beef up on a 96 Caprice

[newone]

what up everyone!!!! new to the whole automotive thing, just wondering if anyone knows how to beef up an LT1 on a 96 Caprice. Any info will be appreciated.

[96capricemgr]

Whay areyou looking to get out of it? Purely daily driver, daily driver with some track time, weekend bruiser. My car is currently setup as a dailydriver/strip car, mild cam mild gears mild stall still fine for the wife to drive. Plans are in the works for it to become more of a weekend/strip car. I have tried a lot of parts and wasted a lot of money, if I can help you hit your goals more efficiently I would be glad to help.

[1986Z28]

easy mods are, k and n air filter, chip, underdrive pulleys, or instead of airfilter a CAI, biger injectors, bigger throttle body, etc..

[newone]

okay? so basically give the engine more air to give it more hp, right? Im trying new things with my car and I want it to be a beast on the street. I know I can make it look good in and out if I put the right parts under my hood. my question for now is, if I convert my LT1 to a LT4 will I also have to change the tranny? dont want to mess up my ride because I have become really fond of it. Im just trying to make it better than it is right now.

[96capricemgr]

Originally Posted by blownalcoholboy

easy mods are, k and n air filter, chip, underdrive pulleys, or instead of airfilter a CAI, biger injectors, bigger throttle body, etc..

The CAI is the ONLY decent piece of advise .
A dropin K&N is a waste the airbox itself is the restriction not the filter, if you take a holesaw and put an extra hole in the side of the lower half of the box in front next to the airhorn or on the side facing the fender that will help, also using some PVC to replace the rectangular resonator after the MAF makes a definete difference, a CAI would be better but those cost more, you can also add a sheild to make this function as a CAI.
These don't have "chips" though pcm reprogramming is a great mod even on a fairly stock car I could give you a whole bunck of options as far as good guys to use and reasonably priced.

UD pulleys on an LT1 is a waste the ONLY thing they are good for is if you road race or the like and overheat your power steering fluid, the UD pulley can help avoid that, since our waterpump is not belt driven and that is arguyably the most power hungry normally bel;t driven accessory the UD pulley offers little gain.

Bigger injectors, well if you do those without a pcm reprogram you will destroy the engine and a lot of guys are running around with bigger cams and the stock injectors, my car is currently over 2 seconds fast in the quartermile than it was the first time I went to the track and I am just begining to reach the limits of the stock injectors. My datalogging software allows me to watch their duty cycle and I am now topping 90% and putting out around 100hp more than a stock b-body LT1.

On the bigger throttle body your stocker is the same one they use on the Ramjet 502 I am sure it is a restriction on that but not so much of one that they don't use it. On a stock or even mildly modified LT1 the stocker is just fine. I recently got a 58mm(48MM is stock) and put it on my cammed motor throttle response changed but power did not and this is verified by looking at airflow and vacuum with engine sensors.

LT4 parts are nowhere near as good as most want to believe they are there are a lot of options that will deliver more performance for less money and do so with better drivability. Even the biggest LT4 supporters/owners/formerowners say 3.42s and a 2400 stall converter are bare minimum with 3.73s and 2800 being prefered.
On the tranny you will want at bare minimum a Transgo shift kit, specifically Transgo and at least be prepared to have to rebuild it down the road. In stock form this is not the strongest tranny though there are a FEW shops that can make them work very well, I am currently using a pro-built.net and could not be happier, I tried a good local shop first and that went very badly that tranny cost me over $110 a month for the time it lasted me and I was nowhere near the measly 360fwhp I am around now, I know that sounds like decent power but there are a lot of guys with a lot more in these cars.