98 trans am mod questions any help would be appreciated - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 10:22 AM

My brother has a 99 trans am. He uses it as a daily driver he is looking to get some more power out of the car. We are wondering if the tuners that are out there are worth the money to be specific we found a diablo sport programmer with an slp tune on it. The part number on the programmer is 27007t. The guy that has it is stating that it will work on a 98-02 fbody. Also what other bolt on or add ons would everyone recommend. Right now the car is bone stock with an slp loudmouth cat back exhaust. He was also looking at a slp cold air complete kit and a slp 85mm throttle body didnt know if any of the stuff actually makes a difference or not so figured we ask what everyone recommends the car is going to stay a daily drive just want to get more power out of it for those weekends at the drag track. thanks guys CORRECTION THE CARS A 99

69BirdX · 10-24-2010, 10:31 AM

I belive the diablo tuners don't work in 98s. The guyy told you wrong. They work 99 to 02. The 98s have there own computrer that's different from any other year. There are much tuners out there for them. I have hp tuners which a little pricey but allows you to change anything. The problem with is you have create your own tune or find one off there site. I bought found one a guy wrote that had the same mods as my car and I gained alit from it. For a cheaper route you may just want to take the car to a shop that dyno tunes. You'll get the most out of the car for your buck.

NJ Torque · 10-24-2010, 10:37 AM

With a 98, get a HP tuners tune... not a canned tune... with any car actually.

LS6 intake a Longtubes wake these things up well.

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 10:40 AM

what kind of mods have to be done to run a ls6 intake or are they just bolt on.

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 10:51 AM

Actually the car is a 99 i thought it was a 98 but i just talked to my brother and its a 99.

69BirdX · 10-24-2010, 10:57 AM

Well then you can go with the diablo. If he's just looking to just get a little more out of it without any future mods that's good idea. If he wants to future stuff I would look into hp tuners. More complex but you can do alot more and anybody on their fourms is very helpful

KirkEvil · 10-24-2010, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJ Torque

LS6 intake a Longtubes wake these things up well.

^^^This is exactly what I would recommend for noticeable gains. I actually felt a bigger gain from the ls6 intake than longtubes, and it was easier to install. To run the intake you will have to either get ls6 coolant cross over lines, or simply sand off some of the plastic casting flash on the bottom of the intake to fit over his current ls1 lines.

I tried a handheld tuner when my car was stock and it was not worth it...the best part was having the fans come on earlier. If you want to go the tuning route, get a dyno or street tune. IMO, I wouldnt bother with a tune until you at least have longtubes.

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 11:56 AM

what about going with smoothed bellows and the slp cold air kit and slp throttle body are they worth the money and would the slp tb work on a ls6 intake if that swap was done later?

KirkEvil · 10-24-2010, 12:12 PM

SLP products are overrated. Their lid is cheap and fitment sucks, the 85mm MAF is a stock delphi with a slp sticker, and the bellow needs to be cut to properly fit a stock TB. I run all three products so maybe Im a hypocrite but I now know better.

A lid is the easiest mod to do on these cars, but dont expect to feel a big difference. The MAF and bellow will not be worth it until you get into big modifications. You are better off porting the stock MAF ends.

As for the TB, just get the stock one ported. I believe most places charge around $60 with core for that. It will give you a more responsive throttle feel.

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 12:44 PM

what would you recommend doing first then for the most gain right now.

Its a stock 99 trans am auto with a slp loud mouth cat back system he is looking to spend around 1,000 right now but I doubt he wants to get into doing anything to serious most likely going to look into doing an Ls6 intake what else should he do as well to put him up around his 1000 mark its going to be pointless to get the car tuned until hes done doing mods. thats my personal opion.

KirkEvil · 10-24-2010, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 89firebird

what would you recommend doing first then for the most gain right now.

Its a stock 99 trans am auto with a slp loud mouth cat back system he is looking to spend around 1,000 right now but I doubt he wants to get into doing anything to serious most likely going to look into doing an Ls6 intake what else should he do as well to put him up around his 1000 mark its going to be pointless to get the car tuned until hes done doing mods. thats my personal opion.

I agree with waiting on tuning. Do you plan on doing all the labor yourself? Thats a big part of the budget if you dont...

with that budget you can easily do an intake and full exhaust...BUT, do you plan on running emissions, and when is your next inspection? That may determine whether or not you should budget for a tune.

thunder · 10-24-2010, 01:36 PM

I have 2 magnaflow high flow 3'' cats sitting around if ur intrested

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 03:29 PM

Just went through inspection last month so no worries on that and yeah we do all our own labor. Pmed about the cats.

KirkEvil · 10-24-2010, 03:47 PM

Well, in that case...

LS6 intake (~$320) find one on ls1tech
Stainless Longtubes/Y pipe ($600) LPP race style headers
Locking header bolts ($60) I got percy split locks
reuse stock header gaskets

And thats pretty much your budget, best bang for the buck. It would be a great time to also do poly motor mounts while doing LT's if you can break budget a little. check/replace plugs while your there too.

You could go the cheaper route and get pacesetters or ebay headers and reuse stock header bolts...thats up to you. I regret buying ceramic coated headers since the coating falls off after a year of daily driving, and my stock header bolts constantly backed out until I upgraded.

I hope your brother likes an obnoxiously loud car.

89firebird · 10-24-2010, 04:07 PM

He went with the slp loud mouth at the time because it was cheap and he wanted a better sound then stock. I have read/heard that using the slp exhaust with long tubes creates alot of popping. If he does long tubes he will most likely want to ditch the slp for that reason. What are one of the better setups to run with long tubes and still have a nice tone?

thunder · 10-24-2010, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 89firebird

He went with the slp loud mouth at the time because it was cheap and he wanted a better sound then stock. I have read/heard that using the slp exhaust with long tubes creates alot of popping. If he does long tubes he will most likely want to ditch the slp for that reason. What are one of the better setups to run with long tubes and still have a nice tone?

My corsa sounds marvelous with longtubes but its a bit pricey

KirkEvil · 10-24-2010, 04:30 PM

I also started out with a loudmouth. I turned it into a borlamouth before getting longtubes to quiet it down some. It is still very loud though. Search KIRKEVIL or BORLAMOUTH on youtube and you can listen to my setups before and after LT's. You really cant go wrong with a catback and LT's since they deepen the tone and give it a good bark. I like the sound of magnaflow catbacks with bolt on cars, but its just personal preference for sound and stainless systems.

I got tired of loud all the time and I ended up getting a hooker aerochamber catback (one of the quietest aftermarket), and put an electric cutout after the Y. Best of both worlds.

I forgot to mention in my post earlier that you will get a SES light from running race headers. It wont effect performance, I drove my car for over a year with it on after headers.

jts98z28 · 10-25-2010, 04:09 PM

full exhaust and ls6 or bbk intake, get ready for 12 bolt/9inch

emolineaux · 10-25-2010, 04:47 PM

i have an ls6 intake, 243 heads and a cam that will wake the car up a bit.

WayFast84 · 10-25-2010, 05:39 PM

call me crazy but I would go with a lid and gears or stall

Slow-V6 · 10-25-2010, 10:50 PM

The Exhaust will sound fine as long as you keep Cats on the car.

My 1st mods would be Sub Frame connectors, Lower control arms, Lid and an LS6 intake. Should be able to come close to a 12 second pass with that if not faster!!

MyFirstZ · 10-26-2010, 10:39 PM

i agree completely with these guys on the ls6 intake and the LT's.

Deff. go this route because the more you get into modding the car, they become an awesome platform later down the road for heads, cams and other bolt ons.

Installation on the lt's i imagine is going to be annoying if the car is on the ground just because it is easier to get a few of the bolts from underneath. Took me a solid 6 hours between watching the le mans, eating dinner and bull****ting to put a set of LT's in on a lift with experience of doing a set two years prior both on friends cars. I had the luxury of buying my car preinstalled with american racing headers.

but deff worth it. With the SLP's it is going to be loud, i had no pops and i hada lt's, ory w/o cats and SLP LM1, now i have all that but GMMG's and i actually get more popping with these but still sound beautiful.

89firebird · 10-29-2010, 01:10 PM

im going to try and get him to get the ls6 intake and a set of long tubes. figured they seem to be the 2 parts everyone seems to recommend then we will go from there on doing other mods