[2023_ZL1-AUTO]

Originally Posted by SammYyYyY

Thanks man! Great advice and will do!

If you don’t mind me asking, why do you say you think you should have gone with 1 7/8” headers instead of 2”?

The 2" long tubes are not benefiting my build/mods (maybe hurting it?). When I decided to do my mods, I thought hey, bigger has to mean better and more power... nope ! My mods and lack of planning them out was my down fall. So I understand that unless I'm going for over 750 RWHP then 1-7/8" long tubes will work better than 2" long tubes. Also, my 2" long tubes seem to sounds more hollow and tin-can sounding than other ZL1's with 1 7/8" long tubes I've heard at my local cars and coffee. The 1 7/8" seems to have a deeper sound and I like that and prefer that over mine. So to help correct my problem, I ended up swamping out my $2800 Corsa XTreme axle back for a $2400 Stainless Works Legend's axle back. Again, lack of planning out what I wanted my end result to be. The Legends have much more of that classic muscle car sound I like. Adding to the above, if I did all this again today. I would port the supercharger and go wit ha NW 103mm throttle body. Andrew at CSP did my first set of remote tunes and he had me dialed in great. Then I wanted to go wit ha DSX Flex Fuel mod and CSP wasn't ok doing that remotely. So I ended up buying my DSK Flex Fuel kit& JMS Voltage Booster from JRE. Ted at JRE was invaluable to get my tune pretty darn perfect and running e60!

[SammYyYyY]

Originally Posted by The drive inside

It's beneficial to port the blower with the snout...you have to port the snout for a 103mm throttle body! Stock setup with a ported blower is maybe 30whp gain...E85/boost/Colder plugs is what these cars love!

Definitely. I don’t really have the cash to put down on porting the blower in the future; if I did that, it would be a while out. There’s no real benefit to porting just the snout and using a 103mm throttle body, right?

[SammYyYyY]

Originally Posted by 2023_ZL1-AUTO

The 2" long tubes are not benefiting my build/mods (maybe hurting it?). When I decided to do my mods, I thought hey, bigger has to mean better and more power... nope ! My mods and lack of planning them out was my down fall. So I understand that unless I'm going for over 750 RWHP then 1-7/8" long tubes will work better than 2" long tubes. Also, the sounds seem much more hollow and tin-can sounding than other ZL1's with 1 7/8" long tubes I've heard at my local cars and coffee. The 1 7/8" seems to have a deeper sound and I like that and prefer that over mine. So to help correct my problem, I ended up swamping out my $2800 Corsa XTreme axle back for a $2400 Stainless Works Legend's axle back. Again, lack of planning out what I wanted my end result to be. The Legends have much more of that classic muscle car sound I like. Adding to the above, if I did all this again today. I would port the supercharger and go wit ha NW 103mm throttle body. Andrew at CSP did my first set of remote tunes and he had me dialed in great. Then I wanted to go wit ha DSX Flex Fuel mod and CSP wasn't ok doing that remotely. So I ended up buying my DSK Flex Fuel kit& JMS Voltage Booster from JRE. Ted at JRE was invaluable to get my tune pretty darn perfect and running e60!

Gotcha! I had never heard of that to be honest. I mostly just “settled” with the 1 7/8 because I got a screaming deal on them ($600 with the catted connection pipes). Same thing with the Corsa Xtreme+ I snagged; I got the X-pipe and axle-back for $800.

I don’t really want to go too far with the car in terms of power; it’s mostly a street car and weekend track toy, not a drag car, and I worry about putting down 750+ WHP on a road course anyway. I think the furthest I would want to go with the car is a ported blower, but I don’t have the cash to do that right now anyway.

[SammYyYyY]

Okay so after a little more research, I think I have devised a plan that will work well for me:

Have my shop install my headers and Big Gulp for now with the stock throttle body (I was not aware this was possible, but Rotofab sells an adapter for use with the stock 87mm throttle body). Have them install colder plugs while the headers are off. Have them tune the car with said mods. Then, in a year or so, when I have the cash, port the blower and install a NW103mm TB, and maybe some fueling mods to allow for ethanol (I still don’t think I want to pulley down for heat reasons as I do like to track it in the heat of Utah summers).

This way, I feel like I’m not wasting time/money on anything; colder plugs will get installed while the headers are off, the intake is future-proofed, and I’m not wasting money on a throttle body that will bottleneck me when I want to port the blower (aside from the $20 adapter cost I need to eat).

If anybody has any thoughts on this plan, I would love to hear them.

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by 2023_ZL1-AUTO

The 2" long tubes are not benefiting my build/mods (maybe hurting it?). When I decided to do my mods, I thought hey, bigger has to mean better and more power... nope ! My mods and lack of planning them out was my down fall. So I understand that unless I'm going for over 750 RWHP then 1-7/8" long tubes will work better than 2" long tubes. Also, the sounds seem much more hollow and tin-can sounding than other ZL1's with 1 7/8" long tubes I've heard at my local cars and coffee. The 1 7/8" seems to have a deeper sound and I like that and prefer that over mine. So to help correct my problem, I ended up swamping out my $2800 Corsa XTreme axle back for a $2400 Stainless Works Legend's axle back. Again, lack of planning out what I wanted my end result to be. The Legends have much more of that classic muscle car sound I like. Adding to the above, if I did all this again today. I would port the supercharger and go wit ha NW 103mm throttle body. Andrew at CSP did my first set of remote tunes and he had me dialed in great. Then I wanted to go wit ha DSX Flex Fuel mod and CSP wasn't ok doing that remotely. So I ended up buying my DSK Flex Fuel kit& JMS Voltage Booster from JRE. Ted at JRE was invaluable to get my tune pretty darn perfect and running e60!

2" will make more power than 1 7/8" even on a stock LT4, there's no reason really to use 1 7/8" unless you get a steal on a set of 1 7/8" like the OP.

[Megahurtz]

Nothing wrong with 1 7/8 inch headers on the ZL1 up until you start pushing 800rwhp. Then they actually start to show a bit of a restriction vs 2 inch. I prefer 1 7/8 headers on a street car because the low end torque at part throttle feels better without losing much, if any, up top to the 2 inch. Once you start adding pulleys and more airflow mods, the 2 inch headers start to shine above 6000 RPM.

Also, there is nothing wrong with porting the blower snout to accommodate a 103/107mm(Soler) TB. You will 100% pickup power by porting the snout and adding a 103/107 and Big Gulp.

[arpad_m]

^^^

It's all about the best tradeoff for each use case, there is no "absolute best" part or setup that works best for every single scenario. As Ted Jannetty always says, we take a target and then use parts and a tune that "makes the engine happy".