diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
index 0b3d1c0d7677c0..07096956130eb5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ jobs:
         max_attempts: 3
         command: git lfs pull
     - name: Build devel
-      timeout-minutes: 1
+      timeout-minutes: 3
       run: TARGET_DIR=$STRIPPED_DIR tools/release/build_stripped.sh
     - run: ./tools/op.sh setup
     - name: Build openpilot and run checks
diff --git a/tools/release/build_stripped.sh b/tools/release/build_stripped.sh
index 1892360f6d9947..61d15827f05e97 100755
--- a/tools/release/build_stripped.sh
+++ b/tools/release/build_stripped.sh
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@ echo -n "$GIT_HASH" > git_src_commit
 echo -n "$GIT_COMMIT_DATE" > git_src_commit_date
 
 echo "[-] committing version $VERSION T=$SECONDS"
+# skip zlib on the ~2GB of model chunks; hashing them dominates this script's
+# runtime and object IDs don't depend on the compression level
+git config core.compression 0
 git add -f .
 git status
 git commit -a -m "openpilot v$VERSION release