RAS6582

I have a late C5 with full intake and exhaust. I was going to upgrade the cam alone, but am now considering a head/ cam package along with an under-drive pulley. I currently have a BBK intake manifold with 80mm throttle. Any suggestions? Should I upgrade the intake to a FAST 92/92 as well?

zeevette

If you have a '01+, just go back to your stock intake mani-TB, and you'll probably gain a few HP over the BBK. I do recommend a %25 UD pulley. As to a perfect H/C combo; most guys only have experience with the combo that they used, so... It is important to try and match your head/cam combo with how you plan to use the car, and how much you prefer big lope versus wider TQ band, and more. I had great results with my customized Trickflows, and a smallish (228-232@112-.600) Crane cam. If you want the best, call either Brian Tooley, or Tony Mamo. OTOH, you can get close with quality CNC'd built valvetrain 243s. Most important is deciding how you plan on using the car, and you must consider the rest of your drivetrain when modding. If you've got a A/T with stock gears, first do a converter, and gears, IMO. If you've got a 342/MT combo, it'll soon need a better clutch, and the differential is especially vulnerable. As to a FAST manifold; I had great results with a ported 90/90 combo.

Tony @ Mamo Motorsports

In addressing the title of your thread

Yes....but "ideal" is never cheap.....LOL

However....and its a big however.....there is alot of value added as the extra money you spend comes with extra power, extra throttle response, better MPG's, more torque.....alot more tip in power at part throttle. All these perks add immensely to the enjoyment of driving the car.

Whats the trick.....a really efficient head design that moves alot of air with a modest runner volume.....and camming that package properly.....not over the top so you build power everywhere.....not just past 4500 RPM's. Once you experience a car built in this fashion you would throw away the extra 15-20 a more aggressive set-up could have gotten you.....the trade offs are for too great for the gains unless your purely building a track car and ET is the driving force close to 100% of the time (the 5% crowd reading this versus the 95%).

Thing is if you have the budget you can still make big power as well.....you just have to hit all the supporting mods to get there.

This was a combo I designed a year ago.....made almost 490 RWHP with a 227 cam! Engine is super crisp and responsive

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...fied-99-a.html

With the recent release of my new MMS 220 heads it would be possible to see even stronger results as they flow a little more than the massaged AFR 215's on that combination

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...on-inside.html

Shoot me a PM, email, or a phone call if your serious about pursuing something and we can discuss it in more detail. It can be done in stages or all at once but I can assure you the end results will leave you with zero regrets.



Cheers,
Tony

PS.....See my sig below for all my contact info!

RAS6582

Awesome! I really appreciate the feedback guys! Mine has an M6 and the clutch is stage 3. Forged flywheel as well. The transaxle has been rebuilt recently. I do drive the car regularly, but like to kick it frequently! I would like the ultimate street car/ occasional track use. I think the 227/228 cam is where I wanna be. Maybe the trickflow heads are what I need too. Money isn't a huge factor, but I can't go over the top. I have L/T headers/ high-flow cats-2.5" exhaust and the intake covered. I'm still scratching my head on how the stock intake is better than the BBK/ 80mm setup. My car has been tuned by MTI, if that is of any importance. They make their own cams.....

RAS6582

And Tony I don't see your SIG info or how to contact you....

zeevette

[QUOTE=RAS6582;1589717875]Awesome! I really appreciate the feedback guys! Mine has an M6 and the clutch is stage 3. Forged flywheel as well. The transaxle has been rebuilt recently. I do drive the car regularly, but like to kick it frequently! I would like the ultimate street car/ occasional track use. I think the 227/228 cam is where I wanna be. Maybe the trickflow heads are what I need too. Money isn't a huge factor, but I can't go over the top. I have L/T headers/ high-flow cats-2.5" exhaust and the intake covered. I'm still scratching my head on how the stock intake is better than the BBK/ 80mm setup. My car has been tuned by MTI, if that is of any importance. They make their own cams.....[/QUOTE

I've never had the BBK intake manifold, but I have read comparison tests and it always came in behind a FAST or LS-6.

racebum

nope

depends on what the owner is doing with the car, what the goals are

bragging, racing, street driving. those are the 3 basic categories and in each one you have a lot of options

Tony @ Mamo Motorsports

Its there.....LOL.....hard to read though (need to get with the mods on that!)

Website mamomotorsports.com

Email tony@mamomotorsports.com

And the BBK sucks.....if your serious about power save up for the FAST....if your really serious about power save a little more and have my port one for you......doubles the gains from the swap....offers alot of value to the "upgrade".



Cheers,
Tony

Socko

I often consider this question. From the aspect of tuning, and functionality, it suprises the hell out of me that this hasn't become more standardized. Pretty simply a cam in stock bottom end with a stock 243 head and intake DOES have a best compromise part. Like Racebum said, maybe there are a couple choices. But there are not the easily 40 different cams i can find all marketed to stock setup guys from forum vendors.

I refuse to put a cam in my car for no reason other then it just seems too hard to figure out what the right parts are. Talk to billy, he say "a" is my setup, steve says "b" and dan says both those are total trash and i need "m". This means more or less you have to trust someone to pick your parts and assume everyone else is wrong. So instead i just run a stock c5z cam in my c5z. Cause the only logical conclusion i can come to is you are all wrong.

My take is no one will bring the discussion out in public cause they don't want to get put in their place. Like Tony said above, there is a setup that would appease the vast majority weather they realize it or not. I don't know why the info for it isn't out there.

Maybe its the fact that all LS engines sort of just get grouped together. I saw dynos of multiple ej25(sti) setups with a tuner, before i bought one on the day of public release. At the time there were under 1000 cars in the country. But the company found a few to test and tune before they released their products for sale, and they posted dynos. I really don't get how LS companys can get away without doing this. I guess that's all part of the issue.

Someone prove me wrong!

Cheesecake 07

What?

Socko

Pretty straight forward.

Paragraph one, addresses the OP. Paragraph two is my real experience on hunting for a head cam setup. Paragraph 3 is conjecture on my part but i would bet its correct. paragraph 4 is my real life experience with subrarus and the fact that everyone that sells parts for them sells them with dynos. I guess vette guys are rich enough they don't need more then "billy's" word that his parts work.

tl:dr would have likely been a better comment

MPM IV

Will you be doing the install yourself?

I think Zeevette's setup would be just about perfect for me. I've seen TFS 215's with a 224/228 cam make 450 rwhp, but it was a bit mild for my taste. If budget is a concern you might look at TEA's cnc ported heads.

zeevette

Yeah, with the blower now, I have a 224-234 116 cam, and its almost lopeless. I needed the get my DCR down since there's my 10.9:1 SCR to deal with. I do miss the sound of a cammed car. Blower whine's not the same.

racebum

he's basically saying there are multiple proven combos out there, why try and reinvent the wheel.

zeevette

Really? There's tons of proven combos, and free information right here at CF. Not news.

Socko

Sure, but when you try to talk to people you get sent in very different directions. It is all confusing to me.

zeevette

I'm just a shade tree (at best) mech, and I did all the mods to my Z in a very tight garage, and on jackstands. I just researched everything regarding cam timing, and it's relation to flow/horsepower, and then made a WAG and picked my H/C combo. Trickflow heads were brand new then, and they just looked superior in design, even though I really didn't know my *** from my elbow. I ended up having early adapter problems with the heads, and had to R&R twice, but ended up with really good heads. The cam selection was a shot in the dark, but an educated one.

racebum

there's a reason for this. the first one is most people don't listen very well, they just express what they have tried or want or think

the second is the changing goal. some people are all about hp. some are all about a quick car and some just want a little more than stock all along the way there are many different paths. add in the vendors who typically just want your money and a novice could get confused really quick

the #1 problem i see on here is people modding with no goals. i suppose that's alright if you just like tinkering but it's a great way to go broke if you have no goal. without one how will you ever know if you've accomplished it?

along that popular path of hp all kinds of things get overlooked. a few popular ones are

1. how reliable will it be and what does reliable mean to you?
2. will it perform in heat, can i race it?
3. traction
4. can the rest of the car handle this hp
4. traction
5. am i drag racing, road racing or being fast on the street? those 3 are all different setups.
6 did i budget for brakes and suspension
7 what's my end goal with the car

those are just a few off the top of my head. i remember c5 shopping and 95% of the modded cars i looked at were trash. combos were not done correctly and usually it was all about hp and no regard for much else..basically braggers that have no idea how to setup a car to be quick, 500whp and 5yr old 340utqg tires come to mind, just LOL. a couple expensive cars were done right but 30k for a c5 was more than i wanted to spend....however...they were actually cheap at that price if someone were to try and recreate them

zeevette

Well, I guess this cleared up his confusion.

RAS6582

I will be doing the install myself. I purchased the Trickflow GenX 515HP kit today. I'll get the U/D pulley and double-roller timing set to accent the package. I'll Dyno the car using the BBK/80mm setup. I plan on buying a Holley Hi-Ram intake with a larger TB when I get my cowl hood. Much thanks to everyone incl. Zeevette ad Racebum