New Lt-4 CE owner

[Quag]

I just brought home a 96 LT-4 CE Coupe This is my first Vette And I have a few Questions:

I am reading through older post so if I ask a question that already been answered I apologize in advance.

The first to Fourth thing Why??? Its a little annoying but I am getting used to it should I consider a bypass kit which I heard is available or is it better to learn to live with it, I can't imagine why it was installed...

I am interested in waking it up a little bit I was thinking a chip better air intake ( fresh or cold air intake) and exhaust maybe cat back or should I do whole thing Headers Hi Flow Cats Etc... I don't really want to lose the drivability or reliability and I am concerned about maintaining the value of the Vette I don't want to throw something on that may cause damage down the road.


Any recomendations or personal experiences would be great


Thanks All in Advance

 

[Pleasure Pig]

 

[Gorgon]

Welcome to CAC and congrats on the LT4.

The skip shift was designed into the six-speed to cards to keep the gas mileage high enough that the owner would avoid a gas guzzler tax. There are a few criteria that must be met for the skip shift to engage;
The car must be warmed up to normal operating temps.
The car is above 15mph?
Less than 13% throttle is utilized.

Once you get used to it there are no problems. I use the skip shift anyway, but I find that it kicks in when I least expect it. I will probably be ordering a disable kit since they are pretty cheap.

Since I haven't had any experience with the aftermarket items Iwill let someone else answer those questions.

Leon

 

[vetteguy]

Welcome and congrats on your new car. The 1-4 skip is explained above. I have the bypass on mine and would recomend it. It is cheap and easy to install. I would recomend a KN or similar air filter and a cat back exhaust , it seems that the majority like the Corsa system on the LT4. I plan on putting one on mine in the future. This should wake her up a little and not hurt the value or originality of the car. These are things that can be put back to original easily. Good Luck, Guy

 

[twiget]

Congrats on the new ride. I'm sure you'll love your new toy.

I have to agree with vetteguy. The K&N air filter is definitely the way to go. An fairly easy mod is to take your air filter lid, drill the rivets out of the top and remove it. Next take a dremmel and cut the lavours out. This, combined with your K&N will increase the air flow of your car a good ammount. If you dont want to cut up your stock air lid, you can get open air lids from Ecklers.

I've got a Corsa cat-back exhaust system on my GS. I've only got two complaints about it. One, IMO the sound at idle is too anemic. At WOT it sounds very nice though. My other complaint is that there is a small ammount of resonance from about 1200rpm to 1900rpm. It dies down a lot towards the 1900rmp mark, but you can still hear it. Unfortunately on long road trips 70mph in 6th gear puts the rpm's right around the 1900rpm park.

I have not had my ECM reprogramed yet, and from what I've heard, reprograming it on a fairly stock engine is pretty much pointless. The stock program makes pretty good use of what GM put under the hood.

You'll probably find that the car runs hot (210-230 deg, which is normal) in traffic. If anything, you could have the ECM reprogramed to turn the fans on quicker, which will keep the temp's down.

Hope this helps.

Jason

 

[Preacher]

Congrats on your purchase! It's a great feeling, eh?

Intake, exhaust and ECM programming will do a lot to "wake up" your new ride and are probably the most bang for the buck when it comes to mods.

 

[mad47]

Welcome to the CAC and the LT4 Experience
I am a new LT4 CE owner as well (November 2002) and have made a few modifications to "wake up" the stock LT4.
1. The K&N filter and new open lid that Twiget described is an excellant low cost fix for cold air induction. If you want to spend a little more and get a great looking aggressive cold air system that also uses K&N filters, check out the system offered by SLP Performance on their web site. I installed this system and got immediate improvement through out the performance range.
2. I also installed the Corsa system and would highly recommend it. It gives a great "purposeful" sound under acceleration, but is very quiet at cruise. I have not had the resonance problem described by "eyecandy"
3. 1 to 4 bypass kit is cheap and easy to install.

Good luck with the improvements, and have fun

 

[C4DC]

Welcome, i'm new here as well. Had my vette about 5 mos and love it. Did the tb bypass, k&n, open lid, Corsa exhaust. Did 160 thermostat today (need to program fans now, but $350 for a programmer is too steep now).

 

[LT4hitsthespot]

Congrats. I just got mine about 6 months ago. The 1-4 shift was already taken care of when I got it as well as the exhaust (I'm not even sure what exhaust they put on buit it sounds nice).

Definately get the K&N and open the air box. I felt an immediate improvement and it sounded a bit better too.

I just wish I had the $$$ to drop a super charger in on that motor.

 

[Wamp]

new to

I have had mine 3 weeks, the LT4 is a BLAST! Love the car, plan on doing the above mods also, but the 1974 needs new TIRES. The 96 needed new rotors, there was my tire money. Decisions of working on one or other is a problem. What do I need to buy to reprogram the fans, would like to get a program and cable for my laptop so I can do it myself.

 

[vetteguy]

Jason, you are the first one I have heard say anything bad about the Corsa system. I'm not sure what you mean by anemic? Can you explain? Thanks, Guy

 

[JohnnyC]

Quag, Congrats on the new 1996 CE LT4. You'll love it.

You'll get used to the skip shift, just give it a little more gas and you get right past it. It only gets me when i'm not paying attention or forget about it.

John

 

[Quag]

thanks Everyone for your input I think I have decided to do the Borla Cat back system cold air intake and lower temp Thermostat.

The chip reprogrammers you can buy for about $300 I was thinking if someone new the pinouts you could make a cable and run it on a laptop.. Has anyone tried this if so any info would be great..

Thanks I will let you all know how the upgrades go Maybe spring time...

Thanks again...

 

[lt4 gs]

Welcome to the Corvette Action Center!
Did you guys realize that when you reprogram the computer ....you can disable the cag.........??

 

[vetteguy]

Quag, I have heard of some people having some poor fit problems w/ the Borla system. Some things have not lined up right and had to go to a pro to get bent, cut ,welded etc. Everyone has said the Corsa lines up great and is a do it yourself project. I have no personal experience w/ either system these are just things I have heard. May be one or two isolated incidents. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Maybe you could start a thread for input on Borla before you shell out the money. Good Luck, Guy

 

[Quag]

I'm sorry I meant the Corsa system I have not heard anything great about the Borla I just had it stuck in my head for some reason...

:duh

 

[vetteguy]

Good Choice. Let me know how it goes. Guy