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LS7 in a C5 - Input wanted

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Old Nov 15, 2018 | 05:15 PM
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Default LS7 in a C5 - Input wanted

I have a 441 LS7 on it's way to be installed in my C5 vette. It has the PRC 285 heads, forged internals, 11.5:1 compression, LS7 rockers w/trunnion upgrade, Katech C5R timing chain, GM LS7 lifters, 1-7/8 ARH headers and ported LS7 intake...more details will be added if required.

I would really appreciate input from others who've done this or who know of others who've done this.

My questions are....

1. I want a healthy, borderline nasty cam and curious the specs of your build, cam specs and what it ended up making on the dyno?
2. From what I hear, I'm leaving a lot of Hp on the table by using a factory LS7 intake. However, this is a ported LS7 intake....just no clue who did the porting? I believe I heard the there are all kinds of fitment issues with the MSD...one of them being hood clearance? Is a ported FAST really that inferior to the MSD and/or is a ported FAST very close to a ported factory LS7 intake? From everything I've read, this seems to be where I either make over 600 to the rear wheels or fall short....
3. I will need a clutch and leaning toward the McLeod RXT twin disc....and to add to that I'm leaning toward the alum flywheel but have had a couple guys pushing me toward their lightened steel flywheel. I have not called McLeod, but the car is going to be a weekend fun car, possibly some drag strip fun, possibly some road course fun, that I am also hoping is reliable enough to make day trips as well. The old configuration was an RPS stage 3 clutch (dual friction disc) w/alum flywheel and I really liked that clutch....there's still some life in that clutch but I don't think it's capable of handling this engines Hp. Any help?
4. Has anyone ditched their MAF and gone to Speed Density? Benefits of this on an NA build?
5. I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to clean up the engine bay....meaning the coil packs. I really like some of the red valve covers, Holley has some plain one with bosses to mount the coil packs but it somehow looks cleaner. There's also a set that has the bowtie and Chevrolet on them with NO bosses. I would need the Katech coil relocation kit. I Think this looks the best. Then I think I seen something where they still use valve covers with no bosses but have some sort of bracket where the coil packs just seem to float above the valve covers.....just now thinking of these but have not googled it to find out what they are or who makes them. Any advice or input on what you might've done or seen?
6. There's a local company that does ceramic coating.....I can't imagine there's any negative aspects of doing this but thought I'd ask. I intend on taking my headers and x-pipe to them and have them ceramic coated. From what I heard they do the inside and the outside. I was only going to do the headers but when someone mentioned the x-pipe, I immediately thought how great that would be to prevent the tunnel from getting so hot. Any input or special requests I need to make from them before I just let them do their thing?

Last.....if you've read any of this and know a vendor or vendors selling these items that will be having a Black Friday sale....LET ME KNOW!

Thanks for your time!
Allen

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Old Nov 15, 2018 | 11:10 PM
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Old Nov 27, 2018 | 11:54 PM
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Originally Posted by alshirey
I have a 441 LS7 on it's way to be installed in my C5 vette. It has the PRC 285 heads, forged internals, 11.5:1 compression, LS7 rockers w/trunnion upgrade, Katech C5R timing chain, GM LS7 lifters, 1-7/8 ARH headers and ported LS7 intake...more details will be added if required.

I would really appreciate input from others who've done this or who know of others who've done this.

My questions are....

1. I want a healthy, borderline nasty cam and curious the specs of your build, cam specs and what it ended up making on the dyno?


2. From what I hear, I'm leaving a lot of Hp on the table by using a factory LS7 intake. However, this is a ported LS7 intake....just no clue who did the porting? I believe I heard the there are all kinds of fitment issues with the MSD...one of them being hood clearance? Is a ported FAST really that inferior to the MSD and/or is a ported FAST very close to a ported factory LS7 intake? From everything I've read, this seems to be where I either make over 600 to the rear wheels or fall short....
the MSD is Way better on a LS7. lots of test's on this... the ultimate is Individual throttle bodys... very streetable especially with bigger cams.. but as soon as you close them in with an air cleaner most of the benefits disappear


3. I will need a clutch and leaning toward the McLeod RXT twin disc....and to add to that I'm leaning toward the alum flywheel but have had a couple guys pushing me toward their lightened steel flywheel. I have not called McLeod, but the car is going to be a weekend fun car, possibly some drag strip fun, possibly some road course fun, that I am also hoping is reliable enough to make day trips as well. The old configuration was an RPS stage 3 clutch (dual friction disc) w/alum flywheel and I really liked that clutch....there's still some life in that clutch but I don't think it's capable of handling this engines Hp. Any help?
I concur with the lighter steel flywheel...... especially with an RXT it will help with drivability.. if you decide to go with a more organic friction material like a RST then maybe the aluminum... but divieability will still take some getting used to.


4. Has anyone ditched their MAF and gone to Speed Density? Benefits of this on an NA build?
most guys on LS1tech have ditched the MAF... a little harder to tune and the transition maps are not as smooth but still very drivable.

5. I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to clean up the engine bay....meaning the coil packs. I really like some of the red valve covers, Holley has some plain one with bosses to mount the coil packs but it somehow looks cleaner. There's also a set that has the bowtie and Chevrolet on them with NO bosses. I would need the Katech coil relocation kit. I Think this looks the best. Then I think I seen something where they still use valve covers with no bosses but have some sort of bracket where the coil packs just seem to float above the valve covers.....just now thinking of these but have not googled it to find out what they are or who makes them. Any advice or input on what you might've done or seen?




6. There's a local company that does ceramic coating.....I can't imagine there's any negative aspects of doing this but thought I'd ask. I intend on taking my headers and x-pipe to them and have them ceramic coated. From what I heard they do the inside and the outside. I was only going to do the headers but when someone mentioned the x-pipe, I immediately thought how great that would be to prevent the tunnel from getting so hot. Any input or special requests I need to make from them before I just let them do their thing? If you do not plan to run cat's then you can get the insides coated.

Last.....if you've read any of this and know a vendor or vendors selling these items that will be having a Black Friday sale....LET ME KNOW!

Thanks for your time!
Allen
just my .02....
Reply

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