Pretty Inexperienced with cars, please help!

**wooldrma** · 10-02-2015, 01:35 PM

Hey everyone; my friend told me to come here for better help regarding my recent purchase.

I just bought a 2012 Camaro (2SS). I bought it out of sate (currently I live in Plattsmouth, NE) so my questions I can ask to the dealer regarding previous upgrades and mods are limited. I do know that a K&N intake was put in, along with new exhaust headers (not sure which headers they are...). I've always been interested in muscle cars but have never had the time or money to invest. I just recently separated from the Military and am very excited about my new car! It sounds and runs great but I want it to run even better.

Here are some of my questions:

1) Is the K&N intake sufficient?
2) How do I tell which exhaust headers are currently on it and should I upgrade?
3) Chips/Tunes? What is a good chip to use and ... well really I dont know much on the subject at all.

Even if you provide information outside of the questions I asked, I'd be very greatful! Thanks in advance, for all of your responses and help!

Mike Wooldridge

**pajeff02** · 10-02-2015, 02:36 PM

Welcome to the site and congrats on your purchase.

There are "pro K&N" and "anti-K&N" folks on here. I am one of the antis as my experience has been that they allow too much dirt to pass into the engine and the oiled cotton gauze media can result in debris building up on the MAF wires and altering its reading. This being said, run whatever air filter you wish and any type of cold air setup will be an improvement over stock. Some headers comes with stampings or welded name plates and others just appear plain. Hard to tell what is in the car, but if they are true long tube headers, preferably in stainless, then you are good.

Chips are old school and meant for tuning engine management systems from the 80's and early 90's. Anymore, tuning is accomplished by reflashing the PCM with whatever modifications are best for your combo. I highly recommend a mail order tune from Frost (site sponsor). He has tuned our car three times now with ongoing modifications and I can not say enough good about his services.

**DarrenWS6** · 10-04-2015, 02:07 PM

^^ spot on.

As far as sound goes, a GM LS engine with headers, and lmst any catback sounds awesome. Borla are a preferred sound on my end. Magnaflow is deep and mean also.

**0rion** · 10-08-2015, 10:03 AM

welcome to the site and congrats on the car. To add to the advice above I would say spend a ton of time reading and figuring things out before you order the first part. I see a lot of people that have to do things twice because they didn't do their homework prior to ordering stuff. There's tons of people on this site that have "been there and done that" with these cars and will be willing to help you get started.

**allbaugh_04** · 10-10-2015, 06:35 AM

Hi Mike, I'm from Omaha

***SMWS6TA*** · 10-13-2015, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by 0rion

welcome to the site and congrats on the car. To add to the advice above I would say spend a ton of time reading and figuring things out before you order the first part. I see a lot of people that have to do things twice because they didn't do their homework prior to ordering stuff. There's tons of people on this site that have "been there and done that" with these cars and will be willing to help you get started.

Like Tim said lots of write ups for help in these 2 threads:
http://www.ls1.com/forums/f6/technic...tickies-79083/

http://www.ls1.com/forums/f6/general...tickies-79085/