1994 Z28 Modifications

	1/3/96 - This was my first mod, just a standard old K&N replacement filter.
	1/3/96 - Air foil bought used as part of a package deal with the K&N above. Also picked up a hitch for it but never got it installed. With the addition of the ground effects, the hitch won't be getting installed :)
K&N 9" Conical filter part # RE-0810 and also Mighty Flow air intake hose part # 96074	1/30/97 - I used these parts and a small breather type filter to make my own cold air kit.
	3/14/97 - Borla cat-back stainless steel exhaust system. The fit of this kit was terrible on my car. Extra bends and general attitude adjustments had to be done. It also developed exhaust leaks at the factory welds within a month. I guess the excellent sound is worth it though :)
	4/1/97 - Hypertech Power Programmer Plus. This is actually for a '95 F-Body but I picked up a different connector from Hypertech so it would work on my '94. I did not notice any improvement at the track with the engine tuning installed. The shift firmness option provides a noticeable difference for partial throttle shifts. Full throttle shifting still felt the same. Currently, all I'm using this as is an expensive fan switch since I have the Vortech and Transgo.
	4/1/97 - Hypertech Power Stat 160 degree thermostat. Very easy to install.
	4/18/97 - GTS Tail light black outs. I originally had AVS brand but during the day, my brake lights did not show up. The GTS actually appear to be darker but yet allow more light to shine through. The best of both worlds! Special thanks to my buddy Charlie for getting these for me for my B-Day!
The Home Dyno	5/5/97 - I picked up this software/hardware combo from Mike Chaney. This is a very neat and helpful tool... well worth checking out. Read more about The Home Dyno.
	5/15/97 - MAC 1 5/8" headers. I am very pleased with these. They weren't too difficult to install when considering headers on a 4th gen! I also don't have any special aftermarket coating on these headers. I have had no problems with underhood temperature or burning plug wires. If you ever install these, I recommend using lock washers on your y-pipe. I didn't and the nuts fell off!
	5/15/97 - Taylor Spiro Pro 8mm wires. These are working OK for me... I haven't burnt one on the headers yet! But, we did use plenty of ty-wraps to keep the up and out of the way. These wires were more of a PITA to put on than the headers were. This is even considering we put the wires on without manifolds or headers installed. They were still very difficult, but not impossible, to run in the stock locations. What else was difficult was putting the boots on the end. After trying for over an hour, we finally ended up drilling out the holes in the boots to make them a little larger.
	5/15/97 - Installed Autolite Double Platinum Plugs APP106. These worked just fine for me but were removed when the Vortech went in.
	5/15/97 - Changed out oil in the engine, tranny, and rear end to Mobil 1 synthetic. Also used the GM additive in the rear. The 15th was a busy day wasn't it :-) Mobil main page
	7/16/97 - C-A-M-A-R-O letter inserts for the rear hatch from RK Sport. These are urethane molded letters that fit perfectly and look very sharp (they should as they are very expensive IMO)
	8/22/97 - AS&M 58mm throttle body. This is a very nice piece made out of billet aluminum. It was simple to install and I had no idle problems afterwards. To make this mod effective, the two intake openings were opened to match the throttle body. We did this with a die grinder and Dremel tool while the intake was still on the car. We stuffed rags in the intake to prevent gross aluminum shavings from getting into the internals of the motor. Quite a few did make it by... somehow... oops. There is a difference of opinion by some on how much damage the aluminum shavings would cause. The reason we did it on the car was because the guy doing the actual grinding (used to build engines) was not at all concerned and he laughed at me for being anal about getting shavings in the engine. Well, so far so good so I guess HE was right :)
	8/23/97 - This is the "Big Daddy" mod... the Vortech S-Trim 7 lb supercharger. It comes with a Crane HI6TR ignition system and an inline T-Rex fuel pump. I could write pages about this alone... I'll do that some other time :)
	8/23/97 - Auto Meter Boost gauge part # 2601
	8/23/97 - Auto Meter mechanical fuel pressure gauge part # 2612. This thing has been a major headache! After numerous tries, I finally got it to hold pressure. Now it just takes about 3 or 4 minutes after the car is started for it to show a reading. I guess I'll have to live with that for now. UPDATE: Problem fixed... see below.
	8/23/97 - Auto Meter high pressure isolator part #5280. This is a required part in order to install a fuel pressure gauge inside the car and also the root of all my problems with the fuel pressure gauge! Auto Meter is supposed to be coming out with a better design that allows for better venting/bleeding, but so far I have heard nothing. UPDATE: During the roller rocker install on 3/5/98, I bumped the coolant/water polyflow line going to the gauge and it started leaking. No big deal except it was leaking gas!! The diaphragm failed at some point. I called Auto Meter and they rushed me out another isolator and will be sending me a prototype isolator very soon... I'll, of course, add the prototype isolator to my mods list when I get it! UPDATE #2: Auto Meter sent me the prototype isolator and I installed it. It's a much better piece! I've had installed now for almost one year and haven't had a bit of trouble with it! UPDATE #3: For whatever reason, I've heard they have discontinued this new isolator? Anybody know why?
	8/23/97 - This is a Greg Day dual gauge pod. It fits very nice and I get many compliments on the gauges and where they are mounted. UPDATE: Since the install of the new isolator and running braided line also inside to the gauge, the fuel pressure gauge wouldn't fit flush unless I slightly rotated it counter clockwise. So, I now have both my boost and fp gauges rotated so what used to be straight up is now at the 11 o'clock position :)
	9/2/97 - Diacom Diagnostic software by Rinda Technologies, Inc. This or a similar diagnostic tool is a must have (IMO) for a supercharged or blown car. This allows me to use a laptop (need a cheap used one by the way! :) to monitor many different aspects of the way the car is performing. Read about it at the above link but buy it at Performance SS ... much cheaper :)
	9/2/97 - G-Tech Pro performance meter. This amazing little unit contains an accelerometer chip which measures 0-60 time, 1/4 time and mph, g-force, and HP. I have used it at the track and it is VERY accurate! My only problem now is I have too much horse power (i.e. tire spin) to get any "good" numbers from this. It's not the fault of the unit, it's a traction problem. When the tires are going up in smoke, the 0-60 and 1/4 mile times are not very good :)
	9/11/97 - TransGo shift performance kit for the 4L60E automatic transmission. I installed this to try and help the transmission last with the extra HP the mods are starting to pump out. I only put in 2 washers but wish I had done 3. I noticed no difference between 2 washers and the HPP+ shift firmness option. Oh yeah, and another batch of synthetic fluid went in also!
	10/4/97 - I added this sticker (the only one on my car) to the center/bottom of the rear hatch glass. This is an www.f-body.org mailing list sticker designed by Adam Bruce and voted on by members of the mailing list.
	10/7/97 - To help combat my 1000+ O2 readings, I installed a Vortech bleed valve on the FMU. This, by itself, had basically no effect. It has to be used with a restrictor placed in the FMU sensing line.
	10/7/97 - Changed out the Autolite APP106 plugs with NGK TR6 plugs (gapped to .042) in an effort to help stop the 10 degrees of knock retard (with BTM set at 1.75) I've been getting since I first hooked up the Diacom. These did not help :( ... maybe the gap is too wide.
Volt Blaster	11/8/97 - Hooked up a Volt Blaster purchased from Modern Musclecar. This is one neat little gizmo. Even though the Vortech bleed valve was open fully, my fuel pressure increased almost 10 psig above what it was previously running at full boost!! I bought this looking for a cure to "the knock" but no change... hmm... maybe my indicated knock is false??
NGK R5724-8 (4175) plugs	12/3/97 - In yet another effort to stop the computer from dialing in around 10 degrees of retard due to sensed knock, I put in these plugs and gapped them to .037. I originally thought these were 2 heat ranges colder than stock but as it turns out, they are 3! Possibly a little too cold for everyday driving. Oh, and no change on the knock retard :(
ATI Restrictor	12/x/97 - Placed an ATI inline restrictor on the FMU sensing line. Now my Vortech bleed valve actually does something!! I've reduced my fuel pressure from ~80 to ~65 psig which has reduced my O2 readings from 1000+ to around 930-940. Still a little high but I need to figure out the knock retard problem before going lower :) Many thanks to Steve at Performance SS for getting this right out to me and at an unbeatable price :)
Knock sensor bypass switch	12/x/97 - Well, after much aggravation with this damn knock retard problem I finally went over the edge and bypassed the thing altogether! I had previously installed Mike Chaney's "Desensitizer Circuit" but it had no effect?? Hmmm... real knock maybe? Anyway, I ran with it completely bypassed for a couple months. I heard what may have been audible detonation a couple times but not sure (I had many full throttle blasts during this time too :) I finally got my head put on straight and decided to through the switch (so the computer would see the knock sensor again) until I can figure out what is "really" going on with this knock problem.
	1/28/98 - After the recent months of trying to get my car running the way I think it should (still runs high 12's though :) and not having much luck, I decided to focus my attention on appearance. Plus, I had just backed into my buddies Mustang (long story) and now needed to have some paint work done... more on that later :) Up until the Eibach Pro spring kit, my car was pretty much a "sleeper" with the Borla being the only visible mod. These springs lower the car ~1.25" giving it a very nice look and at the same time improving handling. Click here to see a comparison between the stock springs and the Eibach Pro springs.
Shocks/struts	1/28/98 - With my car having 60+k miles on it and putting on the Eibach springs, what better time to change out the original shocks! I didn't do anything radical here... just replaced them with some cheap factory takeoffs from SLP... works fine for me :)
	1/30/98 - We can't have a lowered car and still maintain the stock wheels now can we? :) These are the Enkei Win wheels, 17"x9.5". Somehow, RK Sport is the only place now allowed to sell these wheels, so if you want them, you'll have to pay a little more than what they cost in the past. They are now $335 per wheel which still isn't too bad for a 3 piece wheel. Click here to see a comparison between the stock wheel and the Enkei wheel and also the stock tire and the tire below.
	1/30/98 - This is the Firestone Firehawk SZ50 tire. I mounted these in the 275-40-17 size on the Enkei wheels. Tire Rack has a pretty good price on them and has also done a little testing on this tire.
American Racing accessories	1/30/98 - I used American Racing regular and locking chrome lug nuts for the Enkei wheels. The wheel locks are part # 721145. I also had to get a thin wall socket to be able to get at the lug nuts. The socket it part # 891214. The chrome goes well with the Enkei wheels.
	2/28/98 - Remember earlier I mentioned how I backed into my buddies Mustang? Well, since I needed to have a little paint work done, I thought I might as well do the hood at the same time. This is a VFN 2" cowl induction hood. I LOVE this hood! My body shop also said it had above average quality for a glass hood. These are cheap too! They can be bought directly from VFN (1-888-VFN-WINS) for $325. (I organized a group purchase on this item and ended up getting it quite a bit cheaper :) Gotta love the mailing list and the people on it!
	2/28/98 - Well, since I was having a hood done, might as well have a little wing slapped on too! This is the Wings West Super Wing. I really like this particular wing. It isn't so high that it's obnoxious looking but high enough to make the car look very aggressive.
	2/28/98 - Well, since I was having the wing done, might as well go all out and do the ground effects too! :) The ground effects are also from Wings West. The fit is good and they look great on the car! Lenny at Lenny's Auto Body in Homosassa did a jam up job painting this stuff too! I'm very pleased with everything but I've got a fairly serious problem now. My car is LOOOOW!! I have only 2" of clearance for the air deflector and 5.5" for the front ground effect... I'm scraping everything! Luckily, so far it's just the air deflector :)
	3/5/98 - Crane Gold 1.6 self aligning roller rockers. Now, it's back to focusing on getting the car to run better :) Install on these wasn't too difficult. We tried to remove the passenger side valve cover without removing the alternator, but no luck. It was a shame to put the valve covers back on these things are so good lookin'! Anybody know where I can get some see-through valve covers? :)
TR6 plugs	3/5/98 - The car was at the body/paint shop for almost three weeks. When I went to pick it up it wouldn't start! We tried everything and finally took out the plugs and "blew" them dry. This worked. Since the plugs had been "flooded" and the fact they were 3 heat ranges colder than stock (I thought they were 2) I decided to go back to the NGK TR6 plugs. I did this and but gapped them this time to .037. Also in an attempt to cure the knock problem, changed out O2 sensors. This day was a busy day as we also changed the oil, PCV valve, fuel filter, and of course, the above rockers.
Catalytic Converter	3/6/98 - Today I put on a super high flow catalytic converter. A very easy mod... I did it in my own driveway :)
"Supercharged" decals	3/6/98 - Put a few "Supercharged" decals on the car. One on each side of the cowl portion of the hood and one under the driver side tail light. They are black and look very sharp! Thanks to my buddy John Broesler for making them up for me!
	3/8/98 - Since the installation of the super high flow catalytic converter, my car is too damn loud... even for me! I already had the smallest Borla plate in so I made my own plate and drilled a 3/4" hole in the center. This is much better and now sounds just like it did prior to the super high flow cat :)
	8/2/99 - Bought a set of Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro tires in the 26 x 9.5 x 16 size. They are mounted on stock white 97 Camaro Z28 wheels. Might look a little funny but if they solve my traction problems, oh well! :)
What is listed below are mods that I have purchased but have yet to install. Some of them I'm waiting on my rebuild and the others... well, I've just been busy and haven't gotten around to it yet :) Hopefully soon I'll be moving them to the above section! And yeah, yeah, I know I've had some of these parts just setting on the shelf for over a year... I'm working on it!!! :)
	4/11/98 - Bought these stock LT1 heads off another list member in preparation for my rebuild. They are used off a 95Z with about 15,000 miles. I'm still unsure though if I'm going to have these ported locally or go with a set of proven CNC type heads. Will decide on what to do when I finally get off my butt and get some info for the rebuild :)
	7/10/98 - Picked up this stock LT1 intake from another list member as well. I wanted to get everything I needed for the head porting together at once and also have spares to reduce the down time of my Z! UPDATE: ARGH! I just found out that this is an intake for a 93 LT1. DAMN! Anybody have a 94-97 intake for sale? :) UPDATE: Sold this 93 intake and found another used 94-97 intake... still waiting on the rebuild to do anything with it though :)
	9/28/98 - Bought a set of used Grotyohann 1 3/4" ceramic coated long tube headers from another mailing list member. This transaction was an experience to say the least. Out of the many thousands of dollars worth of used parts I have purchased from individuals on the lists and newsgroup, I have never been "screwed" but came close on this purchase. After about 3 months or so and many, many emails (with the latter ones being somewhat "stern") I finally received the headers. Anyway, now that I have the headers, intake, and heads, I can take everything to a somewhat local head porter and see what he can do. Still haven't done this yet though :( Procrastinating I guess :) UPDATE: Sold my Grots. Ended up getting a heck of a deal on a set of Hooker Long Tubes and couldn't pass it up. I was also having trouble finding a close-by exhaust shop that could do the custom exhaust work that the Grots required. With the Hookers, there are a few companies who offer y-pipes and exhaust systems. For me, this seems like the better route to go... even though I really liked these Grots.
	10/26/98 - Bought a used Compucar Wet nitrous kit for the LT1. I also got the bottle warmer and a few other goodies with it. I plan on being able to run about 10-12 pounds boost and have a 75 shot or so of nitrous. Should make for a fun ride! One thing I do have to have done first is have the throttle body plate bored to 58mm to match up to my current setup... it comes with 52mm openings :( UPDATE: Found a list member who was selling his Compucar 58mm Throttle Body plate! I bought this so now I have both the 52mm and 58mm TB plates.
	9/30/98 - Picked up a used LG Motorsports chrome 3 point strut tower brace. Haven't installed this yet because either a) too lazy or b) too lazy and don't want to pull it back off when the motor comes out :) UPDATE: Sold! Bought an aftercooler for the Vortech and this piece will not fit with the aftercooler.
Smart Spark	2/9/99 - Bought this new (yeah, new!, believe it or not :) from Modern Musclecar. This gizmo will allow for timing advancement or retard at 500rpm intervals. I plan on using this to advance timing up to a certain rpm... probably around 3000 then set it for zero after 3000rpm. At this point, my Crane HI6-TR boost timing module will take out timing based on boost level. I don't know of anyone else who has tried to use a Smart Spark with a BTM so this should be quite the experiment :) I'm thinking this will work pretty good but will have to wait and see what happens :)
	3/22/99 - The Brad Brand Vortech Intake Tube! This is one trick piece and is very well built! I have more pics in my "Pictures" section so be sure to check it out! You wouldn't think it, but the dryer type duct that comes with the Vortech kits and is used on the intake side is a HUGE restriction. It's a restriction for a couple reasons 1) This hose collapses on some people and 2) The "ribs" in this hose cause turbulent flow and thus act as a big restriction. I don't have a problem with a collapsing tube... I want the benefits of the less turbulent flow. There have been numerous people test this tube and even on a car that didn't have a collapsing intake tube, the results were very surprising. A stock S-Trim supercharger that used to put out around 7 psig would now put out around 9 psig! Some higher boost apps have seen an increase of 3 psig. This is a huge difference and difficult to believe. This is believable because this test has been done on a number of different cars with similar results... in many cases the tube produced enough extra hp that fuel delivery became a problem and the test/dyno run had to be cut off early because the car ran out of fuel! But, this extra boost can present a problem. As many of you may know, the limits of the stock internals of an LT1 are about 7 psig of non intercooled boost. Going up to 9 psig and not doing anything else can be dangerous :) The ideal thing to do if not wanting to build up your internals is to get the intake tube then pulley back down to around 7 psig of boost. This makes for a much more efficient air charge and reduces the intake air temperature. The reduced air temperature will give you quite a bit more power even though you are still at your previous boost level. I'll be using mine in conjunction with a rebuild so I plan to pulley UP and use this tube :) Oh, I'll bet you want to know where to get one of these tubes... B&B Motorsports, 3610 Cobblestone Dr., Loganville GA 30052. Phone number: 770-623-9789
	6/16/99 - This is the Precision Industries Vigilante torque converter. It is supposedly one of the best torque converters made... we'll see :-) This is a lockup converter with a 2800 stall speed. Many thanks to Thunder Racing for doing the group purchase on this and basically "forcing" me to buy it since it was such a good deal and I couldn't pass it up :)
	6/24/99 - This is a custom fabricated dual cat x-pipe made specfically for Hooker Long tube headers. I'm hoping that it will work with the Grotyohann headers that I have. If not, looks like I'll sell it and have to make up something on my own :( UPDATE: Just found out that the Grotyohann header collectors are 18.5" from center to center. Well, the Hooker header collectors are 24" from center to center... don't think I can bend it that far. I might not be able to use this :( This really is a trick piece. It uses two 2 1/2" high flow cats. Out of the cats instead of y-ing together, the pipes stay separate (but are x-connected... same thing NASCAR does I hear) which allows for a true dual exhaust setup. On the backside for mufflers, I can use something like Dynomax Ultra Flo round 2.5" diameter by 16" long (#289-17263) mufflers. But, I still don't know what I'm going to do here. Heck, this may not even work with the Grots and it's too "pretty" to hack up so I may just end up selling it. UPDATE: Sold! I ended up selling this when, if I had known better, I would have kept it. As it turns out, I sold it because I planned on using the Grot headers. Well, a buddy of mine offered me his Hooker headers for an unbelievable price and since exhausts are easier to come by for the Hookers, I opted to switch my header plans to the Hooker Long Tubes. If I had only known :-)
	8/2/99 - Picked up another Modern Musclecar gadget! This one is called a Scan Master. It's a very useful diagnostic scanner. This is very similar to Diacom except it doesn't require a laptop. I have Diacom but wanted continuous monitoring ability. I plan on doing a trick type install with this so I can swap it between my 94Z and 96SS. Click HERE for an excellent list of a listing of the Scan Master parameter descriptions and meanings from Kelly's Project Trans Am site. UPDATE: Well, there was a recent group purchase on this item and I really wanted one for each car since the swapping would be a bit of a pain. So, I picked up another one :-) I'll be installing this one in the 94Z soon I hope! You can see pictures of the ScanMaster install in my 96SS by clicking HERE. Worth checking out!