Building a High-Performance C7 Z06: A Breakdown of the Cost and Modifications

When it comes to building a high-performance C7 Z06, there are several modifications that can be made to take the engine from stock to 800 wheel horsepower. In this article, we'll take a closer look at each component of the build and provide an estimated cost for the entire project.

The Blower: A Ported Blower with a Price Tag

One of the first components of the build is a ported blower, which costs $1,800. This is a significant investment, but it's essential for extracting more power from the engine. The new blower is designed to improve airflow and increase efficiency, allowing the engine to produce more horsepower.

The Throttle Body: A 250-Buck Upgrade

Next up is the throttle body, which costs $250. This upgrade replaces the stock throttle body with a high-performance unit that provides faster acceleration and improved responsiveness. The new throttle body is designed to work seamlessly with the ported blower, allowing for smoother engine operation.

Thermal Reduction Plates: A $250-Buck Deal

In addition to the ported blower and throttle body, thermal reduction plates are also added to the build. These plates help to reduce heat transfer between the engine and its surroundings, which can improve cooling efficiency and overall performance. The cost of these plates is $250.

The Upper Pulley: A $200-Buck Upgrade

Another key component of the build is a 2.31 upper pulley, which costs $200. This upgrade replaces the stock pulley with a high-performance unit that provides improved power output and reduced wear on the engine. The new pulley is designed to work in conjunction with the ported blower and throttle body, allowing for seamless operation.

Flex Fuel Sensor: A $150-Buck Upgrade

To take advantage of E85 fuel, a flex fuel sensor is added to the build, which costs $150. This upgrade allows the engine to run on both gasoline and ethanol blends, providing improved performance and efficiency.

The Zebra Emblem: A $1.7-GAAP Mod

A small but significant modification to the build is the installation of a Zebra emblem, which costs $1.7 billion gallons (GAP) equivalent. This upgrade adds a touch of style to the vehicle while also serving as a symbol of high-performance engineering.

Coolant Expansion Tank: A Must-Have for High-Performance Cooling

When building a high-performance engine, cooling efficiency is essential. To address this, a coolant expansion tank is added to the build, which helps to manage heat transfer and prevent overheating. This upgrade provides peace of mind and improved performance.

Ktech Heads and Comp Cam: A $11,900-Buck Upgrade

One of the most significant upgrades in the build comes from Ktech heads and a Comp Camshaft. The Ktech heads provide improved combustion efficiency and increased power output, while the Comp Camshaft is designed to optimize engine performance. These components are priced at $3,200 and $1,100, respectively.

Labor Costs: A Year's Worth of Work

The final cost of the build comes from labor costs, which totaled around 9 grand for a year's worth of work.

Adding Wheels and Tires: The Final Touches

Finally, to complete the high-performance C7 Z06, wheels and tires are added. The owner opted for custom Forge line lightweight Drag Wheels with Mickey Thompson tires, which provided improved handling and increased wheel horsepower.

Estimated Total Cost of the Build

When adding up all the components and labor costs, the total cost of the build comes in at $27,900 for parts and $20,000 without wheels and tires. This makes it clear that building a high-performance C7 Z06 is no cheap endeavor.

Hennessy Performance: A Price Quote Comparison

To get an estimate for a similar build, the owner reached out to Hennessy performance. The representative provided a price quote of $45,000 installed for a 800 wheel horsepower package for the C7. This gives us a clear comparison of prices between different shops and builds.

Conclusion

Building a high-performance C7 Z06 requires significant investment in components and labor costs. With an estimated total cost of $27,900 to $45,000, it's clear that this build is not for the faint of heart. However, with the right components and labor, owners can achieve impressive performance figures while enjoying their vehicle on the road or track.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ena I don't care who you are that is a great way to start up the day good morning and welcome to the channel I'm just doing a little incar portion of the Vlog it looks like it might rain actually this is not going to be great if it does anyway I just want to do a little incar portion here before we get to the uh walk around of the car and I give you the rundown of all the parts and the cost and everything like that um I just wanted to give you some background on why I am making this video today number one I mean a lot of people ask about how much the build has um you know how much it has cost me so far um but number two really because the build for the Z06 is done and I know I know what you guys are thinking oh boy here comes Mike again he's done with the build and just like the truck he's going to change CH his mind in a month when he getss bored um but really you know I'm pretty much maxed out on the car there's not much more I can do and I really am done it's as fast as I want it to be now well I shouldn't say that there is one more thing possibly two that I'm it sounds so stupid because it's like well clearly you're not done with the build but really I am I just might add meth injection and a bigger lower pulley um at some point but those are the only two things and they're they're small a CRV that was like swerving into my lane I should have I should have a GoPro that faces forward too I have enough of that I have enough now but anyway the reason why I say we are pretty much maxed out on the car I shouldn't say we're maxed out on the car but we're maxed out on the car with the stock blower and um you know I think it's pretty neat I've showed everybody what an lt4 on the stock blower can do and we've gone not that I'm the first to do it but here's your maximum potential for a new Z6 or even the new ZL1 because they use the same engine and uh with I mean my car right now makes 700 30 on pump gas but once we add E85 and if I were to do meth injection and the lower pulley which the pulley is not going to make a huge different like one pound of boost because when you go to the heads and the headers and everything like that and the cam you know you drop boost I was making 14 lbs now I'm making like 10 and 1 12 um but we can't you know you can only spin the blower so fast so if I do the lower pulley I already have the upper um of course so if I do the lower I might get another pound but I can't like do a huge that BMW is hard an ass I can't do a huge lower pulley because we you can only spin the blower a certain speed and then it just you over spin it so um anyway once I do meth and everything like that we might see about and with a proper tune right now I'm just on a safe tune we might see about 850 wheel uh horsepower so I'm going to say that you know on the stock blow and everything a C7 Z6 or a ZL1 anything with the lt4 should make about 850 wheel which I think is really impressive I mean that is a ton of power um without moving to approach charger or a turbo or something like that I don't want to go to that next step and you know I got a ZR1 coming in at some point here in probably 5 or 6 months I don't want to move I don't want to spend any more money on this car and I think it's plenty fast um as it is I I would love to see a 95 at the drag strip I think that this car is capable of it it's just up to me uh to become a better driver in order to get there the car the car can do it um and so if I want to see that time I'm not just going to go more and more power I should be able to do it with the car as it sits and I would like to at least you know accomplish that with that being said I'm going to uh turn it back over to me in the garage here in my garage welcome to my garage if you have not been here before it is now time for the Z06 build rundown we're going to start with uh let's just go I have my list here of of all the prices let's just go in chronological order from when I got each part so we're going to start with the intake of course that's how it all starts an intake and an exhaust as we know I got a htech cold air intake that was 500 bucks you really don't have too many options when it comes to intakes on these cars pretty much haltech and AF I've heard good things about both it's an intake it's not going to make that much of a difference either way you might remember that I got my ported blower throttle body and pulley and the snout and thermal reduction plates all as a package deal from faster proms pretty much got everything for the build from faster proms except for the exhaust and the intake I'll put their info down below Jeremy Fato also tuned the car great guy um but I got everything as a package deal I think it was like 2500 bucks but for the purpose of this video I'm going to break down each piece individually so we're going to start with the blower the ported blower that would be 1,800 bucks the throttle body is 250 bucks the thermal reduction plates are 250 bucks and the 2.31 upper pulley is 200 bucks and let me add it in my head real quick here 2500 bucks on the dot then I did a flex fuel sensor this piece right here to run E85 and that was only 150 box and takes about 10 minutes to install the final engine modification I got for the zebra was a 1.7g faster proms little Corvette emblem there uh coolant expansion tank now we all know that cooling is very important when you get more power especially when you are dealing with a c706 which tends to have heating issues from the factory just bone stock much less with 250 more horsepower than it's supposed to have so I definitely recommend getting one of these if you intend on modifying your car and uh I must be losing my damn mind because that is not the last modification at all we have ktech heads in there and a Comp Cam uh the cam was 1100 and the heads were 3,200 going to give you the grand total here just for the parts and that was 11,900 bucks and the labor was done over the course of a year for everything so I don't remember exactly how much Andy charged but uh I'm going to say got to be close close to 9 Grand so let's add that on for the labor and tuning which brings us up to 2,950 bucks and then if you so that's it that's for the build um if you don't include the wheels and tires if you do I mean Jesus Christ if you're going to have 800 something wheel horsepower you're going to need a better Wheel and Tire setup so my custom spec Forge line lightweight Drag Wheels with my Mickey Thompson which I love by the way they hook really well I love the the tires and the wheels they're great wheels are super light so the whole setup I have Mickey Thompson's in the back then I have like a Dunlop just you know whatever summer Performance Tire up front I drop down to a slightly smaller size from the stock 285 just to lighten it up a little bit um but the wheel and tire setup cost me about 6 grand we are up to 26,900 Bucks let's just say $277,000 for the full build um and again figure 20 about 20,000 without the wheels and tires I want you to keep that number in your head 20 20,000 bucks and now for the of it let's call Hennessy and see what they would charge for something similar Hennessy performance how can I help you hi I just wanted to let you know I'm calling from my shop today so this call might be recorded if that's okay um I was calling to get a price quote on a c706 okay let me see um if somebody is available sure for what what year model uh 2016 C7 okay just a moment thank you Tennessee performances how you doing man I'm doing well how are you good I was just kind of trying to call a couple different shops and get a price uh kind of get an idea for the price of um if I want to get my c7z to roughly 800 wheel horsepower how much am I looking to spend so is it an automatic or a manual it's a manual okay so for our 800 horsepower package for the C7 it's $45,000 installed 45,000 okay is that now is that crank or is that wheel that's crank okay so I'm I'd be looking at you know roughly 720 wheel horsepower roughly yep okay yeah I'll just I'll have to think about it man but I appreciate it sure let us know if you have any other questions all right thank you very much um yeah you know I don't I don't really think I have to to say anything more anyway I really hope that by the way I've done about 50 takes I just I can't even I can't wrap my head around 50 Grand I'm over here dying but uh anyway I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did make sure to give it a big thumbs up if you are stopping in for the first time please subscribe take care have a great day n hea I don't care who you are that is a great way to start up the day good morning and welcome to the channel I'm just doing a little incar portion of the Vlog it looks like it might rain actually this is not going to be great if it does anyway I just want to do a little incar portion here before we get to the uh walk around of the car and I give you the rundown of all the parts and the cost and everything like that um I just wanted to give you some background on why I am making this video today number one I mean a lot of people ask about how much the build has um you know how much it has cost me so far um but number two really because the build for the Z06 is done and I know I know what you guys are thinking oh boy here comes Mike again he's done with the build and just like the truck he's going to change CH his mind in a month when he getss bored um but really you know I'm pretty much maxed out on the car there's not much more I can do and I really am done it's as fast as I want it to be now well I shouldn't say that there is one more thing possibly two that I'm it sounds so stupid because it's like well clearly you're not done with the build but really I am I just might add meth injection and a bigger lower pulley um at some point but those are the only two things and they're they're small a CRV that was like swerving into my lane I should have I should have a GoPro that faces forward too I have enough of that I have enough now but anyway the reason why I say we are pretty much maxed out on the car I shouldn't say we're maxed out on the car but we're maxed out on the car with the stock blower and um you know I think it's pretty neat I've showed everybody what an lt4 on the stock blower can do and we've gone not that I'm the first to do it but here's your maximum potential for a new Z6 or even the new ZL1 because they use the same engine and uh with I mean my car right now makes 700 30 on pump gas but once we add E85 and if I were to do meth injection and the lower pulley which the pulley is not going to make a huge different like one pound of boost because when you go to the heads and the headers and everything like that and the cam you know you drop boost I was making 14 lbs now I'm making like 10 and 1 12 um but we can't you know you can only spin the blower so fast so if I do the lower pulley I already have the upper um of course so if I do the lower I might get another pound but I can't like do a huge that BMW is hard an ass I can't do a huge lower pulley because we you can only spin the blower a certain speed and then it just you over spin it so um anyway once I do meth and everything like that we might see about and with a proper tune right now I'm just on a safe tune we might see about 850 wheel uh horsepower so I'm going to say that you know on the stock blow and everything a C7 Z6 or a ZL1 anything with the lt4 should make about 850 wheel which I think is really impressive I mean that is a ton of power um without moving to approach charger or a turbo or something like that I don't want to go to that next step and you know I got a ZR1 coming in at some point here in probably 5 or 6 months I don't want to move I don't want to spend any more money on this car and I think it's plenty fast um as it is I I would love to see a 95 at the drag strip I think that this car is capable of it it's just up to me uh to become a better driver in order to get there the car the car can do it um and so if I want to see that time I'm not just going to go more and more power I should be able to do it with the car as it sits and I would like to at least you know accomplish that with that being said I'm going to uh turn it back over to me in the garage here in my garage welcome to my garage if you have not been here before it is now time for the Z06 build rundown we're going to start with uh let's just go I have my list here of of all the prices let's just go in chronological order from when I got each part so we're going to start with the intake of course that's how it all starts an intake and an exhaust as we know I got a htech cold air intake that was 500 bucks you really don't have too many options when it comes to intakes on these cars pretty much haltech and AF I've heard good things about both it's an intake it's not going to make that much of a difference either way you might remember that I got my ported blower throttle body and pulley and the snout and thermal reduction plates all as a package deal from faster proms pretty much got everything for the build from faster proms except for the exhaust and the intake I'll put their info down below Jeremy Fato also tuned the car great guy um but I got everything as a package deal I think it was like 2500 bucks but for the purpose of this video I'm going to break down each piece individually so we're going to start with the blower the ported blower that would be 1,800 bucks the throttle body is 250 bucks the thermal reduction plates are 250 bucks and the 2.31 upper pulley is 200 bucks and let me add it in my head real quick here 2500 bucks on the dot then I did a flex fuel sensor this piece right here to run E85 and that was only 150 box and takes about 10 minutes to install the final engine modification I got for the zebra was a 1.7g faster proms little Corvette emblem there uh coolant expansion tank now we all know that cooling is very important when you get more power especially when you are dealing with a c706 which tends to have heating issues from the factory just bone stock much less with 250 more horsepower than it's supposed to have so I definitely recommend getting one of these if you intend on modifying your car and uh I must be losing my damn mind because that is not the last modification at all we have ktech heads in there and a Comp Cam uh the cam was 1100 and the heads were 3,200 going to give you the grand total here just for the parts and that was 11,900 bucks and the labor was done over the course of a year for everything so I don't remember exactly how much Andy charged but uh I'm going to say got to be close close to 9 Grand so let's add that on for the labor and tuning which brings us up to 2,950 bucks and then if you so that's it that's for the build um if you don't include the wheels and tires if you do I mean Jesus Christ if you're going to have 800 something wheel horsepower you're going to need a better Wheel and Tire setup so my custom spec Forge line lightweight Drag Wheels with my Mickey Thompson which I love by the way they hook really well I love the the tires and the wheels they're great wheels are super light so the whole setup I have Mickey Thompson's in the back then I have like a Dunlop just you know whatever summer Performance Tire up front I drop down to a slightly smaller size from the stock 285 just to lighten it up a little bit um but the wheel and tire setup cost me about 6 grand we are up to 26,900 Bucks let's just say $277,000 for the full build um and again figure 20 about 20,000 without the wheels and tires I want you to keep that number in your head 20 20,000 bucks and now for the of it let's call Hennessy and see what they would charge for something similar Hennessy performance how can I help you hi I just wanted to let you know I'm calling from my shop today so this call might be recorded if that's okay um I was calling to get a price quote on a c706 okay let me see um if somebody is available sure for what what year model uh 2016 C7 okay just a moment thank you Tennessee performances how you doing man I'm doing well how are you good I was just kind of trying to call a couple different shops and get a price uh kind of get an idea for the price of um if I want to get my c7z to roughly 800 wheel horsepower how much am I looking to spend so is it an automatic or a manual it's a manual okay so for our 800 horsepower package for the C7 it's $45,000 installed 45,000 okay is that now is that crank or is that wheel that's crank okay so I'm I'd be looking at you know roughly 720 wheel horsepower roughly yep okay yeah I'll just I'll have to think about it man but I appreciate it sure let us know if you have any other questions all right thank you very much um yeah you know I don't I don't really think I have to to say anything more anyway I really hope that by the way I've done about 50 takes I just I can't even I can't wrap my head around 50 Grand I'm over here dying but uh anyway I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did make sure to give it a big thumbs up if you are stopping in for the first time please subscribe take care have a great day n hea I don't care who you are that is a great way to start up the day good morning and welcome to the channel I'm just doing a little incar portion of the Vlog it looks like it might rain actually this is not going to be great if it does anyway I just want to do a little incar portion here before we get to the uh walk around of the car and I give you the rundown of all the parts and the cost and everything like that um I just wanted to give you some background on why I am making this video today number one I mean a lot of people ask about how much the build has um you know how much it has cost me so far um but number two really because the build for the Z06 is done and I know I know what you guys are thinking oh boy here comes Mike again he's done with the build and just like the truck he's going to change CH his mind in a month when he getss bored um but really you know I'm pretty much maxed out on the car there's not much more I can do and I really am done it's as fast as I want it to be now well I shouldn't say that there is one more thing possibly two that I'm it sounds so stupid because it's like well clearly you're not done with the build but really I am I just might add meth injection and a bigger lower pulley um at some point but those are the only two things and they're they're small a CRV that was like swerving into my lane I should have I should have a GoPro that faces forward too I have enough of that I have enough now but anyway the reason why I say we are pretty much maxed out on the car I shouldn't say we're maxed out on the car but we're maxed out on the car with the stock blower and um you know I think it's pretty neat I've showed everybody what an lt4 on the stock blower can do and we've gone not that I'm the first to do it but here's your maximum potential for a new Z6 or even the new ZL1 because they use the same engine and uh with I mean my car right now makes 700 30 on pump gas but once we add E85 and if I were to do meth injection and the lower pulley which the pulley is not going to make a huge different like one pound of boost because when you go to the heads and the headers and everything like that and the cam you know you drop boost I was making 14 lbs now I'm making like 10 and 1 12 um but we can't you know you can only spin the blower so fast so if I do the lower pulley I already have the upper um of course so if I do the lower I might get another pound but I can't like do a huge that BMW is hard an ass I can't do a huge lower pulley because we you can only spin the blower a certain speed and then it just you over spin it so um anyway once I do meth and everything like that we might see about and with a proper tune right now I'm just on a safe tune we might see about 850 wheel uh horsepower so I'm going to say that you know on the stock blow and everything a C7 Z6 or a ZL1 anything with the lt4 should make about 850 wheel which I think is really impressive I mean that is a ton of power um without moving to approach charger or a turbo or something like that I don't want to go to that next step and you know I got a ZR1 coming in at some point here in probably 5 or 6 months I don't want to move I don't want to spend any more money on this car and I think it's plenty fast um as it is I I would love to see a 95 at the drag strip I think that this car is capable of it it's just up to me uh to become a better driver in order to get there the car the car can do it um and so if I want to see that time I'm not just going to go more and more power I should be able to do it with the car as it sits and I would like to at least you know accomplish that with that being said I'm going to uh turn it back over to me in the garage here in my garage welcome to my garage if you have not been here before it is now time for the Z06 build rundown we're going to start with uh let's just go I have my list here of of all the prices let's just go in chronological order from when I got each part so we're going to start with the intake of course that's how it all starts an intake and an exhaust as we know I got a htech cold air intake that was 500 bucks you really don't have too many options when it comes to intakes on these cars pretty much haltech and AF I've heard good things about both it's an intake it's not going to make that much of a difference either way you might remember that I got my ported blower throttle body and pulley and the snout and thermal reduction plates all as a package deal from faster proms pretty much got everything for the build from faster proms except for the exhaust and the intake I'll put their info down below Jeremy Fato also tuned the car great guy um but I got everything as a package deal I think it was like 2500 bucks but for the purpose of this video I'm going to break down each piece individually so we're going to start with the blower the ported blower that would be 1,800 bucks the throttle body is 250 bucks the thermal reduction plates are 250 bucks and the 2.31 upper pulley is 200 bucks and let me add it in my head real quick here 2500 bucks on the dot then I did a flex fuel sensor this piece right here to run E85 and that was only 150 box and takes about 10 minutes to install the final engine modification I got for the zebra was a 1.7g faster proms little Corvette emblem there uh coolant expansion tank now we all know that cooling is very important when you get more power especially when you are dealing with a c706 which tends to have heating issues from the factory just bone stock much less with 250 more horsepower than it's supposed to have so I definitely recommend getting one of these if you intend on modifying your car and uh I must be losing my damn mind because that is not the last modification at all we have ktech heads in there and a Comp Cam uh the cam was 1100 and the heads were 3,200 going to give you the grand total here just for the parts and that was 11,900 bucks and the labor was done over the course of a year for everything so I don't remember exactly how much Andy charged but uh I'm going to say got to be close close to 9 Grand so let's add that on for the labor and tuning which brings us up to 2,950 bucks and then if you so that's it that's for the build um if you don't include the wheels and tires if you do I mean Jesus Christ if you're going to have 800 something wheel horsepower you're going to need a better Wheel and Tire setup so my custom spec Forge line lightweight Drag Wheels with my Mickey Thompson which I love by the way they hook really well I love the the tires and the wheels they're great wheels are super light so the whole setup I have Mickey Thompson's in the back then I have like a Dunlop just you know whatever summer Performance Tire up front I drop down to a slightly smaller size from the stock 285 just to lighten it up a little bit um but the wheel and tire setup cost me about 6 grand we are up to 26,900 Bucks let's just say $277,000 for the full build um and again figure 20 about 20,000 without the wheels and tires I want you to keep that number in your head 20 20,000 bucks and now for the of it let's call Hennessy and see what they would charge for something similar Hennessy performance how can I help you hi I just wanted to let you know I'm calling from my shop today so this call might be recorded if that's okay um I was calling to get a price quote on a c706 okay let me see um if somebody is available sure for what what year model uh 2016 C7 okay just a moment thank you Tennessee performances how you doing man I'm doing well how are you good I was just kind of trying to call a couple different shops and get a price uh kind of get an idea for the price of um if I want to get my c7z to roughly 800 wheel horsepower how much am I looking to spend so is it an automatic or a manual it's a manual okay so for our 800 horsepower package for the C7 it's $45,000 installed 45,000 okay is that now is that crank or is that wheel that's crank okay so I'm I'd be looking at you know roughly 720 wheel horsepower roughly yep okay yeah I'll just I'll have to think about it man but I appreciate it sure let us know if you have any other questions all right thank you very much um yeah you know I don't I don't really think I have to to say anything more anyway I really hope that by the way I've done about 50 takes I just I can't even I can't wrap my head around 50 Grand I'm over here dying but uh anyway I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did make sure to give it a big thumbs up if you are stopping in for the first time please subscribe take care have a great day n he\n"