Hello everyone. I have a 1998 Camaro SS and I would like to modify it out more. At this moment, I know very little about cars in general, only about as much as people tell me. I've owned three different cars: an '89 Supra turbo, an '85 Corvette, and now a '98 Camaro SS. My Camaro is my favorite out of the three and has lasted me far longer with much less issues along the way as the last two. Of course, I blame the sellers on the last two vehicles, for they were ripoffs and I didn't know any better. Anyway, back on point. All I know that has been modified to the Camaro is it has a tsp228 cam, performance air box, oversize pulley kit, stage 3 centerforce dual friction clutch, pacesetter longtube headers with true duals dumped into magnaflow bullit mufflers with no catalytic converter, body stiffening kit, 3 inch suspension drop, stereo shifter ****, and has larger tires in the rear than what come stock. Not sure the size of the tires, but at least two inches wider. My car sounds absolutely amazing when you revv the engine, I just love it. It runs off a '98 LS1 engine (as you may know) with 305hp stock. MY friend who sold it to me estimated it might get between around 375-400hp after modifications. I would like some advice on some modifications to increase the performance even further on a low budget. I'm in the military, so I have a somewhat low income and not much money to put into my car. I wanna get into drag racing or at least some form of racing, as well as improve my knowledge of cars, when I get out of the military.

 

The only things that throw me off here is the "oversize pulley kit". I'm assuming you meant under drive pullies? And 3 in of lowering? I'm hoping that's in the rear only as I'd think the front would be way too close to ground for that. And if you're going to drag race, you wanna go up, not down.

Any ways, Hot Rod mag did an article on a guy that ran 11s in his '99 SS that made 317 RWHP and 350 RWTQ and this is what he had done:

Weight loss, lots of it. A/C, Heater, ABS, rear seats, bumper supports all gone and lightweight rear glass
LS6 intake
LS6 Valve springs
Long Tube headers (you already have)
Micky Thompson stickies
Strange Double adjustable shocks w/ 300 lb/in springs for the front
Eibach Drag springs and Strange D/A shocks in the rear
Custom rear sway bar
Sub-frame connectors
S60 rear end with 4.56 gears
Tune


That's just an idea of easily the LS engines can be made fast. You already have the bolt ons as it seems and a cam. First thing is first, if your SS still has the 10 bolt, save for a 12 bolt, 9in, or S60 because the 10 bolts don't like power. Then I'd work on getting the suspension tuned to put the power you want to the ground. No point in having 400 some HP and not be able to hook when you want it too.

Then dive into the engine. I don't know much about the cam that's in it now, but a aftermarket intake and a nice set of heads with the proper cam will net you the most power. A lot of people Pro Charge and Turbo the LS1 so I'd look into that as well. Everything you do will depend on what you want out of the car.

 

As far as the pulley kit goes, I'm not sure exactly what that means. I cannot stress enough how little I know about cars, but I will do my best to explain what I can. Not to mention the guy I bought the car from did not make these modifications to the car. Anyway, all I know is it has three belts: a main belt and an AC belt. From what I remember, the seller explained to me that the belt was supposed to reduced subtracted hp to the wheels that a stock belt would do. But that is all I know about it. I don't normally use the rear seats for anything except cargo space, so I suppose I might as well ditch those for the weight loss. As for everything else you mentioned, I would have to look them up to get the slightest hint as to what they mean, besides the obvious. Also another problem I have with the car, it's got a lot of miles on it (about 134,000) and I think it needs a new transmission, or at least in the somewhat near future. It's not in desperate need of one, but it does grind occasionally in third and fifth gear if I try shifting too quickly or if the engine is cold. If I'm careful with it, I can avoid it altogether for the most part. Regardless, it still scares the **** out of me when it happens, haha. But that's not on my priority list. Would you recommend a performance chip? And maybe a spoiler?

 

You may want to read about these cars and engines and learn alittle something before dumping parts into it. You would be wise to search the internet for info on how these engines work. That will begin to give you some insight as to what you will want to do to your car. This way, you'll be able to make your decisions a little wiser. Knowledge is power. Your own knowledge(power), can power your car once you have gained some. Best of luck.

 

Moved to the 4th-gen forums

If I were you, I'd get a savings account going for repairs- once you got a couple thousand in that to take care of any issues that will crop up, then start worrying about modifications and such.

A new transmission will run you about $1500, and then labour on top.

 

^^^ agree, save for unexpected expenses and needed mantainance then look at mods. stano parts is a good place to look for suspension. dyno tune would be a good idea.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I opened a new account recently and that will be my main provider for maintainence and improvements. Really looking forward to improving my car's performance even further.

 

There was no mention of transmission and rear upgrades that I saw. Something to think about, your drive line is pretty much maxed out. In fact you are already above the safety factor for a stock rear and you are pushing the limits of the transmission. Neither of those two areas are budget friendly. Adding more HP to this car just might bite you. If you drag that car with decent tires on it you are going to blow the rear soon or later, most likely sooner.

The concept of blaming people for selling you bad car is very naive of you. The law is very clean on used car sales (Buyer beware). If you do not know about cars then you pay someone that knows about cars to check it. Heck what if the people are 100% truthful with you and they know nothing about cars you are in the same boat. Even guys that have been in the buy/sell business for 20 year hire mechanic to go to the auction to check out cars before bidding and that is for car that are 4-5 year old. A 20 year old car needs to really be checked out there could be real issues from 3 owners ago. I have checked out a lot of cars for people over the years and it always fun to see the reaction when I make a statement like “The tranny is about done for” It either “ok, you got me” or “the pretend surprise” or “you are trying to rip me off”. The people that think I am trying to rip them off had no clue about the issue. As a mechanic I could not even guess how many times I have given quotes on major repairs just to be told never mind I will just sell it before it gets too bad.

 

you should get the engine tuned to match the add ons as they are past the limits of the stock ecm's ability to self adjust. a good tune could get 30 more hp from just a stock ls1, and more from one thats been modified.

 

Again I appreciate everyone's help, as well as yours Gorn. However I was a week from turning 18 at the time I bought my first car (the '89 Supra) and knew absolutely nothing about cars. My mother and friend were with me when I bought it as well, and although my friend helped me turn away from an MR2 I was interested in because he pointed out several different reasons why the car was a bad buy for the price, he found nothing wrong with the Supra at the time. I hate to blame my mother and my friend for this, but I would have expected them (or at least my mother for that matter) to have encouraged me to take the car to a mechanic first. I was just a teenager eager to buy his first car (and first sports car), and hadn't a clue in the world what I was doing. That one I do not blame myself for, but you are somewhat right about when I bought my '85 'Vette. I did in fact take it to a mechanic to have them check it out, but it was a mechanic that the dealership recommended to me to have it checked out at. That was the mistake I made with that purchase. The mechanic told me about one issue they found, just one issue, when there were at least a few others that popped up along the way. It was also another one of the dealership's recommended mechanics that fixed that one issue. So I admit that I was only half right in at least getting it checked out but not maybe taking it to two mechanics instead of one that was recommended by the guys that were trying to sell it to me.

Back on track now, soon as I get to NC I'm gonna take my Camaro to another mechanic and ask what they recommend. I will take deep consideration into what has been suggested to me in this thread and be sure to mention your ideas to the mechanics. I am very interested in not only improving my car's performance, but at the same time keeping it a safe vehicle to drive and making sure it's not going to snap in half if try pushing it to it's limits.