96 lt-4

3/4 cam is a V6 cam installed in a V8 right???

radar502

OMG that 3/4 cam thing very old school .. Most flathead motor cams came 1/2 race 3/4 full race .. It carryed over into the early 60s cuse people didn't know what they had in there hot rods ( What kinda cam you got ? 3/4 cam) didn't have a clue... There was some very smart people that knew motors back in the day..Thery were racers that made very good parts and sold them so they could go raceing..Racers doing it today..We should be glad for it ..That's were the good stuff comes from.. I'm finished...

Rodney_Gold

Go to a 3.5 or 3.7 diff ratio if it has a 2.6 or a 3.07, it will feel like a different vehicle. You can also add a shift kit to the box for firmer to neck snapping shifts if its an auto. the ratio swap is reversible too if you wanna go back to original. I swapped my 86's diff to a 3.54 and it transformed the vehicle from a slug to a real tyre shredder....much more fun.

MudBottomsDogMan

I had a chip in my '93(400-220 MA/CLOUGH-93Y-A4-273 Level II-F34D) and a throttle response switch from Mid-America. The prom chip did increase HP regardless of what all the genuises tell you. I had it dyno tested. I had a Borla Exhaust also for less back pressure. It is real simple more air, more fuel, more fire, and open exhaust equals power. A chip can actually allow more air to flow as well as increase fuel to the cylinder but if you don't have the exhaust open to let release what is left after the explosion, you are wasting time. Headers polished inside and free flow exhaust. It may sound "Old School" but physics are constant. The same thing that worked in 1960 works today.

Enjoy Your Freedom-Pray for Our Troops,
MudBottoms DogMan

nutz4c4

Really?? Please elaborate on this

C4vettrn

Ranch shocks Is that them air shocks that jacked the back way up in the air and rode like a farm wagon. In high school you could always tell who had the fastest car by which rear end was higher in the air. Oh and the Crager S/S with Kelly Springfield 50's.
AHH! the good old days. Feathered hair, Bell bottoms, saddle shoes.
Sorry, I was having flashbacks for a minute.

mtwoolford

Spend money to maximize what you have.

The LT1 timing chain is a link and pin type, and if it has any miles on it at all, is almost certainly stretched; I'd pull the timing chain cover (a lot of labor, but little cost) and inspect/replace the chain; if you stay stock, costs can be kept down by replacing the chain only and reusing the original sprockets. If you go this far, you can certainly treat the opti to a new rotor and rotor cap.

pull the valve covers, rotate the engine and make sure each valve is depressed the right amount; anything less indicates lifter or lobe wear/damage, which is more common than generally realized; the last lobes nearest the rear of the engine seem more prone to wear or damage.

If at all suspicious, pull the intake manifold to access the lifters. Pulling a lifter and seeing anything out of the ordinary on the roller wheel indicates almost certain damage to the lobe. Valve springs and seals are not expensive and this is an excellent time to swap them out. If there is any wear on the rocker arm tips, replace the rockers; full roller rockers are expensive , but roller tipped rockers are a substantial upgrage at little cost over a stock rocker arm.

finish the tune up, new plugs, spark plug wires, filters, especially the seldom changed fuel filter on the passenger frame rail outboard of the catalytic converter.

as a first upgrade, seriously consider a set of Bosch III injectors; the stock Multitek's weren't that great when new.

and above all, drive your car and enjoy it.

NCBLACKC4

If you want to add just a air intake, i bought the SLP (claw), looks great and adds some power. not much in power upgrade, but mine never broke loose in second before air intake. Auto with 315's.

Tom400CFI

Sorry, but ^you^ didn't gain any power w/your "Claw" intake. What actually happened was that you wasted a bunch of $$$ on a worthless intake system that is no better than stock, on a stock engine. An "cold air" intake which draws HOT air, from the same hot location as the stock intake does!! Anyway, after wasting your money, you LOOKED for vindication on your money spend in SOTP gains. SOTP don't mean SQUAT and unless you can confirm you "gains" on a dyno or track (which you can't b/c there were no gains), then you didn't gain squat. You didn't gain squat.

Man, this thread is full of bull ****. That post by the "muddy-dog" guy was rich stuff. Yikes.

NCBLACKC4

Wow, no need to call me out for wasting money. Was never looking for power gain, mine was for show. I know what it takes for real power, don't need our *** calling me out. With a limited budget the intake looks nice and yes does give "squat" if very little.

QCVette

I agree with NCBLACKC4. No need to rant about his comments.

I also agree with NCBLACKC4 that the claw intake does add something. My '94 had one on it when I bought the car. When I was getting ready to sell the car, I took off some parts to keep. When I took off the claw intake, I noticed a SOTP difference. It did not pull as hard.

I am not saying there is a lot of power to be gained, but my feel was that there was some.

Tom400CFI

Prove it. Dyno or track. When you put objective numbers to it, you'll see that there is NOTHING there. Stock intake is more than good enough. YOU "feel" that there was a gain b/c you psychology is making you "feel" it. SOTP (Seat Of The Pants) doesn't mean ****, it if it did, then my stock '92 LT1 would be a faster car than my '06 C6...and we all know that it's not.

I'm calling NCBLACKC4 out, b/c he's making false claims that could cause the unwitting (people on here who DON'T KNOW and are looking for quality advice) to waste their $$$ on worthless "upgrades". Now NCBLACK is saying that he did it for show. FAIR ENOUGH. That is a fine reason if one thinks the "Claw" is good looking...buy it for that reason. But that's not what he said above. The OP was looking for performance upgrades, NCBLACK said that it adds some power when in fact, it doesn't. Others refer to the thing as a "Cold air intake" and it is not, at all.

I find the "Claw" for sale in two places for $329.00, and it will give you nothing power wise. For $329, you could buy a cam and that will give you a LOT.

SO, for the person seeking accurate advice, posts like that aren't helpful; they're misleading and can result in money wasted. Buy one for LOOKS? Go for it. For power gains on a stock or stockish motor? Nope. For "Cold Air"? Nope.

NCBLACKC4

You can call me out all you want, just saying it was a nice setup. WHEN it was installed on MINE it caused me to lose traction in shifting to second. To me that is causing a change to better! Don't have any bs numbers to back this up, never wanted to buy for horsepower. All is was saying it did make a change in my set up.

NCBLACKC4

Tom, since you are so educated in this field, what is your set up? Enlighten us of all your knowledge.

QCVette

I agree with you that it is not a good bang for the buck, but I do "feel" that there is a difference. I agree not a big one, but some.

I did a quick search to "prove it" to you.

This dyno test shows "a gain of about 5 average HP and a small but noticeable hump in torque from 4000 to 5500rpm". Taken from the OP's post 7.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...o-results.html

This dyno test shows "for a total of 6 extra horsepower over stock".
http://www.vetteweb.com/tech/vemp_06...ngine_buildup/

This manifold pressure test showed "On average, the SLP one had less pressure drop by something close to 2kPa" in Aurora40's posts 16 and 20.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...rv-1992-a.html

NCBLACKC4

Thanks for the info QCVette, can't wait for reply. As we said before, not much gain, but better then nothing! Price is high, but I was going for look more than anything.

Tom400CFI

My reply will be frank and honest...
1. Your car more likely peeled rubber after the swap because of differences in asphalt, temperature or tire than the <5 horsepower.
2. My set up at the current time is a stock engine in a mostly stock car.
3. QCVette, That was an excellent post with some real objective data. Thank you for posting that instead of citing the peel-o-meter.
4. I guess we all agree that it is terrible bang for the buck. $330 For gains that are within the margin of error on a dyno is not money well spent.

EDIT: Replied from phone above^. Now that I've had a chance to review the links above, I'll go right back to what I said originally; $330, for SQUAT.
LINK #1 : This guy is putting down >470RWHP. That's over 530/540ish at the crank. I said "a stock or stockish motor" -which is what we're talking about here, right? The OP is looking for "Mild inexpensive upgrades"?...on a stock or stockish car, I think we can safely assume. On this example, a 500+hp car, we see ~2hp. Dyno margin is 2%, so that would be a margin of 10hp.

LINK #2 6 hp compared to a paper air filter. The diff (if there really is any) is in the filter, not the assembly. We're still w/in margin of error here.

LINK #3 Again, paper filter against aftermarket filters. It's more likely that the diff in Kpa was due to the filter media than they assembly. Or the ambient pressure between testes. Good effort on Aurora40's part, but nothing proven there. Also (and this is the most important) NOT STOCK. 7000 RPM data point? Stock car -which is what we're talking about in this thread, shuts down at 5850 -well past it's 5000 RPM hp peak.

Again...."Spend $330 for something that will likely show no gains" is terrible advice when the same $$$ would buy something that would show substantial, measurable, and repeatable gains. If I were a Noob and this is the advice I got and where I spent my money?....I'd be pissed.

ScaryFast

But Tom, it "felt" faster!

NCBLACKC4

Ok? help us out, what can we buy for the same $$$ that "would buy something that would show substantial, measurable, and repeatable gains."

ScaryFast

Camshaft ($300)
Headers ($500 - 800)
1.6 ratio roller rockers ($150)
Exhaust (varies)
Porting heads ($1000)

$300 does not get you 35 HP. Real HP is not free, but it's not extremely expensive, etiher. My LT1 made 414 to the wheels following this recipe, which equates to 480 HP at the crank assuming 15% drivetrain loss. Guys like Tom400CFI are where I got my information.

This is from on old post which a search would easily uncover:

Recipe for 425 to 450 CRANK HP:

Corvette 350 LT1 with flattop pistons. (Stock components will work)

LT1 Alum. Heads that flow over 260cfm/intake, 190 cfm/exhaust. (Pretty easy to achieve through CNC or hand porting by a pro)

1.75" Full length headers with dual 2.5" exhaust and hi-flow mufflers.

Relatively large camshaft with at least 236 degrees of duration @ .050" and .550" to .585" lift, depending on the ported head's limit. (With no emissions and decent exhaust this can be a single pattern cam with 110 or 112 degree LSA)

52mm or larger throttle body with modified air filter assembly.

24lb to 30lb injectors, depending on who programs/tunes your PROM.

.029" headgasket to get 10.75-11.0:1 compression, depending on final combustion chamber size after head porting/milling.

MSD 6A or 'bigger' and a full-size coil for top end spark energy.

Electric waterpump and an aluminum flywheel will also help the 'bottom line'.

Comp Cams Pro Magnum Roller Rockers and measure for custom length pushrods.