Greetings, Excelsiors!!

I am a new member of this very cool forum, and a proud, brand new Monte Carlo owner. Just picked my '05 LT back in April. I love this car!! Driving this machine is like flying a Leer Jet. Can anyone suggest reasonably easy things to do to the 3800 in the LT to squeeze a little mor juice out of it. I have looked at K&N Air Filters and performance exhaust systems. Looking to get a little more growl out of it too.

I am open to almost anything!

My thanx...

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/335/C65FF41CDB454EB7B16DB426589433CF.jpg[/IMG]

 

nice ooking car, and welcome to the group of monte owners and teh borad.

as far as things to do to your car
sure there are alot of things you can do to it i wouldnt call any of them cheap so to speak.

but for starters remeber you have a computer contolled car.so with that said you can add alll of the add ons you want to it and may or may not find the gains they claim to have on it due to teh computer not allowing you to get them out of the car

So with that sad here is the list oft hings i would take a look at
hypertect reprogramers
K&N Filter (or a diffrent brand that flows better ten the stock version)
Throttel Body polished
Cold Air intake ( you can look in t those or do mods to your exsiting air box to help open it up
headders (will also help your sound)
"U"bend delete
Resenator removal ( I would replace mine with a glass pack of some kind to keep it muffeld some but also alo the flow)
Cat Back system
High Flow Cat. Converter
also you can go to ZZP.com and look in there for the free mods they ahve and try those they have good tips and tricks that come threw on it once in a while.

this should keep ya going for a while but im sure others can think of things i didnt here
good luck and welcome

 

Hello Bigg J,

Welcome to the forum!!! Glad you found your way here.

I think Mickey pretty much touched upon all the relatively inexpensive mods.

I would tackle the exhaust and intake system first, the stock mufflers believe it or not are designed for very nice flow equate able to that of Flows or equivalent so if you’re going to swap them out do it for the sound. I replaced mine with Flowmaster 40's and it sounds great. There is one part of the system though that is restrictive and that's the "U" bend right before the CAT that Mickey mentioned that is worth a 8HP gain and would be rather inexpensive to replace. Second target would be the replacement or modification of the factory air box once again as noted by Mickey. I gutted my box with a RotoZip tool and replaced my factory filter with a K&N.

A freebie that is noted on ZZP's web site is the throttle body screen removal that made a noticeable improvement on mine once removed.

And lastly of the inexpensive mods, a programmer of some sort. I picked up Hypertechs Power Programmer III that was well worth the $$$$ and about a 15-19 HP gain.

Everything pretty much past this is going to run you into big $$$$..

BTW: Nice looking Monte!!! I like that color..

TVW

 

you did the screen remval? had any effects on yours from it?

I was looking at doing it tomarrow but will have to wit til fri. (kids will both be gone so i can think LOL

that and i was going to inspect the air box to see what i can do for getting more flow threw it.

but one thing i thought was neat is a guy here has the earnhart edition and didnt want to harm the resale of it he made a air induction system for his that gose riht behind the front grill and then runs straight in to the air box and he said he did buy a new air box and gutted it also. but every thing he did is completl reversabel.

One thing he did say was if you did it do more then what he did as faras drill a hole or two in the botom of the tube so that is wont collect water in it.

but he just set a peice of PVC tub behind the grill and cut it down the side to catc the air. then took some house hold screen and wraped the front of it and painted the hole thign black.
wen he got done with it it looked nice but i havent cought back up to him to get photos of it YET LOL

but it was chaep he said less then 100.bucks and some time.

I havent figured out where he mounted it yet but he did mention it was scred in and used one that was already there.
So if you are under your hood and look for it you can try to figure it out .

I am doing a modifyed of his for mine. forced air induction . have to love the free gans from that ne LOL

 

WOW! That was more than I expected! Nice to know that I am surrounded by such knowledgeable people.


TVW, I like this colour too, like yours. I was torn between this and the Black, but living in Las Vegas...black is not the best colour for this desert heat!!

Thanks for all the great ideas. I have a shopping list to make indeed. Sound's like the best things to do to get started are getting it to inhale and exhale better, and a mild labotomy, yes?

What do you guys think is the best exhaust system? I am looking at Flowmasters like TVW's or a Borla system. I want a nice, aggressive growl. From the sound coming from under the hood inside the cocpit when I floor it, I think that the rear end could have some potential.

How come I can't find any custom taillights for the Monte? From the searching I have been doing on the car, it seems to have quite a following. Are they trying to say that it is not popular enough to warrant more customization options? I think not!

Anybody know anything about the do's and dont's of adding aftermarket CD Players? I heard that even with the Onstar module, the steering wheel buttons will not work. I bought a nice Clarion unit, but now I'm thinking that I might go have the dealership install the CD/MP3 receiver from the '06 Corvette.

 

If you can afford it, go with a complete Borla system.

MonteLS had a line on the tails but for the life of me I can not find the thread... Can someone please post a link to those tails with the funky chrome.. lol There are some cool black headlights on e-bay too that you might like.

TVW

 

brolays have a verry definate sound over all the rest but they cost three times the rest for the same part. nice sound and all stainless teel to the back of the car.
but you might need a loan for them LOL

flow masters to me sound Great.

but add the glass pack for the resenator in the middel they help the sound as \well but also free it up some

as far as the stereos go
yes you can get the sterring wheel controlls to work jus twill cost you the price of a extra modula to maake the new system you have reconise the signal from the buttons.

also you can add the new stereo but you have to get a harness for it it was like 60.00 us the last time i checked on it and changes the place to the truck for the stock units home
but it can be done oh and you will need the DIN kit for the dash also/

crutchfeild has alot of the parts or if not they will know where to find them for your car and your system that you want to install also.

 

J, I would have commented at an earlier time, but I have been in the field for the past week. Anyway, I have a set of SLP headers and the SLP Loudmouth cat-back on mine, and I must say I think it was an excellent choice, I am extremely happy with it, not only the noticeable performance increase, but the sound as well. It sounds great. check out www.slponline.com they have a lot of good stuff for the 3800. a few other places you might want to check out are www.3800performance.com www.pfyc.com and www.zzperformance.com

If you have any questions about my exhaust or anything, just hit me up.

 

What's up Bigg J, welcome to the board. The guys pretty much summed up the entry level mods you can do so I'll leave that alone. But I will suggest an exhaust for you to consider, DynoMax Super Turbo. You can get the catback if you have the money to burn, but I personally feel that unless you are going to be doing extensive mods that the gains just don't justify the extra cost. In any case, I recently had my exhaust done and love the results. I have an LS with the 3400 and converted it from single to dual exhaust and it sounds lovely, in my opinion. You can check it out below

Dual DynoMax Super Turbo exhaust

 

I'm not gonna search for the thread, but here is a pic of said tails as well as the link to the site that sells em.



http://www.procarparts.com/store-det...=onlinestoreDB