Finally fired up the vette last night and it purrs like a kitten. I installed GTP stage 2 heads from thunder racing with dual coil valve springs, the thunder racing 227/224 cam on a 114lsa, a JWIS timing chain, katech oil pump, and an ASP underdrive pulley. I'm still heat cycling the springs and I'll do my oil change today....then I'll get on it and give it some gas.

The whole install will take somebody who's never done it 16-20 hours or so, with an experienced person maybe taking 8-12 hours. I took pictures of every step, and documented the procedure. It will all be up very soon.

This install was MUCH easier than I'd thought, and I'd say if you can turn a wrench, you can install your own heads/cam package on your C5. Its a lot of work, but nothing tricky.

My old setup was ARE stage 2 heads + B1 cam....it'll be interesting to see if the GTP + 227/224 cam pick up any power since I'm still using all stock exhaust, manifolds back (HUUUUUUUGE bottleneck obviously).

I also took pictures of the ARE stage 2 ports vs the GTP stage 2 ports vs the stock head ports since I had all the heads laying around. Interesting findings to say the least. :eek:

 

Ah yes, and some things to note.

1) You dont need a power steering pulley remover
2) You dont need to drop the front subframe at all
3) the only "special" tools you need are a crank pulley puller (those are cheap and everywhere), along with an 18mm flair nut wrench. No air compressor needed. It was all done with hand tools quickly and easily. :)

 

Let me be the first to congratulate you on this accomplishment! I can hardly wait to see the pictures.

 

Yeah.... Show us the pictures and the directions please.... The first sign of snow this year and the garage door won't open again untill the 2003 racing season begins. I like doing my own mods. The only problem is that Im not a mechanic. :jester

 

I may have to take a trip to Austin to see you one weekend, whenever you're home not doing anything, with your garage door open and your tools handy! :seeya




[Modified by 123Gone, 1:30 PM 9/18/2002]

 

Congrats. I just saw a post on LS1tech.com where a guy made 440rwhp with GTP heads and a TR224, but he had open headers. Are you going to dyno any time soon? I'm curious to see what you'll get. Does it sound any different than stock?

I'm surprised you have more intake duration than exhaust, especially with stock exhaust manifolds and cat-back. I guess it depends on the heads, though.

 

Congrats. Nuthin like doing it yourself and hearing it fire up :)

Tell us more about the differences you noted in the various head ports.

What tuning do you have?

 

Cool! Congratulations on your new setup. :cheers:

BTW, if you're planning on dyno'ing soon check this out: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=389695

 

Good job! I have been waiting for someone to post what they have done in their garage at home. Thank you in advance for the pics when they come up!

 

jmX,

Nice going. Half the fun is doing the install yourself. I realize that it isn't practical for some, but I've enjoyed doing my own work over the years.

We will look for your pictorial. :cheers:

Good luck.
Mark

 

:cheers: A job well done ...I'm sure.:D Let us know when the pics are up:yesnod:

 

Thanks for the congrats guys.

123Gone, you wont need to drive to austin. The whole procedure was documented so all you need to have is a browser :) The pictures along with the text will be enough for even a novice to follow. I even list all the tools you'll need, all bolt torque specs, and a list of gaskets and fluids.

Miles , I'm going to try and get a video/sound clip of the exhaust. I doubt anybody would really know I had a cam unless I told them. The stock manifolds/cats do a lot to make the lope disappear. BTW, I got less exhaust duration because I will be opening up the exhaust in the future....just saving for headers now.

kewlbrz, I'll post some info later on the ports. Want to make sure I wont be stepping on any toes first. The general information is, the ARE heads had *huge* ports, the GTP heads had ports only a few thousanths bigger than stock....I guess its one of the times that size doesn't matter. :jester I measured the openings of each port and photographed them...just not sure if it'd be good to post that info. I'll also have flow numbers on the SAME BENCH from my ARE and GTP heads soon.

99C5Envy, Colvins knows me by name....in fact, they call me every once in a while to ask LS1 specific questions. Its really funny. I get the "group price" there all the time since I'm a dyno wh0re. :lol: I may still swing by to meet some of you dudes tho, as long as everybody promises not to talk about zaino and chrome oil fill caps with fancy logos on them the whole time. :eek:

Everybody else, the documented install will be up at my site here: http://www.ls1tech.com/howto

I've got a huge text file I need to format, and thumbnails to create/label before it'll all be up. :cry

 

Great job, jMx. I love your write-ups. These installs really are a piece of cake ;)

 

I always feels better completeing things yourself

I am looking at ARE heads, which ones did you have? Did you like them?

 

JMX. I tried emailing you but it bounced back. Shoot me an email.

thanks

-shawn

 

congrats ! !

 

C5Noir, thanks :)


NiceDrv, I had ARE stage 2 ls1 heads. I liked them. I made 415rwhp in my camaro with them. In the vette they made a lot less since I have a totally stock exhaust from heads to tail (like 50rwhp less, as did the camaro with stock exhaust)

kewlbrz, shot you an email

Kdubb, thanks. Did Dale ever get his heads installed? Hope he didnt pay anybody to do it...these cars are EASY to work on. You'd be surprised.

 

a job well done.. cant wait to see your pics on the install.. can you say "download" i always like keeping logs of stuff like this. Im also about to pull my heads back off.. (again) :cheers:

 

Congrats on the finished job!!! Can't wait to see the pics. Thanks for taking the time to photo the switch. :cool: :cool: :cool: :cheers:

 

Congrats!!! I've done some head work on my cars in the past, but I must admit the Vette has me a bit intimidated. Can't wait to see your write-up. So what're your plans for the old heads & cam? May I ask what the "ballpark" $$'s were for the head & cam you installed? What kind of hp do you expect once the exhaust issues are all worked out?

Sorry for all the Q's, but it does my heart good to see a fellow shadetree mechanic do good!!!! :cheers: