i'll probably put the question on a couple vette forums too but wanted to know what you guys had to say first.

 

[Blue Blitz]

No need for springs, get dropped bolts if you cant lower it enough to your liking on the stock bolts.

Then get a Varram for the CAI. After that I'd get headers (LG or Kooks or American Racing). After that maybe full exhaust (type doesn't matter it's all personal preference). Shifter go with a pro 5.0.

If that doesn't satisfy you I'd go with a proven performance cam (224, Torquer 2, etc). I would get diff wheels myself as I'm not a big C6 Z06 wheel fan but that's all personal preference.

William

 

[mellor_21]

thanks =)
is it worth changing heads or are the ls6's great on their own?
and are the gears worth changing or should i keep them stock (whatever stock is.. i really need to do more research lol)
and will i need to upgrade the internals of the engine any time soon or are they pretty stout?

 

[Blue Blitz]

How much power do you want to make? LS6 heads are pretty good. Cam will be more power than you will probably need for a while. Gears are worth changing if you want to pay to have it done. 3.42 is stock gear, I'd go to 4.10 if you're going to change them. It'll still be nice on the highway thanks to the low OD 6th gear the T56 has! Internals will be fine for a while also, unless you do high HP with power adders.

William

 

[50 Cobra]

As for exhaust B&B bullets with twin tips or the borla stingers are also great choices. However exhaust for these car are pricey and dont do much performance wise. Z06's come stock with TI exhaust and sound great. Like this forum, their are many great Vette forums around so just start reading up. I just bought my Z a couple months ago and love it.

 

[carnut101]

Dont slam the car without coilovers. You will literally be on the bump stops of the shocks. Also, the car starts to act funny once you lower it beyond having the lower control arms parallel to the ground. Remember, the lower you go, the the softer the spring effectively gets, so it makes it even easier to bottom out the shock. Most coilovers have a stiff enough spring where anything more than the stock swaybars will be overkill. My experience is that in real world street driving, max grip happens at the softest setting that doesnt allow other issues to come up (so... softer = more grip, until body roll cancels out any addition in grip). It may feel better stiffer, and it may work on a race track with perfect surfaces, but it wont work well on streets where you have to try to maintain traction over bumps and other surface irregularities.

I had/am having a maintenance nightmare with my car, but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

As far as bolt ons, really, any intake will do. Vararam costs the most, and seems like it would do the best job, but I'm sure the difference over cheaper options isnt as huge as they make it out to be. Really, the bottleneck in the intake is the connector between the air filter and the throttle body.

Headers, of you plan on keeping it stock displacement, stay with 1 3/4" headers. 2.5" or 3" collector will be a negligible difference (but all these negligible differences might start adding up, lol). Get LGs if you want to go with the flow. I don't think I'd dump that much money on them just for the name, though. They do advertise having the longest collectors if you get their Pro headers. I like Kooks headers, or OBX if you're on a very tight budget. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the more common long tube headers.

Cat back, depends on preference. Watch videos. Even then, it'll be totally different in person. I like the sound of the factory ti's once you wake them up a bit with headers and high flow cats. I just dont see the point in spending $800 to replace the catback with something heavier, and with zero performance gain.

Heads, you can port your factory ones, but by then, you might as well swing for some aftermarket ones. AFR 205cc or Trickflow 215s are the most you'll want on a stock-cube motor. Anything bigger reduces port velocity too much. Can't help you with choices on valve springs and rocker arms cuz I don't know much about them, but I do know you should start keeping an eye on the springs at around the 50k mile mark, especially if you have stiffer ones in there.

Cam, go big or go home. Personal preference. I also would rather have a 480hp N/A motor than a 550hp FI motor. Stock block, you should be able to run 500 rwhp all day. Anything over 550, you're on borrowed time.

Not a fan of gears. You'll already be traction limited in 1st and 2nd.

Around the 450whp mark, you'll probably need a new clutch, depending on how you drive it. Not sure yet on what's good out there. I'm trying to figure that one out for my car right now. I think I have it narrowed down to either Mcleod or Monster.

The reproduction c6 z06 rims weight a ton and will impact every aspect of performance. OEM c6z rims wont fit without flared fenders.

Shifter, get rid of the OEM hunk of crap asap. I have the C6z shifter in mine. Only other one I'd consider is the MGW unless you want an arm workout every time. Then again, I live in LA, so it might not matter for you as much.

Stock brakes are plenty for even track days with the right pads. Stay away from the chinese rotors. HP+ pads are a good step up from stock, and should offer plenty of bite for any street tire short of a dot-r. If you want bigger brakes for the bling factor, the C6z brakes are good bang for the buck, but they do have their drawbacks (heavy, padlets, etc). They won't clear the factory 17s on the front, though.

I think I covered most of the common mods. Let me know if there's anything else.

 

[50 Proof]

If i were to get a vette, my first mods would be intake, exhaust, cams, and slicks.

cams? lol, you can only fit one cam into a pushrod motor :lol1: I suppose you can try strapping an extra cam or two on top of the intake or valve covers. Might not do too much good though. :lol1:

 

[sharkbite]

I had an '03 Z06. One of the best cars I've ever owned. The seats were complete poop, but everything else was great. B & B exhaust is good. I'd look into buying a couple mufflers of your choice and having an exhaust shop weld them in. Otherwise you'll be looking at $600+ for a decent cat back. I'm a member on z06vette.com. Pretty good info source.

 

[sharkbite]

Also... CAGS skip-shift delete is a must. Good God that's an annoying feature. Front hood seals are good for keeping dust outta the engine bay. As far as intake... I like the Callaway Honker intake. Better fit and finish than OEM with a 15 hp gain. Look into a set of 'fat mama' front rollers if you have a steep driveway. They'll save your front end from a lot of scrapes.

 

[carnut101]

As far as intake... I like the Callaway Honker intake. Better fit and finish than OEM with a 15 hp gain.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[sharkbite]

:lol::lol::lol:

Hey, it's the manufacturers claim. Since their testing process is a tad more rigorous than mine, I'll go with their claims. 15 hp doesn't sound ridiculous compared to some of the 25+ claims from other manufacturers. Here's a snippet...

"C6 dyno testing verified the airflow test results, resulting in an increase of 16.5 rwhp on an otherwise-stock LS3. At the dragstrip, simply bolting a Honker into a stock C6 coupe dropped its 1/4-mile ET by three full tenths and increased top speed by 2 mph.
The results are even more dramatic with C5's. On a completely stock LS1, the Honker increased power by 18 bhp! In a stock 2003 Z06, 1/4 mile elapsed time was reduced by three tenths."

 

[SVT F15O]

If i were to get a vette, my first mods would be cams

:smmon:

 

[Storm_jordan]

hey blue blitz could you post up some pics of your Hugger Orange Camaro? I love that color and year!

 

[sharkbite]

 

[carnut101]

Hey, it's the manufacturers claim. Since their testing process is a tad more rigorous than mine, I'll go with their claims. 15 hp doesn't sound ridiculous compared to some of the 25+ claims from other manufacturers. Here's a snippet...

"C6 dyno testing verified the airflow test results, resulting in an increase of 16.5 rwhp on an otherwise-stock LS3. At the dragstrip, simply bolting a Honker into a stock C6 coupe dropped its 1/4-mile ET by three full tenths and increased top speed by 2 mph.
The results are even more dramatic with C5's. On a completely stock LS1, the Honker increased power by 18 bhp! In a stock 2003 Z06, 1/4 mile elapsed time was reduced by three tenths."

Key phrase: "dyno testing." They neglect to mention that 90% of their advertised claim is from the dyno tune. Get a dyno tune on a bone stock car and you'll see a 15-20hp gain. Do it again after adding any aftermarket intake and you'll get maybe 2 more hp on a good day.