77 L48 more power?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,487
Likes: 10
From: Palm Beach Florida
St. Jude Donor '12
77 L48 more power?
I may be purchasing a 77 with the L48. Can't find one with the L82. Anyways, I am not to worried about keeping it all original. I want to have a nice weekend car, that has some *****.LOL. I realize the L48 only has 180 HP for this year. Are there some easy do it yourself things I can do to squeeze more power out of it? Exp-exhaust/intake manifold/carb? What can be readily done with out tearing into the motor. I don't believe the 77's had a comp. I don't have to worry about passing any emmision test's either.
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,946
Likes: 28
From: Long Beach CA
IMHO you're not going to see any real seat of the pants gains with changing external parts. You need to install a better set of heads, a more agressive cam, and headers. Then you'll notice a power increase.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,487
Likes: 10
From: Palm Beach Florida
St. Jude Donor '12
Thanks for responding. I'm going tomm. again to take a look at another Yellow 77. She is the second owner, had it for 12 years, suppose to have 51k, Black leather, but it's a auto with the L48. How much would heads/cam/headers run me? I will have 15 to 1800. to play with if I buy the 77.
Pro
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 645
Likes: 1
From: Hayward Wi
Thanks for responding. I'm going tomm. again to take a look at another Yellow 77. She is the second owner, had it for 12 years, suppose to have 51k, Black leather, but it's a auto with the L48. How much would heads/cam/headers run me? I will have 15 to 1800. to play with if I buy the 77.
for sure a new cam will cost from $120-150 will need new lifters as well so another 100 or so there..
BTW if your only going to drive for fun, it might be better to go with a good flowing exaust and not get headers for now...
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,487
Likes: 10
From: Palm Beach Florida
St. Jude Donor '12
I don't want MASSIVE power. But I want enough that if I have to beat a rice burner I could at least keep up.LOL, I figure 250 hp would be suffice. So I will assume that the heads/cam/exhaust/valves/intake manifold can be done for 18 hundred? And maybe get the power I'm looking for? That would be a 70 hp increase. This unreasonable?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 6,359
Likes: 428
From: Seattle Area WA
The best bang for your budget assuming that the bottom end is good and the rings aren't shot is a set of new Vortec heads, Performer intake manifold for Vortec heads, rebuild the Q-jet, recurve the distributor and use a short duration cam kit like Summit SUM-K1103 along a new Cloyes street roller timing chain.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-12558060/
If the exhaust manifolds are good, install a Corvette Central dual exhaust system and start there.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-12558060/
If the exhaust manifolds are good, install a Corvette Central dual exhaust system and start there.
Instructor
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 113
Likes: 0
From: Shelby Twp. Michigan
If you're willing to spend $1800, kick in a few more bucks and look into the Edelbrock performer package. You can buy all the parts in one complete package for about $2000-$2200 and eliminate all the guess work.
Put a 64 cc head on there to bump up the compression and with there matched parts make around 300-325 reliable H.P. and really have some fun.
Put a 64 cc head on there to bump up the compression and with there matched parts make around 300-325 reliable H.P. and really have some fun.
Advanced
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 99
Likes: 1
From: Houston Tx
If you're willing to spend $1800, kick in a few more bucks and look into the Edelbrock performer package. You can buy all the parts in one complete package for about $2000-$2200 and eliminate all the guess work.
Put a 64 cc head on there to bump up the compression and with there matched parts make around 300-325 reliable H.P. and really have some fun.
Put a 64 cc head on there to bump up the compression and with there matched parts make around 300-325 reliable H.P. and really have some fun.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-2097/
How hard are these to install?
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Instructor
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 113
Likes: 0
From: Shelby Twp. Michigan
My buddy has one of these kits on his Chevelle and it runs really good. Not the fastest thing out there, but it will fry the hell out of the tires!
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,231
Likes: 65
From: Seattle WA
St. Jude Donor '14
I'd have to say that I'd start with a set of headers and a good tune before you look elsewhere.
There's enough headroom (no pun intended) for a cam swap with the stock heads, but if you're going to tear that deep doing a complete top makes sense. Budget will help here.
Doing a top isn't a big deal, but it's a weekend's work even if you know what you're doing It is possible to do in-car, but certainly easier on the stand and that gives you a chance to address other issues as well if needed.
There's enough headroom (no pun intended
) for a cam swap with the stock heads, but if you're going to tear that deep doing a complete top makes sense. Budget will help here.Doing a top isn't a big deal, but it's a weekend's work even if you know what you're doing
It is possible to do in-car, but certainly easier on the stand and that gives you a chance to address other issues as well if needed.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,487
Likes: 10
From: Palm Beach Florida
St. Jude Donor '12
Thank you all. The vette turned out not to be as clean and in good shape as the female owner said. (again, I've looked at 7 so far) But this one had the potential to be worth a bit more then other 77's. It was the color code 52, (yellow) which only 71 were made with that color. Later on the code switched to 56 (bright yellow) which 1943 were made.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,487
Likes: 10
From: Palm Beach Florida
St. Jude Donor '12
Not at all, I just said that, that particular one could be a bit more of a collector then the rest of the 77's. Not that it would cost ALOT more, but just different(stand out).
