Performance upgrade help

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 04:48 PM

I have an automatic 99' TA that I have owned for about a year now and am ready to make some upgrades to it. It is a daily driver with about 93k miles. I'm not looking to hit the track with it, but more street racing. Also worried about staying legal (emissions), and ground clearance. As far as I know everything is stock except for my dual exhaust (tips?) w/ cut-outs.

Recommendations?

Performance
LT Headers - Kooks, QTP, Hooker, or Pacesetter?
Catback - Borla
Catted Y-pipe - Kooks? QTP? Hooker, or Pacesetter?
Intake - SLP or FAST LS6?
Lid - Clear MTI
Throttle body - FAST?
Gears - ?
Electric cut out - ?
Torque Converter - ?
Cam - ?
Sub frame Connectors - Kenny Brown?
Stall converter - Yank?
Air Filter - K&N
Tires - BFG G-Force T/A Drag Radial

Looks
Lights - HID?
Decals - Ordered (pontiac on driver-side light, bird/transam/pontiac on brake, license plate bird cover...all white)
Embroidered head rest - Ordered (trans am/bird...white/blue)
Engine dress up - Ordering in January (custom battery, fusebox, pcm cover...all white on blue)
Calipers - Paint white
Lower back bumper - Paint? Don't think so
Gauge overlays - Ordered (hvac, speed/tach, headlight, shifter...all white)
Ram air vents - paint white
Side vents - paint white
TCS box - Ordering in January (Custom with white/blue bird on black)

See pics below of my car:

**BIG GUNS** · 12-17-2008, 05:04 PM

Nice ride. I went for dress up mods first but, each has their own pref. I started with window tint and then did many appearance mods on my own.

Hard to tell anyone what they should do first. So many things you can do and can add up in a hurry. I'm still not done but, do what I can, when I can.

Just keep asking questions and everyone here will attempt to point you in the right direction.

Good luck

**wooddaniel** · 12-17-2008, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by onetroubledguy

I have a 99' TA that I have owned for about a year now and am ready to make some upgrades to it. The problem is I know nothing about that, and am not sure what I already have. As far as I know, everything is stock except for my dual exhaust (tips?) w/ cut-outs. I've decided on this so far...

Hooker 1-3/4" ceramic coated longtube headers
Borla catback

...but am not sure what else to get. Recommendations for everything else? Intake? Cams? I assume I have an LS1 intake. Would an LS6 be worth it? I also have an MTI clear lid, but I am not sure if an SLP would be better? Also adding some visual upgrades (engine dress up, embroidered head rests, decals).

See pics below of my car:

LS6 intake is definitely worth the money. The first things I did were LT Headers, exhaust, CAI and gears. It really woke the car up. It had a stall when I bought it which helped a lot.

**0rion** · 12-17-2008, 06:02 PM

do a stall first.

**0rion** · 12-17-2008, 06:03 PM

wait on the intake until you do the cam. I would do a stall, headers, tune, sub frame connectors, and drag radials. That would be a pretty good start.

**wooddaniel** · 12-17-2008, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by 0rion

do a stall first.

Yes. If you are an auto... I dont remember if you specified. I was lucky that my car had a good stall when I got it. I just had the tranny rebuilt and put a yank 3500 stall in it. I highly recommend them. Whatever you do first, it is addicting. I said I would stop with headers... 6 months later I had a cam and heads installed.

**0rion** · 12-17-2008, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

Yes. If you are an auto... I dont remember if you specified. I was lucky that my car had a good stall when I got it. I just had the tranny rebuilt and put a yank 3500 stall in it. I highly recommend them. Whatever you do first, it is addicting. I said I would stop with headers... 6 months later I had a cam and heads installed.

doesn't need to specify.....I can see the tranny dipstick tube in his picture.

**wooddaniel** · 12-17-2008, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by 0rion

doesn't need to specify.....I can see the tranny dipstick tube in his picture.

Touche! Shows how observant I am.

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 06:15 PM

Thanks guys...it's an automatic.

By stall you mean a stall converter? Can you go into some detail about what that is and what it will do for the car?

**wooddaniel** · 12-17-2008, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by onetroubledguy

Thanks guys...it's an automatic.

By stall you mean a stall converter? Can you go into some detail about what that is and what it will do for the car?

Yeah a stall converter. It will help even out the dead spots in your powerband. Best mod for an auto car

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 06:41 PM

Which stall from this page would you recommend? Does it matter?

http://www.converter.cc/converters/street/GM/1/

**wooddaniel** · 12-17-2008, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by onetroubledguy

Which stall from this page would you recommend? Does it matter?

http://www.converter.cc/converters/street/GM/1/

It depends on what you want. And your supporting mods. The higher RPM stall the harder it is on your tranny. 3000 is a good number all around.

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 06:57 PM

Updated first post to include list of mods I'm interested in. Thanks for the help again.

**0rion** · 12-17-2008, 07:14 PM

you first need to set up some end goals. You need to match your stall up with whatever cam you will end up with depending on where your cam will make power. I run a 3500 in mine and couldn't see me running any less than that but that's me. Is your car a daily driver and is it going to stay that way? There are a lot of questions you'll have to ask yourself before picking parts. I had my 3500 in on my stock heads/cam and it drove fine. If you do a lot of city driving you'll notice a hit in gas mileage but who mods a car for gas mileage?

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 07:24 PM

This is a daily driver unfortunately with quite a bit of miles on it (93k). I'm not really looking to hit the track, but more for street racing. We have emissions here too, so that's a bit of a worry (Headers aren't legal, but I know some cars passing with it here in TX). I'm also worried about ground clearance.

**stephen02ws6** · 12-17-2008, 08:13 PM

go with a stall and gears. that will make you faster and stay legal.

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 08:38 PM

Well, I'm going to start with catback + headers. Should I go ahead and get a y-pipe?

**RyanJM** · 12-17-2008, 09:19 PM

I have QTP headers w/ a ORY and had my computer set up so it passes OBD2 testing in TX as long as the guy doesn't look under the car. QTP's look good and aren't that much money for a quality set of headers. I had hooker's on the car b4 but didn't like looking at the emmisions plugs after I switched to a LS6 intake. I got mine from a local shop used. Someone put a Fast 90mm and I picked up there used one fo less than half the price of a SLP one new.
I had a flowmaster catback but without my cats it got raspy so I went with the SLP power-flo and I love the setup. if you have xcats though you may want to swap out the LM2 muffler for a LM1. Also my friend has dynomax bullets which are good if you want a load!!! exhaust. Also I like the new quad tip magnaflow, nice tone and good looking.\
With the rest of my mods my car hit 338rwhp before the new ported throttle bod and just over 345 with it.
Like a whole new and better car.

**RyanJM** · 12-17-2008, 09:20 PM

**onetroubledguy** · 12-17-2008, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by RyanJM

I had hooker's on the car b4 but didn't like looking at the emmisions plugs after I switched to a LS6 intake. I got mine from a local shop used. Someone put a Fast 90mm and I picked up there used one fo less than half the price of a SLP one new.

Those hid's look real nice. What do you mean by looking at the emmisions plugs? How does the FAST intake compare to SLP's? Also, any thoughts about the borla catback? Think that's what I'm getting.