i heard there were some by pass type things and other free mods you can do, the one i can remember my friend tellin me about was a bypass for the throttle body cooling system or somethin like that..
is there any other free mods i could do other than weight reduction?

 

Here's a quick list.
Some of them are free/cheap.
http://www.fbody.com/tech/

 

Oh btw. I did my own "Ram-Air" mod, only took me a few hours with some ABS Black Plastic instead of using aluminum like some people.
Turned out pretty good I think

 

i wouldnt do the throttle body by-pass, it only gives you 3-5 rwhp, and it makes it harder for the cold starts

 

free mods include stuff like getting rid of the donkey dong (the big tube sticking out of the elbow..just pull it out and shuv something into the hole..i used an axe shower gel lid= perfect), tb bypass, descreen the MAF (doesnt really do anything but all you do is punch out the screen), gutting your cats is also one

 

i hate that donkey dong!!!! i was tryin to figure out a way to get that thing off. and im fixin to straight pipe so no cats :]
but yeah thanks for the list

 

well i dont think the "donkey dong" really help nor hurts, i got a later year air intake elbow when my original one ripped and it was sealed off already, i believe it was from a later year lt1

 

hmm could get you like .75hp but it does give it a more intaky sound, plus in theory it helps sicne th air is going straight through and not being diverted and going straight to the tb...

lol well idk how late a model of an lt1, i kinda have the last year and it deff still came with the donkey dong =p

also had a 95 it too had one, you probably got an aftermarket elbow =]

 

yeah i have a 97 too with that big ole **** on it, i just dont like the way it looks. i want to get rid of the A.I.R. system too, and i knowwww that it doesnt do anything except for at start up but that **** is bigg and takes up alot of room, it would be cleaner with out it, and anarchy to the tree huggin toe fu eatin fart sniffin hippies

 

I agree with what Alih says about the TB bypass, it doesn't help much at all and it makes the car run worse in cold weather. The donkey dong really isn't going to make much of a difference in flow, it's not that the air is getting "diverted" down into the tube, all it can cause is a little bit more turbulence (and technically at the speed that the air is going through the intake it's all considered "turbulent" flow). The donkey dong is just a resonator, meaning that as the air passes over it, it was designed to be a certain length and diameter (in essence hold a certain volume) that allows it to cancel out much of the intake noise.