I need to have my engine torn apart to replace the head gaskets. I figured while its apart I should throw in some performance parts. If you had $500 to spend on upgrades and were in my situation what would you buy? Take into consideration that the upgrades would be stuff that comes out during a head gasket replacement.

I figure that my head gasket replacement alone should be $800-$1000 so why not make the most of it by throwing in some fun stuff.

 

throw in a hot cam kit. That alone you will feel the hp increased.


ps. I see you are in syracuse. If you can come to Rochester. I have a friend can install the cam and tune your car for far less than you take it to the shop out there. I am sure he can do it all head gasket, cam install and tune your car for under $1000, of course you provided the gasket and cam kit. He is a hard core corvette enthusiast know what is doing. Let me know if your interested.

Bruce

 

Absolutely!!! I've been tring to find a good mechanic to do the work so this would work out perfect. And finding someone to tune it would have been my next problem. Can you point me in the right direction for buying the hotcam kit? I'm not really familiar with that stuff.

If you could PM me the contact info on your friend that would be great.

 

I checked out the pics of your 'vette in your profile. Your engine setup is sick man!!

Very nice

 

One other thing that wont cost any extra is use impalla head gaskets. They will give you a slight compression increase.

 

Head porting is excellent bang for the buck. In my opinion, the best place to put your money.

 

A good set of CNC ported heads though will be upwards of $1000 and then the benefit of ported heads on a stock car seems to be the great unknown. With the stock cam and especially the stock exhaust, any benefit from ported heads would be minimal at best. From a power increase standpoint ported heads should actually be the last thing that is done.

The interesting thing about the LT1 is that GM actually did everything they could to get the most out of it in stock configuration. When I put on my headers I got 23 HP, but I already had a cam. A friend of mine put headers on his stock car and gained maybe 10 HP and barely any torque, very disappointing. I added heads and got about 30 HP but I already had the cam and headers, I have to believe that heads on a stock car would be minimal.

It goes like this, heads require a cam to help get more air in and headers to help get more air out. Headers don't do a lot of good without having more air in, so you really need a cam at the least, maybe heads. For the best bang for your buck money increase, do the cam, then headers, finally heads. Of course some of this may require duplicate labor so it would be ideal to do it all at once. If you've only got around $500 you can't go wrong with the hot cam kit, it certainly was the best bang for the buck on my car at approximately 44 HP over stock, a better gain than any of my other individual mods have given me.

I actually stumbled into the proper progression of modifications quite by accident, it was simply done as money permitted. As it was though it was really the best order. Click here if you want to see my progression of horsepower increases http://www.wku.edu/~nathan.plemons/h..._corvette.html

Click here if in general you want to see my thoughts on LT1 performance http://www.wku.edu/~nathan.plemons/h...rformance.html

 

When I had my 95 I had the heads ported with bigger valves, but left the stock cam in. The car picked up a decent amount of power even with the stock cam and stock tune.
It put down 298rwhp/310rwtq. This was with the stock exhaust manifolds with a Corsa cat-back. That's about 30+hp from just a set of heads. I think the car ran 12.6 before I put the hot cam and headers on it.

 

This is like a "free" mod if the engine's down anyway. I use them on my current package, won't be able to on the new bottom end due to clearance and C/R issues. These will give you nearly a half point of increased C/R. They are .029" compressed, your stock ones are .049".

 

Benefits from ported heads on a stock package is not unknown to me. To clarify, "I" did not suggest cnc ported cylinder heads. And for very good reason.

 

PM sent

Installing a hot cam on a stock LT1, you will feel the hp gain, no doult about that. But to get much more as everyone is talking about here is to install a ported heads as well. But if you are under a budget. Cam first than if your want more later, add a ported heads. A typical head/cam combo with good tune can get you 350-375rwhp.

Bruce

 

Awsome info guys. Thanks alot!!!! You guys rock

 

I've been reading you page alot recently. Lots of great info!

 

hotcam kit,1.6 rockers,and tune now,then ported heads and longtube headers later

 

Hotcam kit first makes a lot of sense since it costs about 500 it fits your budgetary requirement. LTs and porting are more than 500 bucks, and the hotcam kit will provide a solid foundation for future mods.

 

with Nathan.
LT1:
Port Stock Heads
LT4 "HotCam" Kit
LongTube Headers
Gears (3.73 for A4, 4.10 for M6)
Converter/Clutch (3000rpm Converter/Aftermarket Clutch)

Those mods, should make for a VERY fun LT1

 

Are you replacing the opti and waterpump with this rebuild? If so, consider converting to the new style opti, and using a electric water pump. The savings in using a std. double roller timing set, and the new style opti, which is cheaper then the old style, will pay for the parts to do the conversion.

 

Didnt plan to. I'll add this to the list when I do the heads

 

The only problem is that you might be in somewhat of a catch 22. To use the new opti you need a newer cam with the longer dowel pin. The hot cam comes with the longer pin, which you have to tap in slightly to get to work on the older cars. That in itself is no big deal, until you go to extend it back out to go with the new distributor. I never could do it, I ended up swapping the cam again!

 

if the stock compression is 10.5 for a LT1 your compression with the impala head gaskets is 10.8 As for an LT4 it will bump it to 11.1 every little bit helps!