Cold air supply and a custom tune

[try2pas]

Do we Z06 owners have a car that doesn't supply it's air from the outside of the car and therefore as cold as it can be? If not, why not? Are there kits that do and which ones work best? And does the factory "tune" not get all the horsepower that is there, so do we need a custom tune? Or is all this just a waist of money and time and won't gain much if anything? And would either cause a warranty issue with GM?

 

[Hib Halverson]

You already have 650-hp. Is that not enough?


An aftermarket air filter assembly may or may not improve performance, depending on which product you use.

An aftermarket calibration can improve performance, but, again, the amount of improvement depends on who's doing the tuning.

As for warranty coverage, if you take the car into a dealer for a warranty claim on any powertrain-related component and GM finds an aftermarket calibration is present or has been present in the past, your warranty will be denied.

 

[try2pas]

I just came back from the LS FEST in Bowling Green. What a hoot that was in many, many ways. I entered the GRAND CHAMPION COMPETITION and got beaten in one of my drag races by 4/10ths of a second by an older camero that had an LS engine in it that was "worked over" I am sure. So, a little more power would be good. When I bought the Z06 I thought 650 was too much but I don't now after having put 10,000 miles on it in two months. It is very, very manageable. I think maybe I did well in the competition, but it wasn't me, it was the Z06 doing all the "right stuff" and making me "look good". I just love that car and want to get all it can offer but surely can't afford to void any warranties or screw it up in any way.

 

[kpic]

Run flats have stiffer sidewalls which do not flex. A set of non run flat tires with a stickier rubber compound would help your launch times. As would some practice launching at your local drag strip.
Someone who drops an LSx into an older Camaro; probably has a lot of practice at the strip. Even worse, the car is set up to drag race.
With mid-600s at the flywheel; you can easily be spinning when you should be going..

Your time slip should show:
Reaction =
60' =
1/8 =
1/4 =
Lowering any of those times works.. Some claim lowing your 60' time by .1 will lower your 1/4 time by .2. Maybe someone here drag races enough to know how true that is??

Losing a warranty isn't worth .4 in the quarter..

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Do we Z06 owners have a car that doesn't supply it's air from the outside of the car and therefore as cold as it can be?

Why not open the hood and look?

There's a huge aftermarket out there anxious to sell you a cold air intake, promising incredible gains in HP. Their premise is that the OEM intake is a piece of junk designed by idiot engineers who were under the thumbs of accountants.

There was a study done for one of my other cars after owners who had sprung for an aftermarket intake found that they had LOST HP on the dyno. Turns out that the stock system was only 2HP away from 'perfection' whereas the shiny aftermarket piece lost them 10-15.

 

[try2pas]

I took your advice and looked under the hood. The supply tube comes from a box mounted on the fender on the passenger side. I didn't take the wheel off to look but it almost has to be getting it's air from the fender well which would be cold air. I wonder if anyone knows for sure what the piping is. GM corvette engineers have done a fantastic job of designing corvettes over the years and especially now. America can produce world class products and did with the corvette! I think it was Car and Driver just came out with course times somewhere and the corvette Grand Sport and Z06 were right up there and ahead of most other worldly "sports cars" costing way more money.

 

[zo6lvr]

cool air

I took your advice and looked under the hood. The supply tube comes from a box mounted on the fender on the passenger side. I didn't take the wheel off to look but it almost has to be getting it's air from the fender well which would be cold air. I wonder if anyone knows for sure what the piping is. GM corvette engineers have done a fantastic job of designing corvettes over the years and especially now. America can produce world class products and did with the corvette! I think it was Car and Driver just came out with course times somewhere and the corvette Grand Sport and Z06 were right up there and ahead of most other worldly "sports cars" costing way more money.

Good afternoon, yes the air filter is getting cold air threw the fender. The air filter is not the problem. For 95 % of people this car is flawless, and has no overheating or power issues, especially on the street. For the 5% of us that seriously push the car to it's limits on the track, as well as being a street machine, the problem is air flow. The intercooler for the supercharger sit's in front of the regular radiator (and A/C cond.), thereby 1) preheating the air, and 2) and even worse, seriously restrict the amount of air getting to the radiator. I think the key here is to remove the intercooler from in front of the main radiator, thereby giving the cooling system a chance to work. Perhaps splitting it to a couple of smaller radiators with fans, under the hood or under the car somewhere. LG has a kit for $5000 but you have to cut holes in the front facia. It looks cool, but in everyday driving (which my car does 95%of the time) the intercooler would overheat with their system, since the don't add fans, just little radiators. I asked them about that and they replied that fans just slow down the air when on the track. Yes, maybe a little, but when stopped in traffic, the factory setup has the fans pulling air threw the intercooler where their system does not, for them you need to be moving to cool the intercooler. I need to just find a good place to secure a couple small radiators. Splice in to the current the radiator hose to the Intercooler, run it to the new location, and add a radiator with fan (there's a good selection of stuff at Summit Racing as far as radiators, fans, controllers, etc. and get that factory Intercooler out of the way.
I'm sure it can be done for a lot less as well, I'm thinking $600 - $800 in materials if you do the work yourself that should take care of it. I'm looking into it myself, but am open to suggestions.
Besides the overheating, the car is flawless on the track, even with the factory tires, it's blowing everything away except "trailered in purpose built" race cars.
I had the same issues on a C6 Z06. It was fantastic, until I supercharged it, and cut off the airflow to the radiators with an Intercooler, then it would overheat when pushed hard at the track too. Bottom line, the factory radiator is fine, but even the most efficient radiator won't cool properly if it has hardly any air flowing over it. Get the Intercooler out of there and let the radiator do it's job.