I have a mechanic friend who owes me some work. i have an 86 vette. i'd like to clean up the inside of my engine compartment. what are some engine components that could be removed or replaced to free me up some more horsies ?

 

There's really nothing major under the hood that's going to gain you much simply by removing it. A good first step would be to lose the precats though, and replace the main cat with a modern hi-flow unit. Or better yet go to a true dual system w/ an X-pipe and a pair of hi-flow cats. Beyond this, long tube headers and a better intake than the anemic factory TPI will net you a bunch, w/o even going into the engine. These are the choke points on the L98.

 

Along with eliminating the Cats, Tune up stuff like Hi Proformance Plugs and wire, a K&N filter and a new "hotter" chip to accomadate the changes are a quick cheap method for a few horses.

 

With the abilty of modern and especially modern performance cats to flow, there's no justifiable reason to eliminate them. It's irresponsible and they're by far the most important component on a car when it comes to actually doing something to keep the air clean. Everything else can basically be accomplished by designing and maintaining an efficient engine package. Such irresponsibility will be the death of our hobby one of these days. Any chips other than custom for a given combination are a waste of money for accomplishing either improved performance or efficiency. The K&N I won't even go into again here. What's a "hi proformance" plug? (High performance?) Are you also sucked in by nonsense such as the Splitfire or other gimmicks designed to drain your wallet?

 

You can dump the air pump.

 

NOPE, just the victim of an idiot with 10 posts on a corvette forum that knows it all and probably got their azz kicked in school everyday years back and is tuff now that he has a keyboard.

As for the topic at hand, good luck "mraaron895" on your horsepower improvement and ignore idiots like "Notorious" on this forum......for the most part people are very educated and want to help each other. I would look at a new chip once you make the mods, most the folks I know that have done all that ended up with 20-30 more HP.......nothing to shake a stick at.

 

Yes mraaron895, ignore me. I'm an idiot. Dan said so, so it must be so. Just because I've been turning wrenches, hot rodding, racing oval and drag cars for 35 years doesn't mean squat. Since I have only a handful of posts, I am most certainly an idiot. And the fact that my daily driven LT1 makes 450 NA HP and 500 lb-ft of torque means nothing either. And it only gets a paltry 15 city and 26 highway mpg while doing so. Further proof that I'm a complete cretin.
Please note that I did not call him any names, as he did me. But apparently I have severely gored his ox. I apologize for trying to help people not throw their money away on worthless mods. I'm a very bad person. I shall go and flog myself now.

 

Nope, I think you called me "irresponsible" when you have absolutely now idea who I am. But most overly opinionated people don't see their own problems. Just stay off the forums, I don't care if your vette has 90000 HP....rudeness is not excepted in any shape or form. Just read the forums and keep all your top HP secrets to yourself. I would rather have a friend that knows nothing help me anyday on my car that someone rude that knows everything. Buy the way, I don't know to many people trying save the environment with a 450hp car, buy a Toyota Prius super mechanic and go on thier forums and maybe I'll believe your GREEN.

 

I only called you irresponsible if you advocate ditching cats on a street car and I stand by that. My 450 HP car is more efficient than a lot of mini-vans, any larger SUVs and many smaller ones, etc. I'm sorry, but much to your chagrin, I'm not going anywhere. I certainly don't know everything, nor do I claim to. And if I strike you as rude, so be it. I've not called you any names nor told you to stay off of the forums. But if you can't defend your positions in any manner except for name calling and such, then they are obviously pretty weak positions.

 

Ok. Im sure I will be called bull**** on this stuff but I know im partly right. K&N plus a cut lid is about 10 horsepower on a dyno. No intake is going to give noticable gains on a L-98. You can port your plenum but dont expect much. You can eliminate all cats like I did. Mine had 2 precats and a main cat. Right now I am running straight manifolds. You can get march pullys get some rapidfire plugs ect. Good tune up. Also, descreen your maf sensor. Power coupler might help a little. Air foil is ****. Work on the exaust. True dual no cats muffler eliminators is a good setup which i have. Long tube headers give back about 15 horsepower. Get them jet hot coated to reduce temps. Get a lower temp thermostat if you want. I use a 160 degree one. A custom chip would be required once you change your cam. You can gets heads, cam, roller rockers, ect and get a chip and be pushing out over 300 ponies. Thats about it for really boltons that actually make a difference. Goodluck!!!

I think notorious is another vroom guys. Watch out!!!