When choosing which cat-back exhaust system to put on my Camaro, there are a ton of options. Prices of the performance exhaust systems range from about 400 for a simple system on up to close to 2000 for a nice true dual exhaust setup. In deciding what I was going to get I wanted something that would perform well, sound good, and not break the bank.
There are sites out there with tons of clips of various exhaust systems. I did a bunch of listening to these clips, but they have to be taken with a grain of salt, because for one, the clips aren't taken with good equipment always, and the quality of computer speakers isn't always fantastic. Even still I was able to rule out some systems because they sounded too raspy. I was able to rule out other systems because they cost too much.
What I settled on was a Magnaflow performance cat-back exhaust system for my camaro drag racer. The Magnaflow systems sound great, are affordable, make proven numbers on the dyno, and even look great sticking out the back of the car. If you haven't read my other posts, I'm running a full race exhaust from the block back. I've got a set of 1 ¾ into 3 in collected long tube headers, a solid y-pipe without cats, into my Magnaflow performance exhaust from the y-pipe back.
With my cam, my car sounds great. It has a nice healthy rumble at idle, doesn't rasp much at all, doesn't drone in the cab at any cruising rpm, and really screams at wide open throttle. I've gotten many many compliments about how nice my car sounds. All in all, I'm very happy with my magnaflow performance exhaust system.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Shortcomings of the Camaro Drag Racer
In my last post I talked about choosing stage 1 of upgrades for my camaro drag racer project. With stage 1, I added power, and that is basically it. As I mentioned there are some drawbacks to working with this approach. The first major issue, and the most difficult and expensive to fix, is that the stock drivetrain really isn't meant to handle all of this power. Secondly, there is the issue of handling related to suspension, handling, and braking. The weak drivetrain is, in my opinion, the more important of these issues, as it affects more typical daily driving, as well as more spirited or track driving.
What does all of this mean for my project camaro drag racer? Basically it means that I have a bunch of power that I can't use.
Right now, the weakest part of the car is probably the clutch. If I heat the tires up and try to launch the car, the clutch almost always slips. During extreme acceleration when shifting from first to second, the clutch will slip from time to time. This is still the original factory clutch, which was never intended to handle this much power, with 65000 miles on it.
Keeping this clutch in there, even knowing that it slips, is a conscious decision meant to protect the rear differential though. The rear end differentials that GM chose to put into their LS1 powered cars are definitely a weak spot. They're barely robust enough to handle hard launching with sticky tires under the stock power levels. However, I would much rather have a clutch that slips under hard acceleration than a differential that explodes on launch. The fix to this is upgrading to a Moser or Strange 12 bolt rear, which also lets me put in steeper gears. The choice for me would be to move from my stock 3.42 ratio to 4.10, which will give the car even better acceleration.
Upgrading the power levels of the camaro drag racer was, I still feel, a good choice. It is definitely more fun to drive, and it sounds fantastic. I get a lot of compliments on the sound of it. Plus, under normal street driving, the drivetrain issues don't really make themselves apparent.
What does all of this mean for my project camaro drag racer? Basically it means that I have a bunch of power that I can't use.
Right now, the weakest part of the car is probably the clutch. If I heat the tires up and try to launch the car, the clutch almost always slips. During extreme acceleration when shifting from first to second, the clutch will slip from time to time. This is still the original factory clutch, which was never intended to handle this much power, with 65000 miles on it.
Keeping this clutch in there, even knowing that it slips, is a conscious decision meant to protect the rear differential though. The rear end differentials that GM chose to put into their LS1 powered cars are definitely a weak spot. They're barely robust enough to handle hard launching with sticky tires under the stock power levels. However, I would much rather have a clutch that slips under hard acceleration than a differential that explodes on launch. The fix to this is upgrading to a Moser or Strange 12 bolt rear, which also lets me put in steeper gears. The choice for me would be to move from my stock 3.42 ratio to 4.10, which will give the car even better acceleration.
Upgrading the power levels of the camaro drag racer was, I still feel, a good choice. It is definitely more fun to drive, and it sounds fantastic. I get a lot of compliments on the sound of it. Plus, under normal street driving, the drivetrain issues don't really make themselves apparent.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Choosing upgrades for the drag race camaro
Now that I've decided that stages was the way I was going to have to get my camaro drag race ready it was time to decide what those stages would be. I thought things through and decided that this camaro was still going to be a street car for the forseeable future so I wanted some fun stuff.
At the time I was deciding on this, a few things went into my thought process. First, I wanted to spend about $5000. Second, I also have a 1991 Nissan 300zx twin turbo, and that car handles like a dream with the 4 wheel steering, lower center of gravity, and better suspension. All said and done, I decided to get some engine work done.
The package I settled on for stage one of my camaro drag racer upgrades was: Custom grind cam kit, ported oil pump, new timing set, under drive pulley, new plugs, airbox lid, mass air sensor, american racing long tube headers, off road y pipe, magnaflow catback, dyno time and a custom dyno tune. The total cost for parts and installation: $5500.
The results were pretty inpressive for a cam only car, especially considering that this is a 2000 and it has the older, somewhat crappier LS1 intake. 402 hp and 398 tq SAE corrected.
More important than what I did choose to do with this stage is probably what I didn't do. Come back in a few days and I'll talk about the short-comings of this setup for my camaro drag racer project.
At the time I was deciding on this, a few things went into my thought process. First, I wanted to spend about $5000. Second, I also have a 1991 Nissan 300zx twin turbo, and that car handles like a dream with the 4 wheel steering, lower center of gravity, and better suspension. All said and done, I decided to get some engine work done.
The package I settled on for stage one of my camaro drag racer upgrades was: Custom grind cam kit, ported oil pump, new timing set, under drive pulley, new plugs, airbox lid, mass air sensor, american racing long tube headers, off road y pipe, magnaflow catback, dyno time and a custom dyno tune. The total cost for parts and installation: $5500.
The results were pretty inpressive for a cam only car, especially considering that this is a 2000 and it has the older, somewhat crappier LS1 intake. 402 hp and 398 tq SAE corrected.
More important than what I did choose to do with this stage is probably what I didn't do. Come back in a few days and I'll talk about the short-comings of this setup for my camaro drag racer project.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Powering up the Camaro
In March of last year I got a pretty decently sized tax refund and I decided it was time to finally get some work done to my camaro. I'd been reading up on various message boards, like LS1.com, for a while about what to do and whatnot, and decided on my end goal. I went around to a few shops to start pricing stuff up. As I said before, my Camaro is a 2000, meaning it has the mighty LS1 engine in it. The LS series of engine is now GM's go to engine for most of their v8 applications. It's been in the Camaro, Firebird, GTO, Corvette, SSR, and they also made it into a truck engine. There are lots of after market parts for them, and finding a shop willing to work in them is pretty easy.
I originally wanted to do heads, cam, intake, and exhaust, as well as all the supporting modifications that go with these main areas, like throttle body, mass air meter, rocker arms, etc. I was also going to need a clutch to hold onto this power.
I got some prices from a few shops and was looking at something like 12-13000 all said and done. This would have put me in the 600 hp 550 torque area, but the pricetag was more than I paid for the camaro when I bought it, so I settled on stages.
My goal was and is still to have one of the fastest street dirven camaros in the area, but I'm just doing it in stages now.
I originally wanted to do heads, cam, intake, and exhaust, as well as all the supporting modifications that go with these main areas, like throttle body, mass air meter, rocker arms, etc. I was also going to need a clutch to hold onto this power.
I got some prices from a few shops and was looking at something like 12-13000 all said and done. This would have put me in the 600 hp 550 torque area, but the pricetag was more than I paid for the camaro when I bought it, so I settled on stages.
My goal was and is still to have one of the fastest street dirven camaros in the area, but I'm just doing it in stages now.
My z28 Camaro Drag Race Odyssey - A Beginning
I've decided to start a blog about my experiences drag racing my 2000 z28 camaro. I bought the car as my college graduation present to myself in June 2004. At the time it was bone stock, except for better than factory tires. It was my daily driver until November of 2007, and I never bothered to take it to the track, because I figured that there are enough timeslips out there for stock Camaro and Firebirds. I couldn't afford to get any work done to the car. Then in 2008 I had some spare money and it was time to get some work done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)