Well, fellas, after enthusiatically removing my engine with pipe dreams of doing this and doing that. . .Wife exercised her veto power and cut my budget. ...So, I just installed a hot cam kit with springs and 1.6 rollies, water pump, optispark2, plugs wires, all new gaskets (except head). . . . and quickly ran out of money. Hence I re-installed the engine so that I can have something to drive on the weekends. I have given up challenging my neighbor's WRX. . .he blew it up trying to get more boost out of it

Upon initial startup, I kept the rpms above 1200 to keep the cam wet for a bit. (i know....its a roller but...some habits don't die). I noticed some popping noises in the exahust. I then shut it down and let it cool for a bit. Took her off the blocks and took it for a ride around town. Yikes...no power and lots of backfiring and the temps went skyhigh and she started knocking....

Suddenly remembered that I had to bleed air out of the theromstat neck. Grabbed some towels to wrap around thermostat housing to soak up antifreeze and prevent it from messing up my new opti. Lots of air pissed out before I saw water. Let it cool completely That problem solved, I moved on to the popping and lack of power.

Ahhhh, I had switched plug wires 5 and 7, and I switched injector wires two and four (musta been on the last beer when I did that one).

Car drove fine and seem to pick up more and more power as I drove it. It finally could do burnouts like before....but with a little more enthusiasim Drove it today for 100 miles, no leaks, no complaints, and lots more zip above 25 mph. It did run about 25 degrees hotter than usual, and the mileage is down by about 2 to 3 gallons. I can tell that the idle and midrange is too rich, while up top is a little lean.

In addition to the wonderful chop chop at idle, I am very happy with the hot cam and very glad that I did not go with the cc306 or cc305. The hot cam is plenty bumpy at idle and I can tell that if I put any more cam, the car would not be very streetable or pleasant to drive. . .even with a good stall. Kudos to the old timers and their sound advice. I can also tell that gears and a nice stall will make this car a monster street vehicle. I'm guessing I picked up about .5 second in the quarter with just the cam install. Gears and stall will probably add a whole 1 second. The hot cam in my opinion....is no slouch or compromise cam as I heard some say. It is a great cam.

What mods have any of you done with the hot cam that made a huge difference in power?

 

I can't speak from an LT1 perspective (I've driven but not owned one), but I went with heads, cam, intake and exhaust (see my profile). The L98 absolutely dearly needs all of it hands down because its unacceptably weak out of the factory. Now, the difference is literally night and day. I will never go back to stock, can't tolerate it. The LPE/Accel 219/219 cam affords nice mild chop in a 355cid, so that's not much different than yours. Good lift .560". See, we're practically brothers.

 

Get it tuned and make more power, and it will smooth out the idle some.

 

probably pick up some of the lost mpg too.

 

A tune mostly helped part throttle, idle, etc on mine. But after it was done, it was really appearant the car needed it.

 

Did you pull your hood to get the cam in/out? I have a hotcam to put in my 96 LT4, if I ever find the time...

 

headers will help it breath.

 

My next move will be to ported cylinder heads. I'd say that will give you most bang for the buck.

Jake

 

Not necessary at all. It's not even necessary when removing the engine in a C4.

 

Can you tune the stock computer on the vettes?

 

Yes.

 

OH, YEA!!! And what a different it'll make. I had BRIAN at PCMFORLESS do mine, on my 96 LT1, a few weeks ago and I'm definitely a happy camper.

Jake

 

I was wondering and was going to ask why he pulled the engine. I always figured the cam could be swapped without pulling the engine or removing the hood.

Maybe he had initially intended to do something more than just change the cam. We'll see when he responds to this.

Jake

 

I thought it was best to remove the engine to properly isnstall a cam.

 

Don't forget to call me to come help/watch! I am saving up for my hotcam kit as we speak.

 

Although you can change the cam w/o removing the engine it's more for convenience/safety and I cherish my paint. When I installed mine, I removed the hood to gain better access to the radiator area. On my 96, I had to raise the engine a few inches to get the cam out due to the crossmember. The cross member may NOT be an issue on earlier C-4s as I'm unfamiliar w/ the nuances earlier C-4's. It's good to hear some are choosing the "hot cam". When I installed mine, the threads were leaining me toward a custom comp cam...

Good luck w/ you installs and please continue to post your results.

 

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies.

I removed the engine because I had pipe dreams of making a stroker and putting in a high stall converter. My budget ran thin quickly, and I had other financial obligations that prevented me from completing it. THere is always next winter though!

I can see it would be easy to change the cam while the engine is in the car. The toughest part of the job. . . . would be getting at the spark plug holes to put in your air fitting to change the springs. I think it is the same amount of time and effort to remove the engine. Plus you can really clean-paint your engine bay area. I did not plan on changing all those other parts...thats why the budget went thin. I do have the magnaflow cat back system to install yet. I'll post my experience with that this weekend. It only takes about 1 to 2 hours to install that..

 

True, but why wouldn't you? It's 4 bolts and makes it a lot easier to get in there...

And you can get cool shots like this:

 

A friend of mine just had anLT4 hot cam and kit installed in his `94,and had his computer exchanged with one from PCM For Less.The car runs very smoothly.

 

I going to stick a cam in my LT1 and hadn't planned on pulling the engine or the hood. I was just wondering if there was something about the swap I hadn't considered that would prevent me from doing it that way.

Thanks for the response.

Jake