[Artryan]

Kind of a tough situation for me. I bought my 18 ZL1 last august for 55K- slightly used. The car just rolled 3k miles. The negatives of this car for me are obviously the oil pump failure that plagues these cars, and the fact that I seem to be further and further upside down on this car with every passing week. The value of the ZL1 has fallen faster than the stock market, and I'm now seeing them in the 40-42K range.

Even still, I love my car and would like to do something to add some power without voiding the warranty. I already have the CAI, but is there ANYTHING I can do to add a few HP to it that isn't several thousands of dollars?

[JamesNoBrakes]

Turbo cars, easy to get significant gains, basically by telling the computer to build more boost and inject more gas, using some of the designed-in fudge factor of the system, add an exhaust and it's not uncommon for a 20-30% gain, not every time, but those type of gains are possible on turbo cars and you'll feel it.

NA, painfully expensive and the gain isn't all that much, 5-10% by doing things like exhaust headers and tunes, intake and cams and you can get closer to 15%, but very expensive to do so.

Supercharged is somewhere in the middle, SC swaps are easier than some of the other mods, but they usually need a supporting exhaust mod. Exhaust + tune is probably your best bang for the buck, still not cheap, but cheaper than exhaust + everything else for gains on a NA. Pulley swaps, etc. If you are interested at all in modding though, you'd be wise to save up for proper headers and exhaust IMO. CAI should come much later down the road, when you are adding significant HP that actually requires more flow.

[LT4Greg]

Join the crowd Artryan! I bought my used 2017 ZL1 last March 2019 and checked KBB yesterday and it dropped to between $42,000 to $43,000 value now(paid around $52,000) and I have around 11,000 miles. Of course when I bought it there were 422 miles that the original owner put on it and that’s one of the reasons I got it. I’m not planning any mods for mine as it doesn’t seem to be worth spending the extra money except for maintenance items(oil,tires etc)!

[Lafourche1]

Originally Posted by Artryan

Kind of a tough situation for me. I bought my 18 ZL1 last august for 55K- slightly used. The car just rolled 3k miles. The negatives of this car for me are obviously the oil pump failure that plagues these cars, and the fact that I seem to be further and further upside down on this car with every passing week. The value of the ZL1 has fallen faster than the stock market, and I'm now seeing them in the 40-42K range.

Even still, I love my car and would like to do something to add some power without voiding the warranty. I already have the CAI, but is there ANYTHING I can do to add a few HP to it that isn't several thousands of dollars?

If you value the warranty, leave it stock. Any upgrades that are going to add real power will void the warranty.

[G2K]

Unfortunately, we have cars that aren't civics... plus many aftermarket parts being made from US adds production costs or markup... Our platform has a $500 avg price for a stupid intake so no matter how you put it you're going to have to spend thousands if you want to mod. As someone said earlier we aren't turbo cars where you can just up the boost and you're good... and if we were that is still going to void your warranty since you're going to need a tune.

The famous saying "you have to pay to play" and that cant be more true man.

At least you have a ZL1, it's going to be decently fast vs most stock cars

[Jhunsberger]

E85 in your area? Flex-Fuel sensor and a tune for E85 with your CAI would net some decent gains. Even a smaller upper pulley too. All are removable and would not void warrany.

[Choda]

A dyno tune session and good tires.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Artryan

I already have the CAI, but is there ANYTHING I can do to add a few HP to it that isn't several thousands of dollars?

If you want any tangible actual power difference and keep your warranty, the short answer is "no".

You can add a throttle body and a controller for a different feel (these are easily reversible), but your power won't increase, only your sense thereof.

[Can'tHave2MuchHP]

Warranty means keep it stock. That's pretty much it.

I'm a Chevy dealer and have plenty of experience dealing with warranty claims and modifications etc. If GM really wants to play hard enough, depending on severity of the failure, they can void your warranty for any modification; even if it has been removed. There are logs of the vehicle's ECU they can access with their higher level technical team that will literally show them on a graph where a CAI was added and how the computer learned/compensated for it and that it is now removed. This and much more. That said, if you have a wiring issue or a squeak, rattle, or basic part failure, you will be fine 99.9% of the time. But if you blow an engine expect them to pull out all of the stops.

In addition, it's debatable whether any mods that don't receive a tune even add benefit after a certain amount of time. These modern ECUs are super smart. They learn and compensate for lots of things over time. They were programmed for specific CFMs, fuel flows, exhaust flows, etc. and read these values down to the decimal point. Variations are always detected and compensated for; the system is very sophisticated.

When you bolt on a CAI, you'll get an immediate 10, 15, or maybe 25 HP. Next month, it might be none. In fact, Ben @ Weapon X put a car on the dyno some time ago with a cat-back/intake/throttlebody on a stock tune that was hating life. Without a tune, almost all engine mods are a waste of money.

[Artryan]

Thanks. You all have pretty much reaffirmed what I already thought. If it weren't for the shoddy fuel pump, I wouldn't care so much about the warranty, but I feel it's too risky with that issue still on the table.

Down the road, I'll throw the works at it, but my biggest concern at the moment is how fast the value is dropping. I can't justify spending thousands of dollars on a car that may very well end up having twice as much in it as it's worth. First world problems, I guess.

[Markoz28]

You might not be able to add more power but you can always change the looks and even gain some speed by doing a few things.

I would upgrade the wheels and tires. Go with BC forged. The ones I have are about 2lbs per corner lighter than stock. Then go with a sticky R888R tire in 315 or 325 (I have a 325). This will increase traction for sure and the wider shoe looks killer too.

At this point you will be faster and look good doing it. Warranty kept.

When warranty is a thing of the past. Port the SC, 103TB, headers, pulley, and tune

[dbvettez06]

Bought mine in January 18 With 8300 miles mint. The previous owner did an axel back dual stage exhaust , I did a Roto Fab , and love both mods. Just bought an 84 month extended warranty so I’ll stop there with mods.

[Fast02Z06]

I believe in voiding warranty’s lol. Everything I get usually gets modded within a few weeks. Op if you are gunna keep it do a simple headers (catless x pipe), e85, intake , and tune and a pulley. You would be a ok being upside down then ��

[Snowwolfe]

Originally Posted by Artryan

Thanks. You all have pretty much reaffirmed what I already thought. If it weren't for the shoddy fuel pump, I wouldn't care so much about the warranty, but I feel it's too risky with that issue still on the table.

Down the road, I'll throw the works at it, but my biggest concern at the moment is how fast the value is dropping. I can't justify spending thousands of dollars on a car that may very well end up having twice as much in it as it's worth. First world problems, I guess.

A modded car will always be a losing proposition. In most cases a un modded car will be worth more on the used market.
Only the owner can decide if the smiles are worth it.

Sticky tires are most likely your best option because the power needs to hook up to be of any value. My daddy always said if your spinnin you aint winnin.