What to upgrade now?

Doesn't sound like you're thrilled about a supercharger so I say heads and cams.

BTW: I put 300 HP to the wheels and I don't have long tubes so I would say you're estimate is a bit low.

No! headers are for the exhaust, heads are where the cams and valves are. The tricky part is if you're going to supercharge then spending the money on heads is not worth it. As for cams same thing you can get a set of cams that will work best for the supercharger that you plan on buying but they wont give you much power while you're N/A. So you have to decide what are your final plans and when are you going to implement them and go from there. I was going to supercharge but decided against it, 550 hp is absolutely useless on the street especially being I'm not going to use drag radials or slicks. I decided to get long tubes and a good tune. That will put me in the 12.7, if I decide gears i'm at 12.4 and thats fine by me.

4.10 gears would help a lot if you stay NA. Another one to consider is a one piece driveshaft, they are a lot lighter than the two piece ones we have.

I'd say 4.10's

Sounds like you're at a crossroad, where you need to decide whether to stay N/A or go F/I......I've always been a big fan of N/A (there's no replacement for displacement). I'll probably eventually hit the ~400hp wall and end up wanting more, but I'd really like to go against the grain and see what these cars can do on motor alone. Besides, as tommyroc said, 500HP or more isn't really meant for a daily driven car on street tires. Its hard enough to avoid the temptation to mess around with a measily ~300HP, and its hard enough to keep the back end in the back too......

It sounds like you've got a good start on mods, and what you have will help whether you're N/A or F/I. If you want to stay N/A, then there's heads & cams. After that its probably just a matter of fine tuning to get the most out of your combo, and maybe adding supporting mods if needed (injectors, fuel system upgrades, etc.) Staying N/A without major engine work, you're probably limited to around 425-450HP at the most....still quite respectable for the street.

If you go F/I, then its just a matter of deciding what type of power adder you want to use, and building up from there. Then your only limit is the stock internals, which are good for ~500HP.

Some other things that you can do in the mean time, that will help you either way are:

1 piece aluminum driveshaft
new clutch
billet flywheel
gears
better upper/lower control arms
better panhard bar or watts link
better shocks/struts if you didn't replace them when you did the springs
good castor/camber plates or GT500 upper strut mounts if you haven't already done them.

None of these things will add HP, but will still make a huge difference in acceleration and getting power to the ground.

Then theres always brake upgrades....which also depend on wheel size.....

and a set of underdrive pullies........

There are LOTS of things that you can still do while you decide....LOL

With the add-ons you have on there now I would go with some 4:10 gears. Unless you have some already but didn't mention them. That and some under pulleys will be a nice upgrade or some coil packs.

I'd recommend running a set of mufflers like the Magnaflow Magnapacks. They can be welded up as a mid muffler system and will probably get you some torque and still sound good. The next mods I'd recommend would be Steeda CMDPs and Steeda UDPs. Both of these mods will get you another ~10-12 rwhp. Than, I'd do 4.10s if you don't want to ever want to go forced induction. If you want to go turbo than it's important that you stay with stock gears. Turbos need load to spool properly. If you want to supercharge it than you could run 4.10s but 3.73s would be better, IMO.

Here's my car with VMP 93 octane tune, C&L Racer, Magnaflow Magnapacks, O/R X Pipe, Steeda UDPs and Steeda CMDPs.

View attachment 234524

Where did you get your tune from? A tune from a reputable tuner makes a big difference over a canned tune. My brenspeed tune knocked nearly a half second off my quarter mile time.

Gears......4.10 if your staying NA.

patrick

Heads are too expensive without a lot of benefit for our cars. Plus when you add on cams and a plenum intake with labor and dyno you're getting close to what it costs for a supercharger. Just some food for thought. Don t forget to consider 4.10 gears.