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I finally have some downtime from this project and wanted to upload some progress photos and document my build here. A little backstory, I purchased the car in September of 2020 with 58k miles from an estate in Arkansas. The car remained relatively stock for the next year and then the upgrades began. Prior to the cam and intake I had installed ZR1 style wheels, lowered the front and back, Hooker headers, 1.6 roller rockers, C6 front brakes, and LT1 Corsa cat back. The car was quicker, a little more fun to drive, but still felt anemic compared to my 03 Z06. Being that the car is a 6 speed I opted for a Mini Ram intake. Cam was a huge debate for me, I went between the CC503, ZZ409, and Hotcam. I settled on the CC503, but as I’ll outline later, the cam was originally intended to be a project later down the line.
I’m going to break this up into several posts so it is more digestible and easy to weed through later down the road for other folks looking to do similar upgrades.
Day one started of innocently enough, my original intention was to pull my IAT sensor from under the plenum so I could see what shape it was and order the IAC sensor extension. I purchased my Mini Ram used so I had some bits and pieces to order before it arrived. Removed it and quickly figured out that sensor wasn’t going back on with the plenum on. New intake was in the mail so I figured let’s get started.
The second day kind of bit me in the rear, but had it not happened I would not have installed the cam. The intake bolt closest to the water neck sheared off in the head, and none of the tools I had available could get it out. After sleeping on it I decided to pull the heads, have a machine shop extract the bolt, set up my valve train, and cut the valve guides if necessary. Remember those 1.6 roller rockers I had installed prior? They put the lift over .525 and as indicated in other threads, that is the limit before you started having retainer/valve guide clearance issues. Off the heads came and another order of parts.
With another batch of parts in the mail it was time to pull the radiator, fans, and accessories off the front. Nothing unusual to speak of here. Everything went smooth and I had it stripped down to the timing cover fairly quickly.
The next few steps were the ones I assumed would be the most challenging. Pulling the timing cover, removing the timing set, and pulling the cam. Long story short I ended up removing most of the bolts from my oil pan to drop it low enough to remove and re-install the timing cover. I pulled the timing cover and popped the crank gear off and started after the cam. I unbolted the driver side motor mount and lifted the engine enough so cam would clear the front crossmember. I did not have to touch my AC accumulator and just pushed the condenser out of the way. None of this was difficult per se just very tight quarters. I originally was going to run a Cloyes double roller but had a clearance issue with the oil galley, opted for an OE style Cloyes replacement. Timing set removed and new cam installed. Cloyes replacement timing set
Last edited by Spencer Smith; Aug 12, 2022 at 04:24 PM.
Reason: Grammar
I struggled with the oil pan and was overlooking a nut hidden under the oil cooler line. Once that was off the pan dropped down and reinstalling the timing cover was a snap. Spent some time cleaning up old gaskets and got the accessories mostly put back on. Make sure to put your power steering line back on at the rack before you move on and forget.
As of today, 08/12/22, I’m still waiting on my heads to be finished. Once I can reinstall the heads and headers I can mock up my fuel lines. I decided to go ahead and remove the factory lines from the filter forward and run new AN lines to the Mini Ram. In the meantime I refinished the Mini Ram and some other little pieces under the hood. So that’s where we sit as of now. Things should move quickly once the heads get back and I’ll continue updating with pictures. If you have any questions feel free to ask, hopefully these posts help some other members down the line. I’ll try to remember and include a post at the end with part numbers for most of the stuff I used. Fresh out of the box from Fedex Refinished with Seymour’s Alumi Blast and VHT engine paint for the fuel rails
Awesome progress so far. I have plans to do similar work to my car this winter. I forgot about the CC503, I've been debating on cam choice for a while now and that seems like a nice step above the hotcam without hurting drivability too much.
I might have missed it, but what are your plans as far as tuning for the miniram and cam?
Figured I’d post an update and hopefully save someone else the anguish I’ve been through over the past two weeks. The original machine shop got the heads back to me and everything was moving along until I went to install the intake. Since I purchased the Mini Ram used with no hardware I purchased ARP SBC intake bolts to use (Part # 134-2101). Some stripped threads (and a lot of swearing) later I was able to figure out what was going on. From what I’ve read here on the forum, 91 had a redesigned intake with alignment dowels that countersunk the four corner intake threads down ~.25”. The 1” bolts from ARP were only catching about two threads and were stripping out the head, specifically the four outermost intake bolts. A trip to the machine shop and $60 later the threads have been repaired and I’m ready to finally reassemble with longer hardware.
Finally made it to the finish line this weekend. I ordered new longer ARP hardware for the intake. ARP 613-1250 for the 8 inner threads and ARP 613-1500 for the four outer corners. Everything bolted up and torqued to spec without any stripped threads. Everything went very smooth from there on out. My small cap distributor went in perfect and allowed for plenty of fuel line clearance as well, you could cram a large cap dizzy back there but the small cap looks better and allows for room to work, highly recommend the swap. In the pictures below I was fiddling with the upper throttle bracket and using washers to get enough clearance for the throttle cable. It had a tendency to rub the fuel rail, a couple of washers and a longer fuel rail bolt fixed the issue.
For just a mail in tune I’m very happy with how it runs. I’m ordering a Moates cable so I can datalog and have the tuner make any needed adjustments. I’ll have a better idea of what the car is actually doing once I can see what the ECU is doing. I suspect my IAC and fuel pressure are not perfect at the moment I believe it’s a little rich.
Great thread! I have the same cam sitting ready to be installed along with a Pro-Flo XT intake. I see you are still using the stock valve covers. The Summit roller rockers cleared with no issues?
Great thread! I have the same cam sitting ready to be installed along with a Pro-Flo XT intake. I see you are still using the stock valve covers. The Summit roller rockers cleared with no issues?
You’ll have to grind/remove the drip tabs off the valve covers for them to have enough clearance. I’ve run the Summit and a set of Scorpion 1.6 rollers with the stock covers without issue.
You’ll have to grind/remove the drip tabs off the valve covers for them to have enough clearance. I’ve run the Summit and a set of Scorpion 1.6 rollers with the stock covers without issue.
Thanks for the reply! Did the machine shop end up cutting the valve guides for clearance using the 1.6s?
Thanks for the reply! Did the machine shop end up cutting the valve guides for clearance using the 1.6s?
My experience with the machine shop ended up being a cluster f**k. When I went to pick up the heads they had not setup up the springs correctly for the 1.6 rockers. The max lift they were set up for was .526 and it had taken them 2.5 weeks longer to finish the job than I was initially told. Combined with a grouchy/rude employee and I was done, I took my heads and left.
91 Cam & Intake Build
