I am building a 1996 .030 over for my Corvette. I will use the Vortec heads and the TPI base plate from Sciggins Dickey. I want it to be compatible to the computer in my car. What is the cam of choice for this application? Will a ZZ4 cam work? Anybody have a good cam and lifters laying around? I am not familiar with computer controlled cars and would like this to be pretty much plug - n - play. Thanks for the help!!

 

What year is your Corvette?

 

you can not change that cam without a re tune. guys sometimes do this with mass air cars and have varied luck getting away with it. speed density uses a map pressure sensor that uses manifold vacuum for the fuel tables. there is nothing that will throw a speed density car more out of wack than the cam. you can probably get away with the vortech heads and scoggin base but you literally do not want to use anything besides the stock cam unless you retune the car. if you do go more aggressive you'll have to make sure the valve springs can handle it AND the heads will flow with the increase in lift. i honestly can't remember the iron vortech flow charts but i could have sworn they were dead by .500 lift.

so, to sum this up

if you want more hp and a cam change you HAVE to re tune and may need larger injectors.


or, if you do not want to mess with the ecu, reuse your stock roller cam and you will still gain a few hp from the better base

edit, i misread the op and for some reason saw 1990, must have been the tpi with a 9 in the year. anyway, i'm going to leave my post up since it applies to speed density cars, mass air is a bit more forgiving and some of the guys may know how far you can push the oe ecu before tuning is required.

 

on my 87 MAF car i ran a zz4 cam with no problems and using stock injectors
worked great !

 

Huh? Me thinks you got a typo in there somewhere

 

Will flow over .500 ( no much ) but limited by stock valve seal/guide arrangement to .470 lift
without spring change or valve guide mods


I believe is using a 96 -00 Vortec engine for his build

 

1990 convertible. The motor is out of a 1996 truck - 4 bolt main. May not use the Vortecs, just re-use the stock L98 heads to avoid too many issues. At this point, it just needs to move under it's own power. Thanks for the info.

 

Honestly the Vortec heads are decent power producers but they have alot of drawbacks for use in a Corvette.

Mainly that expensive SD intake, but also you have to machine the guides on them to get more than .450 lift and with used heads your gonna have to have them surfaced and valve job - maybe guides.... it's alot of $$$ in a just OK cyl head.

Your in the same boat machine work wise on the 113's (stock L98 alum heads) but at least you don't have to buy that SD intake. People usually replace the 113 heads but they are decent performers, espc well suited to the stock TPI system. 113 heads come stock on the ZZ3/4 GMPP crate engines and they are 355HP so there is plenty of potential in them for a street car.

With a 96 Vortec block and your 113 heads - you could basically build a ZZ4 or improve on one a little.

The ZZ4 cam would work fine on the TPI - it's very mild and alot of folks run it and are happy. It dosen't require alot of supporting mods.

If you want to go alittle more the GM LT4 Hot Cam or the LPE 219. They are both very common combinations and easy to find and tune for. Both of them require a few supporting mods, new springs and rockers.

The key is the tune. Once you decide what your gonna build, what supporting modifications you are going to install, (headers, dual exhaust, ported intake stuff like that) get in touch with PCM4Less. He is one of the best mail order tuners out there.

http://www.pcmforless.com/

Good luck with your build.
Will

 

Thank you for that very concise response. I already have headers and exhaust, cold air intake and, yes, the airfoil. I bought it with that stuff on it. I also bought it with the motor locked so I don't really know what else is done to it. I will probably stick with the stock L98 heads and maybe get some porting done. At this poine, I will most likely stick with the stock cam also. (unless someone has a ZZ4 cam laying around) I just need it to make noise so my wife stops making noise.

 

i agree with the above. if you have a 1990 that means you have 113 heads and with minor port work you can get 220-230cfm on the intake and 190 on the exhaust, that's with an air die grinder and $50 standard abrasives kit. with such a high intake/exhaust % something like the 219 cam would be worth considering as it has fast ramps, idles easy and will make power with tpi.

you're going to have to retune this car anyway if it's a 1990 so copy a well working tried and true combo and enjoy. you also shouldn't have much of a problem finding a basemap chip for a 219 - tpi - 24lb injector combo. if possible you still should always have the car dyno tuned, mostly to check for knock and see how much timing can be added.

i know the zz4 cam has been mentioned but it's really not the best match for the 113 head. it has too much of a split for such an efficient head % wise. i honestly have never understood why gm spec'd this cam on a 113 head......even stock.

actually it would probably work well with a caprice that has the restrictive police exhaust


plan B is, as you say, staying stock. if you do, the #1 place you can pick up hp in the tpi-heads is by doing a bowl blend in the heads and porting the heck out of the tpi base. the stock base as most know is more restrictive than the heads so any porting, smoothing, opening up you can do there is worth hp.

back in the day i remember modding a stock 1990 car by adding roller rockers, headers and porting the living heck out of the tpi. the car went from running a 13.7 to a 13.1 with something like a 4mph increase in trap speed. i want to say it ran 105mph with the ported tpi. it also ran very well with the stock chip.

 

Thanks for the info. Where does the 219 cam come from?

 

LPE Lingenfelter?

 

yes Lingenfelter 219 for use with the super ram