What next?

[01redm5]

ok guys so heres that favorite question everyone asks....what should i do next to my car. first off what i have......2001 red 3.8 m5 with 50k. i already have: whipser lid, free ram air mod, drilled 180* thermostat, short shifter, tps rumbler cat back, blk "hockey stick" graphic down the side, clear corners,window tint (20% on the sides, 5% on front and back), and the front grill removed with holes smoothed over.

now here in about 3 weeks im getting about 450 bucks that i plan on just blowing on my car. the way i see it i have two options, apperance or performance. the last few things i have done have been all apperance, so im kinda leaning more toward performance. along those lines all i can come up with is either the harrisspeedworks nitrous kit (which i would convert to a push button set up since i had this once before and deffently liked it). doing that would kinda take out the need for the rpm window switch which helps reduce cost. other then that their is rockers, which i hear is not a great help for n/a cars. or a cam, most likely a gt1, unfortunatley this is prolly outta my budget range.

now on the other hand i could stick with appearnace, i was thinking some blk wheels or maybe even a hood.

ok so what do u think guys, if it were you what would u do. also if anyone has any of the above mentioned goods let me know, i would deffently be intersted. thanks in advance, forrest

[Hotrod]

I saw the pics of your car and the apperance is looking good! Besides that good luck finding a hood or rims for the $450 you'll be getting. You said you have a cat-back exhaust but you don't list headers. If you don't already have headers I would DEFINATELY get them with the $450.00. You can get them from Pacesetter. I actually bought mine from a company on E-Bay, just do a search for "V-6 Camaro Headers". Also maybe check out www.zzperformance.com for cams. The problem with the cam is it gets expensive with the gaskets and other stuff you need to install it. I'd go with headers before anything else.

[01redm5]

i have heard that since my car has the tublar manifolds their is not much gain to get from headers.

[Hotrod]

I've never heard of anything like that or maybe I'm misunderstanding. All stock exhaust manifolds are tubular, but they are much more restrictive than after-market headers. And they definately make a difference in horsepower. You're gonna need headers before you start getting anything too fancy otherwise the engine won't be breathing very good. Especially before a cam, and I wouldn't have nitrous without them either.

[01redm5]

i belive it was on 2000+ that they have these manifolds. everyone else has said that headers should be last since i already have these certain manifolds.

[01rallysport]

You are only going to pick up a few horsepower from the headers. I thought the same thing when I got my headers for my six. There's not much difference but their is a nice deeper sound from them. And you're going to want that little bit of better breathing before you do a cam. It's only going to help that cam out more. IMO.

[Hotrod]

It doesn't matter if you put headers on a bone stock car regardless of motor size, you will see and feel a difference in HP, but the important factor is that it will make your other parts perform a lot better. And when you go to buy certain other parts they're gonna start asking if you already have headers. Cam, nitrous, stall converter, and others are basically gonna require headers first if you want them to perform at their highest potential. If your not concerned with headers I'd end your perfomance streak now, and stick with apperance mods though.

I'm still confused about the statement that because it has round manifolds that it won't do any good though? I've never seen a car whose stock manifolds weren't tubular. Regardless of V6, V8, Chevy, Ford, or whatever. I'm no mechanic but what else is there? Traingular manifolds??

[2000pontiac6]

You are only going to pick up a few horsepower from the headers. I thought the same thing when I got my headers for my six. There's not much difference but their is a nice deeper sound from them. And you're going to want that little bit of better breathing before you do a cam. It's only going to help that cam out more. IMO.

I agree. Everywhere I've read and heard that headers add maybe 5-7 hp. Thats not much for the cost. If you buy them you're basically buying them for the sound its going to give the car.

[01rallysport]

^ But still like Hotrod mentioned.... you're buying them for the sound and to support your future mods like a cam converter, nitrous, etc. Those all need the car to be breathing really good. Do the headers before anything else in my opinion.

[casisthefirst]

ok guys so heres that favorite question everyone asks....what should i do next to my car. first off what i have......2001 red 3.8 m5 with 50k. i already have: whipser lid, free ram air mod, drilled 180* thermostat, short shifter, tps rumbler cat back, blk "hockey stick" graphic down the side, clear corners,window tint (20% on the sides, 5% on front and back), and the front grill removed with holes smoothed over.

now here in about 3 weeks im getting about 450 bucks that i plan on just blowing on my car. the way i see it i have two options, apperance or performance. the last few things i have done have been all apperance, so im kinda leaning more toward performance. along those lines all i can come up with is either the harrisspeedworks nitrous kit (which i would convert to a push button set up since i had this once before and deffently liked it). doing that would kinda take out the need for the rpm window switch which helps reduce cost. other then that their is rockers, which i hear is not a great help for n/a cars. or a cam, most likely a gt1, unfortunatley this is prolly outta my budget range.

now on the other hand i could stick with appearnace, i was thinking some blk wheels or maybe even a hood.

ok so what do u think guys, if it were you what would u do. also if anyone has any of the above mentioned goods let me know, i would deffently be intersted. thanks in advance, forrest

i say...sell the car for some good money, it sounds like you can get quite a lot, and get yourself an ls1 6 speed, ull love it