03_ZO6 said:
Has anyone heard what a ZO sounds like with an X-pipe?
Yeah, there is no "jingle".....J/K....sorta.......
Anyway, to answer your fisrt question I will cut and paste something I had answered someone else on another board.....it is lengthy but should cover all the bases outside of F/I or Nitrous.
The ZO6 comes with all the "bolt ons" from the factory. All I am trying to say is that the intake side of things flows pretty well and the exhaust side of things flows pretty well. With that said, the intake(airbox) question has absolutely been beat to death. Vararam and the Zip tie mod(removing the lid off of the stock airbox) seem to yield the most on the dyno(10-15rwhp). The others not so much. All of the small bolton stuff(pulley, throttle body, etc.) will still help a little but some believe if you are gonna go to that trouble and expense to compile a long list of things that yield 5rwhp(or less), you may as well slap a cam in there and be done with it. Headers are the single best bolt on and usually will add about 20-25rwhp and maybe a smidge more with tuning. There are a few people on the other forums that have reached 400rwhp with boltons but their list is extensive and had me believing there is a cheaper and more efficient way of getting there(cam). A cam/headers/intake ZO6 should be around 400-425rwhp depending on the cam you choose. Add heads(fairly expensive) and you are in the 440-460rwhp range. Keep an eye on AlexWS6's thread that he just posted. He scored 389rwhp with headers/bolt ons/ tuning. He is pushing for that elusive 400rwhp without getting into the "oily" parts. Also, LS1speed is trying to do everything but a cam to gain power while retaining the stock idle. They have heads with no cam. Not the most efficient use of money but the effort is a good one if the cash doesn't bother you...they also own the shop. That then leads us to exhaust. Again, the stock Ti flows pretty damn well. Many of the systems that have shown a gain on regular C5s don't show much gain on the ZO6. Probably the only one I have seen gain in the 7-10rwhp range is Borla Stingers(I think the same could be said for the GHL). Most people change their exhaust on these cars for a different sound. As popular as the Stingers are, I don't like the noise they make....way too smooth. They almost sound like a Hollywood recording....just too "perfect" for me. I like more edge. The B&B PRTs have that edge but no power gain so I have a hard time justifying that expense and weight gain. I'm gonna stay with the stock Ti for now.
In summary, a full bolt on ZO6 will generally yield 390rwhp at the most. The heads and cam combinations are posted above.
The Donaldson Blackwing is just a filter that takes the place of the stock airbox. These generally add a decent amount of power to a stock C5 but since the ZO6 box breathes fairly well, it hasn't shown too much improvement on the dyno. It is probably the most popular filter on the C5 and that just transferred over to the ZO6. J-rod has a before and after for the Zip tie mod and he gained about 15rwhp. There are others that will argue they didn't gain much. I think some of J-rods gain was just the way he broke his car in....he drove it harder than most. Vararam has shown some gain on the Dyno as well. I'll shut up now. I hope this helps. I will be going the headers and cam route.
Disclaimer: Please realize that the information was gained from just my observations of other car owners. There is also some opinion mixed in there......your mileage may vary.
Hope that helps.....
John
