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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
This will be slightly long, but hopefully worth the read.
It has taken me a long time to finally have an opportunity to put together a complete Tony Mamo build. It actually started about ten years ago when I had a C5, and Tony built his personal C5 to around 500 rear wheel with stock cubes. I wanted to put together one of his combos back then, but I didn't have the tools or resources available. I bought a used procharger kit instead, and continually modified that for years until it was unfortunately totaled last year.
After my first corvette was totaled I picked up a completely stock 2006 Z06 as a replacement, and went straight to this forum to learn more about the car, and find a fix for the known head issue. As I was browsing the Z06 section I saw some posts from Tony about his new LS7 program, and he was talking about 600 rear wheel combos that where still tame enough to daily drive. I was intrigued to say the least, so I sent Tony the first private message inquiring about this relatively mild combo that could lay down 600 horsepower. Around this time last year the only combos putting out that sort of power were pretty aggressive. To my surprise Tony responded that night with some details of his combo, and this lead to a couple phone calls about my goals And expectations. I told him I wanted to make 600 rear wheel in as mild of a combo as he thought possible. This way I could retain good street manners and not be turned off from wanting to get out and drive the car. Once Tony knew what I wanted he told me he could make it happen, but he said we might end up around 580-590 to keep the car a great driver. I was fine with his suggestion to limit cam size to keep the car driving great.
List of parts:
Mamo 265cc heads with valve upgrades and milling for 12.4 compression
Short travel lifters
Mamo ported MSD Intake with stealth mod
Nick Williams 102 throttle body
ARH 2" headers with cats
Stock mufflers
Meziere electric water pump
ATI underdrive balancer
Mamo specific Yella Terra rockers for his heads
Mamo spec cam 236/248 649/651 lift 114+2
Mamo ported LS9 oil pump
Custom length pushrods (four different lengths)
Cometic head gaskets
ARP head bolts
Lingenfelter E85 capable pump assembly
Racetronix Hotwire kit
MSD pump booster
Injector Dynamics ID850's
RPS twin disc carbon clutch
DSX Tuning E38 computer upgrade
Once I had all the parts I contemplated sending the car off for install. Tony suggested if I knew how to do it, then no one would be as thorough as I would be with my own car. Again I took a suggestion from him, and used the money I saved to put air conditioning in my garage. Then the install started once I had temperature control. I won't bore anyone with installation details, but will be glad to help with specific questions about the install.
After I finished up the install I took the car to Dynospeed racing for tuning. Forrest Luster spent some extra time with the tuning to ensure the car drove well and made big power, but safely. I could tell when I picked up the car I was in for a treat when the owner said my car was now his favorite heads and cam car. The car drives very nice, with just the faintest surge when on the backside of a hill with low rpm and maintenance throttle. It pulls so effortlessly through the rpm that you don't realize your instantly at 3000 rpm and ready for the next gear, and this is just easy cruising. Now when you stab your foot to the floor, you need to pay attention, it just explodes in first gear and the tires go up in smoke. If you roll into it in second gear the tires start to melt somewhere between 3000-3500 rpm. By the time you hit third it's putting the power down strong, and you rocket to 7100 rpm. Fourth gear just keeps pulling to the point I have to shut it down and be sensible. So if you made it this far, or just skipped to the results, here they are. All runs were on the same dyno, and I threw in one STD graph where it nearly made 650 wheel.
Very Nice.....I had to edit my response, because I was going to ask where the graphs were
I had to go back and edit the graphs in from my phone.
I want to make sure and give credit where it's due. Without expert help in parts selection from Tony, and his drive to help me make the most of this combo, it simply would not have happened. He spent lots of time on the phone with me verifying the valvetrain setup, and also supplied special tools to make sure it was correct. I can't thank him enough. The customer support was worth a premium price, and he gladly provided the "secret sauce" information free of charge with the parts he provided as well as for a couple he didn't. Hopefully he will chime in with his thoughts here, as I know I've left out some details that we covered together.
Last edited by redcycle13; 06-07-2017 at 04:03 PM.
Awesome numbers! I can't wait. Also as you said Tony Mamo has amazing customer service skills. Super helpful goes above and beyond in my opinion! Super good dude to work with. Did you get your clutch from Tony? Also we need pictures of your car!
Awesome results and thank you for the detailed write-up. What amazes me about Tony is his uncanny ability to predict almost precisely the results every time. I realize that many shops can do this, but he does it over the phone/email and is almost always dead-nuts. Years of experience and an intimate understanding of our motors and his solutions pays dividends.
Awesome results and thank you for the detailed write-up. What amazes me about Tony is his uncanny ability to predict almost precisely the results every time. I realize that many shops can do this, but he does it over the phone/email and is almost always dead-nuts. Years of experience and an intimate understanding of our motors and his solutions pays dividends.
Tony undersold this combo. It far exceeded my requested goals of 600 rear wheel on flex fuel. When you talk with him he makes it easy to understand why his parts perform. Having him spec an entire build is an experience any gear head will appreciate.
I almost supercharged this car with an Edelbrock E-force. I'm pretty sure this combo would take down most of those cars, and it's just edgy enough for you to feel like you've got a hot rod.
Awesome numbers! I can't wait. Also as you said Tony Mamo has amazing customer service skills. Super helpful goes above and beyond in my opinion! Super good dude to work with. Did you get your clutch from Tony? Also we need pictures of your car!
I did get the clutch from Tony, it was good suggestion, and drives close to stock with a little more initial bite at takeoff. It's lighter than stock, and Tony says he believes it's good for 5-7 horsepower, plus it won't slip under power.
Last edited by redcycle13; 06-07-2017 at 08:17 PM.
I did get the clutch from Tony, it was good suggestion, and drives close to stock with a little more initial bite at takeoff. It's lighter than stock, and Tony says he believes it's good for 5-7 horsepower, plus it won't slip under power.
Awesome results! What is the clutch weight, I'm assuming it's in the 35 lbs range?
Sorry for the lag...this is a really busy time of year.....it's past midnight and I haven't stopped from the time I got out of bed.
I don't even have all the time I would like to post at the moment but will revisit this thread again at some point anyway (still wrapping up an engine that goes to the dyno on Tuesday).
Im thrilled with Ben's results....and yeah....I sandbagged a bit way back when first discussing this combo as I prefer to under promise and over deliver....a much better outcome for the customer always.
Recently before the final dyno numbers I told Ben I was really hoping for 600 on pump gas and 630 on E85 and he said something about doing the Irish jig if we hit those numbers.....LOL Don't forget guys this is modest sized cam in a 427 CID engine....its a Stage 2.5 ish if your into the whole Stg X thing.....it drives nice with just enough personality. Its not remotely anything a performance oriented individual would call aggressive....far from it actually. On a friendly 114 LSA it basically has only 14' of overlap.
More to the story and something that I think is worth sharing. When Ben told the dyno/tuning shop he was hoping to make 600 on motor they just flat said its not going to happen on their dyno (Ben can confirm all of this). The previous best H/C Z06 had only made 580 something and they said high 580's is really getting with it on their equipment. Dyno's and flowbenches are all barometers....on paper it would be nice if they all read the same but out in the real world it's far from being that way. Sometimes its the cell layout also...not enough ventilation and fresh air over the car and even the same dyno would read differently in different layouts and locations. You have to know the lay of the land when you go to the dyno.....that speaks louder than just the numbers.
Clearly Ben's combo blew the doors off the former highest C6Z on this particular dyno and I love that we did it with a cam any of you reading this could use as a daily driver (unless you were a very conservative guy).
Also take note that this is the fourth independent shop (that I know of) that has set a record on their dyno with a Mamo Motorsports H/C package in a C6Z and I'm pretty stoked about that as it really conveys alot. And its not just the heads, or just the ported intake but its the sum of ALL the parts I have spent time sourcing that just work fantastic together as one symphony of high flowing gear that make big power together. Granted the heads are a big player here and really are the foundation of the build (as in any well thought out engine program) and certainly are the star of the show, but if you handicap any of the "costars" the best heads in the world wont offer you their true potential and that's where most builds fall short. They just don't take the time to get the whole package right and the performance results suffer. I live for this stuff (literally) and I have been doing this for over 35 years.....over 20 years on a professional level. I've sacrificed alot in my life to garner the knowledge I have and its rewarding to see these kinds of results pan out after all the hard work and time I have invested.
Anyway....it was a pleasure to work with Ben. He's just a no BS straight shooter and it was fun working with him. I'm the guy that put the bug in his ear to take the money he would save paying for an install and put an AC in his garage. I don't think two weeks passed when Ben calls me to thank me for the idea and shares the A/C was purchased and installed and was pumping cold air as we were speaking on the phone...LOL And he did a great job with the install which I just had a strong sense he would and that's why I encouraged him to tackle it on his own.
Alot of you guys have been curious how small a cam we can roll with and still make 600 WHP with my gear....this one made 603 on 93 octane and a very conservative tune (that's why the big gap to E85)....I bet it was 610 all day with a little more timing but the dyno shop knew we were swinging for the fences with E85 so they left it very safe on 93.
Also hearing from the shop owner that Ben's car was a blast to drive and the best N/A car he had ever driven....that also conveys alot and understand this guy spends 60 hours a week dyno testing and modding cars....a statement like that just goes a long way. Just trying to give you guys a better appreciation of what was accomplished here....its hard to really get that with all the numbers thrown around the Net and so much to absorb.
My personal car will be very similar.....a touch more cam in my own ride though as I barely have time to drive it.....I wouldn't mind and would prefer it to have a little more personality. Problem is finding the time to work on it but lately I have forced myself to take time for my own toys to help from not getting burnt out.
I've got more to add but will save it for another time....oh.....clutch weight that someone just inquired about. My "Mamofied" RPS BC2 weighs actually 32 lbs....about 5 lbs less than an unmodified BC2 and its worth a minimum of 10-12 RWHP over a stock LS7 clutch which is a lump of cast iron in comparison (56 lbs!)....and the way the car drives with the modded RPS is like night and day....this is just another piece of the puzzle that allowed Ben's mild mannered combo to rock the dyno to the tune of 637 clearing the previous best H/C car on that same equipment by 40-50 RWHP.
Last thought.....without increasing displacement or touching the lower end, Ben's car picked up basically 180 RWHP and 120 RWTQ on the same dyno he baselined weeks before taking the car apart....with a camshaft size most would agree is modest and offers perfect driving manners in most situations....pretty awesome stuff!
Tony, thanks for the additional detail and description. I had forgot to mention how we set a new NA record on this dyno, by quite a large margin.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is we left out a few minor things that will be added to this combo. Those extra pieces I believe will push this combo to 650 rear wheel, or so close you might as well call it 650. It's a true 3" muffler mod, and a vacuum pump. It might be a while before I get those parts added because the car works so well now, but it would be absolutely incredible to reach 650 with this build. If you could take a ride in this car, you would not believe it puts this kind of power down. It's a sleeper considering most C6 Z06's this tame would probably make 100 less horsepower.
Here's a short idle video with muffler flaps closed.
Do I understand correctly that your CR is 12.4:1?
Isn't that rather high for 93 octane?
It is approaching the far end for making the best power on 93 octane, but it will safely run on 93, and makes over 600 wheel. I feel confident the tune was left very safe for the 93 octane tune only, and that's why we picked up so much on E85. I discussed this compression ratio with Tony before the final decision was made. He actually recommended 12.1 originally to keep it really friendly for pump gas, but we later increased that to 12.4 as a compromise between 93 pump and E85 Flex.
We actually ran an experiment on pump 93 with Boostane octane booster to see if it actually worked. Surprisingly it allowed us to put a little more timing in, and the car made, I think it was 612 or a touch more on 93 with a few ounces of Boostane. So its definitely something I could run on to make another 10 or so horsepower if E85 wasn't available.
06-07-2017, 03:19 PM
Mamo optimized build dyno results are in.
