New LT1 Owner

[RAW LT1]

Hello All,

I have just purchased a 95 Formula Convertible with the 6-speed. I know next to nothing about GM products.

Previously I owned a blown 93 Mustang. I loved tacking it to the drag strip here in town.

So, my question to all of you is this: If you guys were starting from scratch, what would you do to the car to go faster?

Any and all ideas about the car will be greatly appreciated.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

What's your budget? he he

1st defeat the CAGS
2nd thing is fix the air intake with a cold air kit.
3rd fix the exhaust with a cat back system. anything is better than the stock system.
How much money is left?
What's your goal? straight line, road coarse, day to day with fun

Jeff
Former 85 Gt owner with too many mods to list.

[Spades95formula]

i would start off with a nice exhaust .
by the way ,WELCOME! youll really like it here
and im glad you sold the rustang and decided to run with the big boys Welcome

[Spades95formula]

oh ,one more thng , dont forget the free mods. i dont have any links but i bet someone else here does.

[TraceZ]

Re: New LT1 Owner

Originally posted by RAW LT1
Hello All,

I have just purchased a 95 Formula Convertible with the 6-speed. I know next to nothing about GM products.

Previously I owned a blown 93 Mustang. I loved tacking it to the drag strip here in town.

So, my question to all of you is this: If you guys were starting from scratch, what would you do to the car to go faster?

Any and all ideas about the car will be greatly appreciated.

Stage 1:
Coldair intake (or ramair), 3" exhaust and headers, reprogram PCM

Stage 2:
ported Heads, intake manifold and throttle body. stronger cam.
reprogram PCM again.

There are tons of little mods to do, but the above ones are the big ones. There are a few "free" mods like the TB coolant bypass, descreening the MAF and bypassign the IAT sensor. You can also disable the CAGS (Computer Aided Gear Selection) or 1-4 skipshift

You can go to a different gear if you like, but I think the 3.42 that came stock with the 6 speed is fine.

Congrats on your purchase! The 6-speed verts are the most fun to drive, IMO... Check my sig.. Welcome to the F-body world. I'm an x-Mustang owner also. BUT This is my 6th Camaro.

[95TransAm]

Hey, I myself just bought my first car ever about a month ago which is my 95 Trans Am. Since I have bought it, i have put on pulleys, an intake, and a cat back (only reason why its not a full exhaust is because when i bought it, it had a bad tranny and i needed $ to invest in a new one which will be in my car HOPEFULLY within about a week, and the headers will come eventually) Even with a bad trans, i noticed a nice change with my mods, and because im dumb and knew that i was gettin a new trans, what do i do?!? I raced an 89 formula from the middle of second (and won by the way) until fourth (automatic trans). The very next day, my trans goes out cuz i was gettin on it too much (But its so very hard to resist!) But the point is that i bought my pulleys for about a hundred, and the intake was about 180. As for the cat back, i got a deal from a friend and paid 1/3 price. So depending on your budget, you can start off with a couple nice mods for a decent price. Best of luck to you and your F-body, welcome to the club!

[RAW LT1]

I loved my Mustang. It ran 12.4's at 115 all day on street tires. I sold it when I got into racing motorcycles. My Hayabusa ran 10.3's at 141 nearly stock.

Now I have a son and the convertible just seamed like a good idea. We can both enjoy it.

While I am not made of money, I am not afraid of spending it.

My primary goal will be to go fast in a straight line without giving up drivability. (cake and eat it too)

I really appreciate those easy, common knowledge, type tips. I know nothing about these cars.

The trans does not do that 1-4 shift thing. It must have been already bypassed.

I don't have to worry about inspection, so what about an off road h-pipe, I mean y-pipe. And on the subject of single side exhaust, do they make a duel exhaust for these cars and if so is it worth time and money to install.

How difficult are headers to install?
What about long tube?

All feed-back welcome.

[markd79ta]

Re: New LT1 Owner

Originally posted by RAW LT1
Hello All,

I have just purchased a 95 Formula Convertible with the 6-speed. I know next to nothing about GM products.

Previously I owned a blown 93 Mustang. I loved tacking it to the drag strip here in town.

So, my question to all of you is this: If you guys were starting from scratch, what would you do to the car to go faster?

Any and all ideas about the car will be greatly appreciated.

Your blown Mustang must have been fun?

4.10s really wake-up the 6sp...I love mine...one of the best mods you can make to these cars. If you drive it a lot, you may want to buy the SLP (or any) sub-frame connectors. I like my SLPs. Anyhow, it makes the car far more rigid then it is stock...I don't have any interior rattles. One unfortunate thing about the f-body is the rear-end. It is a 7.5 piece of junk 10 bolt compared to the 8.8 in your Mustang. However, there are a lot of advantages with the suspension compared to the Mustang. You can get new rear-ends from Moser or Strange either in Ford 9" or GM 12 bolt for around $2,000-2,400 if you get crazy and put out some serious HP.

I would do the exhaust and cold-air first along with throttle body by-pass. After that, I would do gears and then the heads and cam. Are you looking to put a blower on this one as well? If you do a blower, put a blower cam in it, get the heads done, and put 3.73s in it along with having it programmed (several guys hear can give you reputable programming shops for this.) After you decide on all of this, you can look at headers and y-pipe.

As far as the suspension, you got trailing arm relocation brackets, trailing arms, panhard rod, torque arm, and if you want to get nasty k-member and a-arms as well as front and rear stabilizer bars. All of these components can be obtained from Spohn or BMR...some from SLP. You also can lower the car fairly easily with Eibach Springs. The components you get depends on your venue of choice, street, drag, autocross, etc.

Have Fun!!!

[PUREPWR]

Welcome!!! This forum is great, and the people dont flame each other. Anyways...
Go to the track when you are bonestock to check out you improvments.
1st mod - 4.10 gears/recalibrate speedo/sub frame connectors
2nd mod - intake/cat back
3rd mod - beefed up tranny with a stall (2800-3kif you want to keep the car streetable), Nittos's, Lower control arms
4th mod- long tubes headers ( headers are a pain in the butt on these cars)
5th mod- rear end (Moser 12 bolt, Ford 9inch)
6th mod - Cam and Heads, bigger injectors and tuning of course
7th mod - Blower more tuning

This is what I would do and am working on it . Its kinda tough only being 18 but I got my 3.73's in my A4 and my trans went out so I just got that done, and I have a 3 inch flowtech cutout.
If you have any questions just ask, there are alot of people that have been around LT1's since they started making them back in 93, so ask and you will get a detailed answer most of the time.
Welcome again,
Tom