got this off the ls1howto, hopefully it will help translate those numbers for you:

 

If those baby cams are called "Extreme", all of our cams would be "Pure Insanity"!!!

EnglandGreen Custom Cams

 

I'd have to agree with the poster that said to go FI if you want pure power. Supercharger or Turbos. You have to look at the car as a total system and not just a bunch of parts added together. An exhaust wont really do much for you but an exhaust with an cold air intake and headers will...likewise a cold air intake wont do much for you without the other parts. My understanding is a cam swap would be something you want to get into after you've done some of the more basic bolt on modifications to the car. If you dont do the basics first you're spending an awful lot of time and money on the cam and parts to go with it and getting minimal gains. The other thing you need to budget for is to get someone who truly knows how to tune the car to get the most out of all the additions you've made and bring it all together. It sounds simple but it's like the icing on the cake.

As for that '97 Trans Am...I always tell myself there will always be someone out there faster than you. It all depends on how much money and how much time you have to chase them. Also, as everyone else said...everything has their trade offs as well. Adding more power leads to things breaking...leads to more money. Adding more power changes the way the car drives and how easy it may be to live with.

 

nice graph

 

Normal bolt ons; Long tubes with catted x-pipe, cai, ported t-body. The ms3 cam specs are 238/242, 603/609 lift on a 112lsa.

The 02 z06 has 405hp at the flywheel not the wheels, probably closer to 360rwhp. 430rwhp is closer to 490hp at the flywheel.

 

you admitted you dont know squat about cams. get a custom grind. obvious answer, and doesnt cost much more $.

me, ive read books, spent countless hours researching cams, valve timing, what thsi change or that change does to what.. and i still spring for a custom job when i buy a cam... i just did all that for the fkk of it cuz i like to understand things..

ive seen custom cam experts look at a dyno graph and spit out valve timing events.. like IVO so many degrees BTDC etc etc. simply by looking at a graph. these are the people you trust with your camshaft.

i like ed curtis and pat G. different approaches similar results.

anybody who will dream up a custom grind for your car, can also set you up with the proper springs/pushrods/etc to make your swap complete.

good luck.

btw that ls1howto graph is hilarious.

 

nice

 

I was thinking the same thing...

OP, the engine takes all parts together and produces HP at a certain level.

To get more HP out of it, you need to get more air & fuel to pass through it.

Intake

Valve events (ie Cam shaft)

Compression

Exhaust piping

All these things work together to produce desires results.

If all you do is change out the cam. You will be changing the amount of time the valves are open and how far they open, among other things.
While this is certainly helpful (and a lot of people do cam only upgrades) if you go too big, it can certainly be counter productive.

As others have mentioned, you should start with some of the basics.

Headers, cold air intake (like the vararam), and a professional computer re tune.

A cam in the 224 duration range would be reasonable for a cam only set-up. I'm thinking of going with a 228 duration cam this winter, but my goals might not be the same as yours.

Read a sticky on LS1Tech about cams - more than you will ever need to know.
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/genera...-me-first.html

Nitrous is a pretty easy upgrade/install, but at $4-$6 per pound for a refill, it can get pricey after a few trips down the track.

Best of success with your quest.

 

MOD FEVER, here are my simple mods

Forged 418 cubed LS2
All Pro Heads
F1 Procharger
Spec Twin Disk clutch
Complete custom fuel system with a Aeromotive A1000 pump
Flip Drive system
8 rib blower and crank pulley
C6 Z51 brakes all around with AN lines
Stage 4 or 5 I forget DTE 3.90 geared rearend
CCW SP500 18" front, 19" rear
Custom Arizen seats, which I love!

I'm still no done, still have a Tick master to install and a tighter blower belt to get 19 psi!

 

alright

 

cody.. Call England Green/Jason, Anthony or one of the other excellent vendors from this site (just look at left column). They can explain all of this stuff - even in words I can understand.. and help you, based on what/how you use your car get the right setup for you.

They are GREAT to work with!

 

I got my entire package thru Stephen at ENGLANDGREEN Performance a few years ago. Told him what I wanted, he made some recommendations. I dropped the credit card and a BIG BOX of really cool go fast stuff came in the mail

The package that he recommended and I purchased worked flawlessly and met ALL my goals. The tune you get will make ALL the difference in the world. The cam that Stephen recommended would have been in the insanity region on that chart and my car has fairly good drive-ability with extreme power. Remember that I said: There are trade offs with every cam. The more extreme the more trade offs. Some people tolerate them well,,others don't. Recommend that you find someone with a C5 with similar mods that you are considering and see if you can drive the car normally and if you like the way it drives. I have EFI Live and a buddy and I tuned my 02 ZO6. I took it to ENGLANDGREEN shortly after the MODS were installed and had him do all the fine tuning and fix the stuff that make a big cam a PAIN to drive.

Don't fall in the trap of purchasing a TOO SMALL cam or a TOO BIG cam. If you go too small, you will soon kick your self in the BUTT and have to trade up. Seen it toooo many times. Like I said, experience the mods you want, and if you like the package, COPY IT!

Tunes: Every-time you make a major performance change, your going to need to get the engine re-tuned. ($300-$500) Thats why I recommend saving the cash until you can do the major changes all at once. You can add headers and a VARARAM and see a very good seat of the pants wide open throttle performance increase but,,,,,I guarantee you that the cars part throttle performance will take a small hit and your fuel economy will drop 3-5 MPG (with out a tune)

I installed headers, VARARAM and a ported Throttle Body on My wifes 06 coupe recently. Without the tune, the gain was mediocre and part throttle performance and economy took a serious hit. It had more power but, it ran rich and had some heavy Spark Knock (KR) around 5500 rpm. Got it tuned by Chuck ,,COW (Corvettes Of Westchester) and HOLY CRAP! What a significant difference. My fuel mileage is BETTER than stock and it has some serious performance gains and the throttle performance is much better.

Where do you live?? Your going to want to find a GOOD tuner if your serious about doing any MODS. The guys on here will give you some seasoned tuners to go to.

That's the original point that I was trying to make. Making performance improvements the correct way is tough and expensive. Making small changes and getting tunes along the way, gets old quick.

Driveability vs Performance,,,a good Pro-charger or Vortec would be my hind sight 20/20 choice but,,,,,I do enjoy my rumpity INSANE EG Whiplash cam!

Hey EG Glad to see that you piped in!!


BC

 

I had gears too. And had Doug@ECS tune it.

I never said a 224 would be ideal, but it is a good place to start. I, like others here, highly recommend talking to a tuner in your area about what your goals are. And if you can, find someone that has a car that does what you want yours to do, and go for a ride.

224 is the duration in degrees that the valve (either intake or exhaust - or both) are open. You will see some listed as 224/228. The intake duration is listed first. Again, read the link I posted earlier, and talk to a tuner about your goals. A 224 is considered a small to mid-size cam in the world of LS performance building.

A reasonable shot of nitrous - when properly tuned - will not hurt your engine at all. But after filling the bottle 20 times @ $40-$60 per fill, you'll likely wish you had spent the money on a head/cam package.

good luck - the fate of the free world is resting on your shoulders. We are all counting on you.



in case you missed it, that last part was a shot at sarcasm. What ever you decide to do will be fine. If you don't like the results, you can always go with a different cam. You wouldn't be the first on here to change out cams. Some have done it more times than you have posted on this forum.

 

custom grind = cam designed specifically to meet your needs, and one that will tie in any current or planned modifications to the car. it makes everything work together towards the common goal of performance.

nitrous is great.. but if you dont know cams, you probably dont know nitrous.. and that can get sketchy if you dont do your research. you would have to find a very sharp tuner in the know, and then trust him with your car to get it right.. or a failure will occur. if done right you can spray a 150 on that thing all day long. on my previous nitrous combos, i didnt have to use the spray all that often, so the bottle refill wasnt that big of a deal.. i sent a lot of mine out the purge anyway

as far as low 11s.. if you were starting with a z06, did exhaust and a 75 shot, sticky tires.. id say yea you could get there with some seat time. but other than that my personal opinion on a regular c5 youd have to have a perfect storm of everythign you choose working perfectly to get there if you left all else stock.

that being said, if you did push it to 11s, things will start giving way and squeezing your wallet to death.

 

thanks

 

Bill is a great guy. When you get those electrical gremlins, Bill is the man....hands down!

 

$2k will get you headers and maybe a CAI - good starting points. After that I'd get a professional tune. Thats where I am with my current Vette. I highly recommend Doug at www.eastcoastsupercharging.com. They can do mail order tunes if you can't make the drive. If Doug's busy, ask for Chris or Mike.

Good luck.

 

Building a performance engine is like building a house. You need to start off with a good foundation. The LS engine is that foundation. Always add stuff that will support your finial goal.

When you increase HP, it just a matter of getting the more AIR & FUEL in and getting the waste gasses OUT! A well designed free flowing exhaust is an EXCELLENT building block. Here is what my Stainless Works looks like. Its a 3" system from the collectors back!







When selecting mufflers, make sure that you pick some that don't drone!! DRONE SUCKS!

You need the coldest most dense air charge you can get. There are a number of great cold air intakes that you can select from. I have VARARAM on ZO6 and C6 Coupe.

Heres my ZO6 before the second set of Mods:



After the second set of Mods:



Better air flow: Port your Throttle Body (TB) or buy a ported TB. You already have a ZO6 style intake manifold (2001+ incorporated the ZO6 intake manifold) You can do some minor intake manifold port clean up and intake opening shaping.

Unless you have an automatic transmission, those hand held tuners (IMHO) don't do much for you. Find someone in your area that has EFI Live or HP Tuners you can buddy up with them and do some data logging on your engine before you do your Mods. That will give you a good tune base line and you can see how your Long Term Fuel Trims (LTFT) are doing. When you add mods they tend to go RICH.

Data Logging doesn't cost anything and you don't need a license to data log.
Just someone that has EFI Live or HP Tuners thats willing to ride along with you while you drive the car and they play with the computer.

Pull up the EFI Live website and see how it works: Check out the FlashScan V2


Hope all of this helps

 

Charie, you got headers already?? that didnt take long.


Doug at ECS tuned mine. I went there for a street tune, but you can pull out the PCM and send it to him. He'll retune it and send it back...

A must once you get headers on...

 

IMHO,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ive found that the BEST tune is a ( "Take your car to the tuner and have him tune it and then drive it on the street and make the necessary changes to TALOR the tune to street driven conditions! ") I did this to my 06 Coupe and couldnt be happier. Chuck at Corvettes of Westchester is the tuning GOD!!!!!!!!! My wifes 06 is FANTASTIC!

Bill Curlee