Hey, posted the other day about getting new heads. I’m ending up going with AFR 195 street heads as I think those will be the best for me at the moment as I can always upgrade and sell these later on.

Im gonna go with a Miniram intake due to simplicity to find along with the ease of working in the engine afterwords (fuel injectors, valve covers, many of other things as well).

Now, where I need yalls professional help is cam selection. I’m looking for a cam more on the wild side without completely compromising driving it to work 1-2 times a week or less. I’m fine with a rougher loping idle and bumping up the idle speed a hair if needed.

I also plan on 1.6 roller rocker but haven’t decided what type or brand yet. I’m figuring non self aligning with new hardened pushrods and guide plates but not sure yet. I know I’ll need to get the correct stuff to support what I’m building properly.

Let me know yalls thoughts!! Thanks in advance.

 

Not a fan of 1.6 with fast ramp cams...personal choice.
Steel cores are good, the cheap iron stuff from the bigger guys I wouldnt touch.

 

224/230 for a smaller cam that drives well... for radical sounding 230-236/236-242....

Mine is 226/232 (cam card says otherwise but thats how it degreed... and I had the cam itself checked.) Supposed to be 224/230. Runs right up to 6300. This is for a 350 though... I forget if you're going 383.

 

Gonna be going with a 350 for now as the 383/396 will be a couple years down the road and I figure I’ll have to get a new cam for it anyway. I rather get the larger can I can get for this engine to get the most out of it without sacrificing the street portion as previously said.

I really like the way your car sounds. Which can do you have exactly?

 

Its the comp XE series but its a tweaked marine grind... XM276 is pretty much the same. With the miniram the cc503 may be better. Again, more or less the same grind. Big thing is mine has a different LSA. Without the cam card I can't honestly say the exact specs but the XM276hr-12 was a damn perfect match iirc.

 

I agree, about 220-224/230ish for a cam that you want to drive around well, but mine is that size in a 396 and I did have to idle it up to make it not die at a stoplight on occasion. Idling it up removed the lopey idle altogether, but its more embarassing to me to have it die in traffic.

 

I'm suprised. Mine will idle all day at 600. 750 seems to be the happy point however...

 

Talk to whoever would be tuning the car, many are uncomfortable with truly dialing in a somewhat radical cam. And for the afr 195 heads fast ramps with at least 550 or more lifr are what is needed to get max flow through them. The street eliminator heads peak at 280 cfm, at over .550 lift. To maximize what they have to offer and allow it to be tuned properly you should be consulting a professional cam grinder. Jones cam designs, advanced induction, Lloyd Elliott, and others have a good amount of experience doing l98 stuff that is retaining the stock ecu, from experience they can probably get you someone that is tunable and help optimize your head choice. You should know going in that if you plan to keep the stock ecu, have it start, run, drive, and operate good in all weather conditions as it does stock.. you will not have a perfect camshaft for your l98 with those heads. It was the single biggest factor in me deciding to go with holley efi, the cam I have is now optimized for my setup and the power range I wanted. It would not have been possible with the stock ecu and a mail order chip. It is a slippery slope when you start modifying these cars and can get expensive fast. If you want average cookie cutter? Buy the afr enforcer heads, the lt4 hot cam, some decent rocker arms 1.6 ratio.. and Scott Hansen or others can easily tune it as long as you provide data logs and it will run, drive like stock, not surge, not stall, load up, or have drivability problems.

Do not think in terms of a set of heads and a miniram.. you have to consider the entire system. And whatever you budget to do it after talking to several people, double it. Then add 20% and you'll be close. Now if all you want is more power with basically no change in the cars drivability.. get the procharger kit that's for c4 vettes.. about 4500 bucks. But even with that you'll likely end up buying a fuel pump, larger injectors, a good dual exhaust system, valve springs and I can guarantee you'll have little hiccups in the way it runs that you will pay someoneto tune out.. and good luckfinding shops that actuallyknow what they are doing and are willing to burn chips all day as they make changes tuning a 35 year old computer. see where I am going with this? There is no magic... heads, cam, intake= 35% more power with stock drivability.

Not trying to **** on your parade, it is just not as simple as heads, cam, intake with headers on these cars. power isn't hard, reliability isn't hard. power with drivability, and reliability is hard, especially if you are unable to do most of the work by yourself. You could easily spend 5 grand and only gain 75 hp. It's all a compromise, drive a friends lt1 Corvette that is stock.. if that's enough power for you.. then start planning what it takes to build your car up to that level. Think,ask lots of questions, talk to those who have actually done what you want. I think it might put you off the whole idea.

 

From what I’ve seen and read about a 224/230 seems like a pretty good option along with about a 112 LSA. It seems the CC 503 is a really good option and that’s likely what I’ll go with after some more studying and research. It looks like it’ll compliment the heads and Miniram pretty well.

 

Any last inputs from anyone?

Ive decided to go with the items listed below unless someone believes otherwise that it’s a bad idea.

I’ve also decided on comp cams ultra gold non self aligning rockers. Pushrods have yet to be decided on as I will have to get everything put together and then measure for accurate sizing. Don’t wanna take a gamble and them be the wrong size and waste time/money.

will be getting a new timing chain and gear set as well even tho mine only has about 30k miles. Rather do it now vs later. Probably a new ATI damper as well since mine looks like the factory one.

 

I have also not contacted anyone about tuning yet but have heard about 2-3 really good tuners in the area for our cars and will mostly like trailer to there for initial tuning. If for some reason they can’t/won’t touch it then I will find someone else and get the stuff for data logging and do it that way. Maybe even go the dynamic efi route for future ease of tuning too if needed.