First "Free" Mods: Weight Reduction?

[LT1 Kayker]

Alright, im nearing my needed $ to ship this car I baught, and im just wondering what some of the first things I should do to it are. Im thinking of making it something like 70% drag and 30% street in funcionability, but still street legal. Take the A/C out, GMMG exhaust with no cats (no emissions here), remove luxery stuff (if any because it's a third gen)...stuff like that. Where should I start, and what do you guys recommend? Im only an 18 year old kid with a friggin $9 an hour job at most, so the more I do myself for free or cheap the better.

Also after a few months or so when I have the money would the LT4 kit or Supercharger be a good idea? If so which one, and if not what else is good to do? There are so many things I want to do to it, pending money and time. Thanks for the help.

[Jm93]

if you take a sawzall to teh car, and cut it don to the drivetrain and frame +1 seat, they go a little better.

lol, saw it in a mag.

Replace the rear hatch with plexiglass, that ought to save you about 20,000 lb, those suckers are heavy.

[Zwrangler]

First off, congrats on the new ride my man, you are gonna love it and its gonna be so much better than yuo expected

OKay, lighter weight for more speed, well man to be honest with you the LT1 is so fast as it is that many people are content with keeping it the way it is and keeping all the creature comforts like AC and stuff. Try it out and get used to the car first and then after a few weeks of driving it if you still want to go a bit faster via lighter weight and cheap mods then theres heaps of stuff you can do like:

- take out the back seats and possibly passenger seat
- take out the stereo system
- lighter rims
- take out AC
- use heat wrap on your exhaust and intake manifold to make sure the air through the engine is as cold as possible
- home made cold air intake, ask or search the forums or pm me if you need a link or info on how to make it
- take out the spare wheel and jacking equipment
- look in the interior and try and strip as much unnecessary parts as possible

Thats all i can think of right now, hope i've helped.

[LT1 Kayker]

Awesome. For sure im going to take out the back seat right away. I don't like hauling people around anyways haha. The spare tire and jack and such would go to, just because im adventurous and riskay! Or dumb heh, well thanks for the suggestions, for the most part just the back seats and spare tire and jack would go for now. Im sure it will be plenty fast as it is.

[Dober89]

Heat wrap is for exhaust and i would only suggest you use it if you have factory exhaust manifolds. It keeps so much of the heat inside the exhaust, that if you have headers, they can get so hot that over time they crack and wear out. If your racing you car or something and dont mind replacing them every season then go nuts but ceramic coatings are the way to go for exhaust systems.

Back seats dont weigh nothing but the spare and jack do have a bit. You could go with a fiberglass hood and you could replace the rear window with a lexan one but ive heard of alot of problems from them because it makes the hatch so light and it flops around. you can get an aluminum driveshaft from another fbody for a decent price. Light wheels also help because getting rid of rotational mass makes a big difference.

[Chevyracincamaro]

fiberglass is your friend. look into getting a new hood, on the fourth gens atleast the hood is a beast...

[94ChevyCamaro]

carbon fiber hood....if u can find 1

[Chevyracincamaro]

ive only seen one, it was a cowl induction, 3 in i think. it was also 2600 dollars...

[LT1 Kayker]

That hood would cost a little more than the car, shipping, and T56 put together haha. Insane..

[94ChevyCamaro]

yes they are a bit pricy

['97SLVRBullet]

160 T-Stat, TB bypass, MAF timing advance, pulleys are cheap, CAI, eliminate EGR, airpump, and cats, PCM tune, O2 plugs, descreen/p&p MAF with a dremmel, smooth bellow. Take the donkey dick off the air intake elbo and cut the bottom out of a pert plus bottle and place it where the donkey dick was. Better than payin for one anyway.

[Dober89]

Do LT1s like 160 degree thermostats?? I know that they were a little cool for TPI because the computer goes into closed loop mode around then but it did it around 160 so it could cause problems with the engine not performing well.

[lckycharm713]

is the back seat really that much weight? are you drag racing this car or is it your everyday car? if i were you, i would beef up the motor some. dont go crazy and keep the things you need in the car. go out and woop so ass.

[Savage Messiah]

how does one actually go about the TB bypass?

[Genopsyde]

Originally Posted by lckycharm713

"Only babies suck bottles (NOS)"

I am so putting that on my car when it's done.


as for lightening the car, fill the tires with helium.