my set up with a 1995 ecm is an odb1 with an odb2 service connector, i do not think this will work with an odb2 ecm, something like that you will need to go to hp tuners and pay there fee https://www.hptuners.com/

 

Im considering getting this:

 

So yea.. considering the affair my #3 cylinder piston and intake valve decided to have recently, I went ahead and bought a motor from Chad Golen. I shipped him my LT4 heads, intake and oil pan. Big cam port and polish intake & heads, 58mm tb, 6" rod internal and external balance 383. Said 550hp shouldn't be an issue. I've got a decent case of cantwaits.

I will prob be making some posts for help soon. I'm not sure I remember exactly where each harness connector connects to which sensor/component. 😬

 

 

 

I have their GM heads/intake setup on mine. They were great when I had a multitude of questions about what to do. I wouldn't hesitate to do a long block from them. I'm still running the heads/intake.

 

I don't want to rain on the parade, but an honest 550hp with ported stock heads is going to be extremely rare. I know what that takes on a 396 with the best flow numbers for ported stock LT heads I've ever seen (comparable to AFR195 Comp flow numbers). At an honest 460rwhp (which still isn't 550chp), the cam that was required meant that 6th gear became useless and the car was not a delight to drive on the street. Backing off that cam to one that most people would consider teensy, it came down to around 420rwhp and because a very nice street motor and got 26mpg on the highway. The good news is that it was still really fast: it would slightly pull a C6 Z06 on a roll. Maybe he meant that the long block could handle 550hp, but it's not going to make 550hp. But it doesn't have to!

 

Well I guess we will see. Chad seems to think it wont be an issue at all.

He provides engine dyno and break in service, which I purchased as well. He records the dyno session and posts on youtube. He has a bunch of LT1s with 500+ hp, like this LT1 here that did 575hp:

 

Oh, it can certainly be done, but that won't be an engine you'd ever want to drive on the street. They don't show the RPM on the graph at the end, but you can tell from the torque peak and curve (torque peak appears to be several thousand RPM lower than the power peak, and low-RPM torque/power is pretty low) that it is a very top-end-oriented engine. It's probably idling at about 1500rpm. It probably also isn't stock heads at all. That's the kind of engine that will work well for a drag strip run with 4.33 or shorter gears, a 4000rpm-stall torque converter, and the engine basically stays between 5000-7000rpm (or whatever) for the whole run. That's probably not what you're looking for.

Like I said, though, I'd not get hung up on power numbers. You'll get a very nice power increase over stock and the car will be fast enough to surprise a lot of people. I hope he isn't supplying you with a cam that actually shoots for 550hp, because that's not going to be a pleasant engine to drive around if that's how it's spec'd. You might want to ask for some details on that.

I had meant to also add about tuning software: No, TunerPro won't work on your 96 because of OBD2. Jet DST is the only tuning suite I know about that you can still buy and use on these cars. All the newer ones, like HP Tuners, don't work either. It's annoying. The good news is that Jet DST works well and offers lots of adjustments. It's basically just Tunercat but for OBD2 (Tunercat only works on OBD1). It will work for you.

 

Agreed, and you are absolutely right. I dont want any solid roller drag engine you cant drive on the street, already have one of those in the family. We did speak about the cam and street drive ability and the fact that the car has 4.10 gearing. Ill give him a call again just to make sure. My stuff doesn't arrive to his shop until Thursday. 500hp in a c4 is WAY more than enough to get into trouble and should out perform alot of modern sports cars, id be happy, I would. But, I paid for 550hp and it wasn't cheap. I have an inclination to trust and believe Chad based on the thousands of LT1s hes built over the years.

I went thru the whole 96 ODBII tuning debacle when I first got this car, fortunately I have a guy out this way that still has ability to tune 96 on the dyno, so ill get to know my wheel horse power too. Does PCM for less do 96 ODBII? I know this engine will run like crap until tuned, but I have no idea how "bad" it will actually run and I guess i cant rule out inability to drive it to the dyno which is 25 miles away. I can buy the Jet DST unit today but I have no idea how to tune myself. Maybe I will get it just because its available now.

 

Your 4.10 gears will help a lot in allowing you to street drive a more radical engine than I had. So that's good.
I think PCM For Less can do the 96 tuning. I'd be happy to send the file that ran tolerably well on my car, but it's not likely to work on yours because the injectors are different (I would assume they are different, anyway - mine had Lucas 38lb injectors).

 

I really wish peak HP wasn't still the preferred method of describing engine output. Big cam doesn't mean fun driving experience. Make sure you have this discussion with Chad. For a n/a pushrod engine you get max output over a small rpm range, or less than max over a larger rpm range. Can't have both without FI or at least variable valve timing.

Personally I'd rather have a fat consistent torque curve that matches what the C4 suspension and driveline can handle than a peaky 550hp.

 

I actually need to buy injectors, like soon.

 

How is the engine builder controlling the resulting compression ratio? Dished pistons? With a 4.030 bore and 3.750 stroke and LT4 54cc heads you will be almost to diesel territory for CR. Curious as I am assembling one myself right now.
Thanks!

 

The way I understand it is static compression doesn't matter as much as dynamic compression. Even if you have high static compression the timing of the intake valve event can lower the actual dynamic compression ratio.

 

the stock block is good to like 700 horse

 

Some people around here seem to think 550hp is asking alot of the LTx.

 

i just added a bunch more boost to mine (red curve). We will see if it lasts. Stock botttom end with afr195 comp elim 61cc heads for 9.7:1 SCR. Meth/water inj. No intercooler. P600B (p1-sc) blower. (I mention that bc everyone acts like the p600b is undersized or something)

 

Well, results are in!!

Motor is done, made 533hp.

You Tube

 

That's really nice. Be thinking about the gears you might want with that engine. Also, make sure to ask him where the redline should be - it looks like you'd want to go a few hundred more RPM before shifting to get the most average power out of each gear. That's going to pull hard in its happy range, though!