Well, I finished my H/C installation and completed a fresh dyno on the car today. When I had just the stock engine with SLP 1-3/4" headers and Corsa cat-back exhaust the car dyno'd at 337 RWHP and 347lbft of torque.

After months of my time, a set of Stage II heads and a Comp cam, new lifters, Manley push rods, ARP bolts, a FAST 90mm intake, LS2 TB, Kooks 1-7/8" headers and x-pipe with high-flow cats I am making 418 RWHP and 399lbft of torque.

I gained 81 RWHP and 52lbft of torque Not a lot of gain for nearly $6K of money and about 5 months of my time - off and on - doing the rebuild. I thought the gains would be higher.

I am very pleased with the results however and I had a lot of fun doing the project so I am not truly complaining The car moves and accelerates very quickly and the 3.90 read end I added really makes driving the car even more fun

Oh well, maybe a Vortec or ATI is in order next

Having fun is worth the effort in the long run and the car does like to romp now. Think I'll go find that Modena F360 to pick on now

Later.

 

Actually, with the 224/224 and the 3.90 gears, I think you did pretty darn good. With the 3.42 gears you would be up around 430 so the car is right on target.

 

HEY LC, is that where you have been hiding? sounds like that beast needs some exercising. maybe we can get together with a few others some sat morning and do that.

 

Those gains sounds about right, the 3.90's are going to alter the dyno readings anyway.

 

You really figure the difference between 3.42 and 3.90 gears would be 12hp? What about 3.42 to 4.10, 20hp loss?

My understanding was it should only be about an 8hp loss...

Well your numbers look spot on to me. I was going to get a similar setup w/ a 228R cam, and was figuring about 430whp, so your 418 w/ a 224 seems pretty good.

Sorry your not fully satisfied w/ the results, but like ya said - theres always Forced Induction!


Dan

 

That's right about where I am minus the FAST and LS2, but I have 3.42'.s......

I think we're all expecting more because of the dyno queens on LS1 Tech and on this forum....but the "normal" people are getting closer to our results with similar H/C setups.

If I had to do it again...I'd head in the FI direction...much larger gains for similar money.

 

You're numbers look about right to me, very nice torque at 399 ft-lbs for a relatively small cam. It should be a blast to drive.

Don't put too much value on the dyno numbers, odd things can happen and it can be hard to make meaningfull comparisons and a good tune is critical. If you're happy with the performance thats all that counts.

Personally I prefer H/C car with a nice lope to FI, but thats just me.

Good luck and enjoy the power.

 

Saw your post.

I have the book "How to build High Performace Chevy LS/LS6 V8's." They have a side bar in Chapter 6 "Dollars Per Horsepower." It suggests that $45.00/hp is a killer deal and the threshold for succdessful sales seems to be at $90.00/hp. Based on these numbers, your $74.07/ hp is not far from the medium.

I went to your post because I also got the tune yesterday. Unfortunatly I did not have a stock baseline to work from. My base line came after many mods.

I purchased the 2000 LS1 vert a few years back, went to the track.
Externally it had the vortech cold air and Corsa cat backs. Seemed pretty aggressive at 13.078 in the 1/4 mile. Don't know if it had a tune.

Early January I broke a valve cover bolt in the head. Couldn't get the bolt out had to remove the head. While in there I added the LS6 intake, smoothe coupler and had the throttle body ported to 80mm.

The initial dyno on Tues. 2.20.07, 9:18 AM EST with above mods are as follows:

Conditions: 60.13 F
Humidity 31%
Power: 319.82
Torque: 319.46
A/F: 14.5:1 -14.6:1 (too lean)

Added a Z06 cam, springs, 7.45 pushrods, (to correct geometry for valve length of Z06 Valve and LS1 Valve), ASP underdrive pully, with new belts, Cloyes timing gears and single chain, (oil tube problem if double roller was used), oil change and the HP Tune.

Best pull with all mods Wed. 2.21.07, 5:39 PM EST are as follows:

Conditions: 70.33 F
Humidity: 40%
Power: 336.64 + 16.82
Torque: 325.07 + 5.61
A/F: 12.7:1-12.8:1 (nice) -1.8:1

I think I am happy because I won't melt anything now.

Cost $1,500.00 / 16.82 hp gain (on surface)= $89.18/ hp

We will have to see what it does at the track.

Would you send be bone stock base line info if you have it?

Thanks

Victor

 

It looks like for that kind of money you could have got a
maggie,a used one goes for about 4k and power add up
to 150 more. But that is the way we start.,and is all
downhill from there.

 

afr or tfs heads, big cam, American Racing headers

 

Slap on a supercharger and meet or beat the heads and cam increases quite easily.

This reminds me of when I had my 68. I talked at length with a tuner shop owner about how I could get my 327 to pump out more power without failing the smog test. I had visions of trick cams, expensive heads, and other goodies. When it was time for the tuner to talk, he said, "If you want reliability, slap in a ZZ3 crate engine and you're done." Sure enough, for about the same cost, that ZZ3 felt like I had an extra 100 HP. It produced 70 PPM hydrocarbons, which was far les than the 400 PPM allowed for smog testing.

Still, you can't beat the sound of a big cam......

 

Not takin a shot at ya here, but this is the reason I am continually happy that I picked up a Z06.

All I added was dynatech LT headers, cats, x-pipe, a honker and tune - that netted me 386/382 RW HP/TQ.

If I were to spend any more money on perf mods it would most likely be for a Vortech, STS or Maggie...

 

Unfortunately, as most of us have found out, extra HP costs a lot of $$$$. I just did a head/cam package similar to yours and I have about the same results. I'm happy with the results although I know I didn't really spend the money wisely because putting money into cars gives no return at all. It's a complete loss.

I might look at supercharging it later on, but that's probably 3 times the money. Forged motor, clutch, etc...$$$$

 

The ZZ3 was a great engine. I had a ZZ4 in an 80 firebird w/high flow cats and the emission test came back as clean as my prizm that was only a year or two old.

 

Sometimes folks forget that a lower gear may show a lower number on the dyno.

 

I made ~408/378 with out of the box AFR's and 224/224 3:90 rear and ls6 intake numbers seem right.

 

the 90mm and 1 7/8s were probably over the top for this build. I bet if you swapped your old headers and intake on and retuned, you would get as good or better rwhp, imho.

 

Your power is reasonable for your mods. At the risk of causing too much conflict, I'll sugar coat the following statement:

There are a lot of "optimistic" dyno numbers thrown around by some internet warriors, bench racers, and people/companies in positions to gain business by publishing such numbers.

 

Take you dyno sheet and throw it away.....

You say the car is fun to drive now.....then it was worth every penny...

I am making some changes on mine 'cuz I can "feel" it fall flat in second and 3rd below 4500rpm.....if the changes fix that...I don't care what the dyno says...