It's looking more and more like I will have to swap the water pump sooner rather than later. I smelled antifreeze yesterday on the way home from work. I also had to top it off the week before. When I opened the hood it looked like the antifreeze sprayed a little in the engine compartment, probably off the belt. I felt under the WP and it was a little damp. This also explains why my power steering has been acting up. It has been getting wet. I will investigate some more with the engine running but it's not looking good. I don't know how much longer it will last so to be safe I want to start ordering parts.

I have a Mezierre HD EWP and a Coyles timing chain at the house. I am going to buy an opti from thepartsladi to swap out the 109k mile stock opti. I believe those are factory replacements and I've heard good things about them.? I would consider an MSD but I can't afford it at this time. I don't believe I will have problems if I stay at or below 6300rpm. Opinions? Any cheaper? If I am going that far I should also do the cam. I would do the heads and cam at this time but I am on a budget at the moment. Here's the numbers for the custom billet cam I am currently considering... 228/235 .560/.560 109 LSA. - 1900-6200 RPM. Opinions? At a later date I would like to swap the heads for either a set of LE2's or the new AFR 195 street heads, depending on my budget at that time and future testing of the AFR's. I still need gaskets, EWP harness, and valve train components. I will also need a new tune. I'm hoping a $75 mail order tune from PCMFORLESS can cover it for now. I will dyno tune later when swapping the heads. Something I am not sure of is the injectors. I have 24# SVO's and I occasional spray a 125 shot. I would rather wait until later to replace these since it will be one extra large expense at this time. I can't do this job myself because it's my only car and it has to be back on the road asap. If I thought I could get it done in one weekend I would. There are a few things I would be apprehensive about.. getting the cam and valve train correct, getting the hub off, getting the cam installed properly without pulling the engine. I have no problems pulling things apart and getting dirty. Getting the new stuff in and working correctly on a schedule is the concern. I would prefer some help but don't know anyone locally. My mechanic quoted $1k for labor. I may have to go that route. Sorry for the long thread. Opinions?

Opti $230
Cam $300
Gaskets ?
1.6 RR ?
Springs ?
Tune $75
Labor $1000

Edit: I just realized I had done another post about this problem not long ago. This one is more geared toward cam selection and swap though.

 

Why exactly are you going to swap the cam if you're satisfied with the performance? Just because you need to change the water pump? If I were in your position, and I was when I just put my cam in, I'd save up and do the heads and cam together along with a dyno tune. Doing a cam alone will not get the best out of it, and you may be ultimately unsatisfied with the result. Plus you'll save $$ on labor if you do it together instead of two seperate tear-downs.

Instead of spending $2k+ on heads and cam, why not go for 3.45 or 3.73 gears? That'll spin you higher and would work nice with your 2800 stall converter.

 

It performes well, but as we all know it's never enough. I want some NA power for when the bottle is empty. I will likely have to replace the opti, timing chain, and WP now. I thought it would only make sense to do the cam at the same time, since all of this would have to come off the engine. The additional work for the cam install would be to remove the fans and radiator, pull the hub, jack the engine up, install the cam, remove the valve covers and install valve train components. Pulling the heads would require removal of the heads, intake, headers, etc.? It seems like it could be done as two seperate jobs. No? I figured I have to spend money on the fix now so why not get some performance out of it now, that I want to do later on anyway. PCMFORLESS is great with tuning although I know not as good as a dyno, but I'm trying to keep it reasonable. I think 340-350rwhp NA with a cam swap and my mods is possible.?

Gears are not an option right now. I am happy with the 3.07 and it's a part that does not need replacing. I don't think the Dana 36 would like the 125 shot with gears and 2800 converter. Also traction would be more of a problem. I want to build it more for mid to top end right now and worry about the launching later when I can replace the rear and get some sticky tires. My trans is built to take it but the rear is not at the moment.

Thank you for the input.

 

That cam with stock heads will idle rough, sound nasty, and make absolutely squat for horsepower. Stock heads won't flow at all with that lift, the longer durations will kill your low end, and the tight lobe separation angle will make whatever power you do make more of a spike rather than a broad curve. If you're fairly happy with the car and just want to give it a little bit of a boost while setting up for more mods in the future you can't go wrong with the LT4 Hot Cam.

Being said, there are plenty of cams out there that will do OK, but the one you listed is NOT it.

The hot cam with long tubes, stock heads on a 6-spd will make about 330 HP. This cam MIGHT peak at a few more than that, but you'll give up more than that in the mid range. Furthermore you can forget about a rear wheel number like that through an automatic. (with stock heads) Honestly I'd say you'd be lucky to see 310.

 

I'm thinking with a .560 lift cam and 1.6 ratio rockers you better look at how much lift your stock heads will handle before your springs coil bind. That is alot of lift for a stock head, may need the spring pockets deepened. just my .02

 

There are plenty of springs out there that will get the job done and fit the stock pockets, but it is a very valid concern. When selecting a spring you need to look at it's maximum lift for a given install height, and then you need to check your install height.

A spring that has a maximum lift of .600 at a 1.440 install height but is installed at 1.400 inches will have a maximum lift of only .560. Also if you're planning on running a lift of .560, you'll want a spring that is capable of more than that but my memory is failing me! I'm thinking we used to spec at least a 50 thousandths buffer so you would want a spring that's good to .610 at the given install height as a bare minimum.

You'll also want to make sure the spring has the proper seat pressure, which you will want to be higher than stock if you want to turn some RPM's. Factory seat pressure is something like 80lbs. If you try to spin 6500 RPM's with that you'll float the valves in a heartbeat.

 

Holy cow, Nathan! Some of us old guys where asking about whatever happened to you just the other day.

 

Like I said on another thread, I had to ask a football question over on OT. I decided to jump over here and see how many fights I could start.

 

I don't plan on going past 6300 rpm's.
New combo I'm looking at:

Billet Cam 223/230 .565/.565 109 LSA
Patriot Gold Springs
Retainers and Locks
$600 shipped

Comp Cams Pro Magnum Rocker Arms 1.6 7/16 #1305-16
$260 shipped

TrickFlow Guideplates #30400623-8
$25 shipped

ARP 7/16 Studs #134-7103
$47 shipped

Trickflow Pushrods
$95 shipped

thepartsladi GM Optispark
$240 shipped

EWP Relay
$30 shipped

Gaskets
??

Labor
$1000

Total: $2297

I may have to rethink this and go cheaper on some things.

 

how late of a date will it be before you get new heads?

those cams you list will be absolutely KILLER on a set of LE2's or AFR's. On stockers i have to agree they arent optimal and a different selection could be in order to make same power and much better driveability. BUT if you can live with it for alittle while, i'd put that cam in and wait til you get the heads on.

that 228/235 cam on a set of good heads in a 350 will peak well beyond 6200 more like 6400-6500 i'd say depending on the advertised duration, i dont know how much total overlap there is, but that cam is comparable to LE2's cam and they do make good power at 6400-6600 range on 350-355's. Thats some revving

Gold springs are decent, but if you could, i'd go extreme gold for the extra pressure since you'll be turning high rpms with those cams.

That second cam is nice too, alittle more streetable and should work good with stock heads for now, much better than the other cam but you'll sacrifice some power when the new heads go on over that larger cam. that 223/230 is similar to comp's 224/230 on a 110 and i have heard that on LT1's stock heads and they run good and idle alittle choppy but smooth, its not like a overcammed motor.. Its not stumbling around if you will, its driveable still.

its a tradeoff that you'll have to make. more streetability now with less power down the road, or better running motor later with loads of power down the road. not to say that smaller cam wont make power with good heads, as it WILL make a damn good bit of power, i just prefer that you use the larger cam since it fits the combo/head better

Dont be too afraid of the idle, depending on the advertised duration. I have 19.5 degrees of overlap at .050 on my cam that has a 109 lsa and its in a 383 and the idle is alittle choppy but not that bad. I got vid of it if you want to hear it. car idles good at 950 rpms and still has decent brakes. Car is very driveable.

That 228/235 has 13.5 degrees at .050 and being on a smaller 350 inch motor it should idle alittle smoother than my 383 does and thats a good thing. I wouldnt be afraid of the 109 lsa on that duration cam. With stock LT1 compression you'll still have decent dynamic compression ratio but you should check it to be sure what it is. I estimate between 8-8.5 which is great for pumpgas. But if its high 7's you'll still be ok just will have a slightly softer bottom end. With 2800 stall thats not a big deal

 

If it were me, and I wish I had, I would contact a custom cam grinder and get the right cam from the get go.

Seriously, there a lot of combos that will work, but a catalog cam doesn't have all the intracacies for your exact combo. Fast ramp/slow ramp/hybrid/duration..... they can spin it just the way you want it.

If I can afford it, thats what I'm doing next time.



Nathan, good to see you back. I never had an LT1 so we didn't converse much but the board lost a lot of knowledge when you left.

 

I got the Comp cam 502 and ported the stock LT4 heads and got great power and sounds great. Ended up with 364 rwhp with the last dyno tune run. You can check it out at youtube, with my wifes address huhjulie1 and you will see the 1st dyno run, and a street run when my car was stock with eliminators. The professional guys at corvette mike said I didnt need to use better springs, retainers or anything. Did use a new gear. Hope you get good results with whatever you get.

 

What do you think of AFR heads?

 

A Hotcam, 1.6rr and ported Lt1 heads gained me about 50 rwhp. For not much more, you could probably go with AFR heads for about the same price and gain a little more.

 

Just be aware that that cam is meant for high RPM. If you're not gonna spin it past 6300 you'll cost yourself a little bit. Then on stock heads too, I think you're just setting yourself up for a disappointment.

Now if you are aware that it's not going to perform optimally and are willing to deal with that until you get a good set of heads to go with it, that's fine. Too many people though will go against the sound advice, get a massive cam, get pissed that they shoot their fuel economy to hell and make miserable power and then wind up selling the car for somebody else to fix. I've seen it happen plenty of times, so that's where I'm coming from.

 

if the 223/230 cam has only 276/281 dureation (same as Hot Cam and CC 503 cam) but more @ .050 than both and 147/153 @ .200 lift, 60.5 degrees overlap @ .006 and 8.5 degrees @.050 and has a 8.6 DCR on a stock bottom end you will not lose low end power while stilkl making a FAT TQ curve and good top end power.

There are LOTS of misconceptions about tight LSA cams and better results come from focusing on the amount of averlap and the timing events that tell what the cam will act like. The LSA is just an end resulty of getting these where the cam guy wants them.

When running stock (un ported) heads in Super Stock, what kinda lift do they use???? I can asure you that it is not less than .560 lift. More lift is more power regardless of where the flow starts dropping off at a 28" flow test.

Just imagine what happens in the engine when the air is moving at 50", 75", 100" (or more) of depression. The flow will go turbulent at .400 lift at these depressions but you do not use a .400 lift due to this.

Lloyd

 

I just received the new opti. I hope the old opti holds out long enough. I now have to add coolant about every week or two. Is there a way to seal up the WP to make it hold out a bit longer? I am seriously considering doing the labor myself. The only real concern I have is hub removal and cam/valve train setup. I'm in the process of collecting old threads for install info. If anyone has a good one with pics please post.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...post1567112256

 

Rick, choose one with a wider LSA. 109 with that duration would be Ok with a carb or a weak head that needed a "low end" crutch via tightening the LS up. Im guessing tuning would be a bear also, especially down low. With a good set of heads you dont need the cam to crutch things to pull air in, the head does the work for you resulitng in being able to use a more friendly cam and make the same power with better manners.

 

I won't pretend to know enough to say that cam's too big, I'll leave that advice to the people I'm listening to about my own cam selection. But I will offer my $.02 worth on labor cost. If you're not the least bit intimidated by doing the work yourself, you could rent a car for a week for less than $1000 and give yourself time to do the work yourself.

 

When it comes to sticking in a big CAM, it is not always better or the right thing to do.. you really need to know how well your intake and heads will flow, Spring, Rockers and retainer installed to match the CAM. Compression Ratio, port design, valve size, Cam Dynamic(Lift, duration, LSA, etc), Gear Ratio, manualy/auto trans, they all come into play when building a killer engine. Many Smaller Cam when correctly selected will out perform a badly selected Big CAM/Engine combination.

What power range or band is what you really need to look at. How will the car will be driven and where ?(street/strip, strip only, road course, etc).

Sticking a large cam in without the rest of the compones to match is useless and will only give you problems and disappointment.

Have you ever been in or driven a car with a engine with this cam (either correctly select and built , or badly selected and built)

Well.. good luck...