I want to do this right the first time should I do cam only when its in for a Full Tune? Or Should I go Heads and Cam? I hear the stock heads are ok from the factory how much would I be leaving on the table? Is 6k I Reasonable Budged and of applicable how would you do it?

 

Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?

 

true what should I expect?

 

OK, go at it this way. What engine and transmission do have? How many miles on it? What are your goals for the car. Fun street ride? Quarter mile machine? Road course racer? Daily driver? Is having good manners a priority? How much degradation in manners are you willing to endure to go faster? Is forced induction a consideration?

 

Thanks for the Reply old Motörhead ,Fun Street Ride. It will be my daily driver as I will drive about 40+ miles a day for work. I would prefer it be a weekend warrior. I’m thinking a lot on Cam, Torque Converter,dual springs, pushrods, rocker arm brass upgrade,If hey could send the heads out to be
sorted and polished/ CNC.It will be nice and smooth yet have the power when I need it.I will be attending some parades and going to car shows( Reliability is key 3 year plan) I never know who with Father’s Day! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

 

LS2 or 3? How many miles on it?

 

LS3 5k on the motor from what I’m told. I recently acquired the Car.

 

Cam Motion LS3 Titan 2 222/230 113 +3*, and a 2800-3200 Stall TC,
Ported & Rod Mod stock intake & Ported stock TB
Should net ~450 RWHP with great street manners and driveability for a Daily.
Presuming you have LTs allready?
Heads flow enough intake for 500 + RWHP but takes a rowdy cam to get there.
If anything for your goals, touch up on the exhaust, & small mill and shoot for
~11.2:1 Comp with tight quench (.035-.040"). Full port or aftermarket heads
unnecessary/overkill for your goals and budget.
Just my .02
Good Luck

 

Sounds like a clean solid plan. How much power are we talking if I went heads?or is there some other black magic to get 500ish?

 

Warren J, I installed (myself) AmerRacing 1 7/8" Headers & 3" Catted X Pipe which
gave me 400 RWHP (on Tommy Wong's Mustang Dyno)

From What Ive read I'd recommend the Texas Speed Cam Kit(forget the model number) or
Bryan Tooley Cams for use with your STOCK A6 Converter. And

Do you really want to pizz alot of money into making more HP for your daily driver.

Suggest you buy SIGNATURE or BC Forge Wheels and other Cosmetic Improvements
such as the ZR1 Splitter and ZR1 Skirts I added & GM Racing Spoiler............

My 2012 Grand Sport ..........................

 

500 at the wheels is a tall order through an A6. Probably take good heads and a fairly aggressive cam. Fairly highly stalled converter to tame it down too. Not what I would call daily driver friendly. If you did want 500rwhp, add a blower and long tubes. Don't need a converter or cam swap. Yields perfect manners and stock like fuel eco too.

Navy Blue gave you a pretty good recipe if you don't want to go f/i. Don't think I would pull the heads on a 5000 mile LS3, but it's a good option if you want a little more power. If you're going to do a converter, you could go a little bigger on the camshaft.

Here's what I did to the C6 I'm driving now. It has an M6 transmission. Same mods powering through an A6 would probably make 470ish rwhp.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...cam-build.html

 

1) big HP
2) reliable
3) low price/cheap


You can have any 2 of these but never all 3:

1) Big HP that's reliable will not be cheap
2) Big HP that's cheap will not be reliable
3) Cheap and reliable will not make Big HP

 

All these ideas 💡. Keep Em coming Grand Sport Respect 🎖. I see a Mod intake,Heads sent out to be ported and polished unless the Lsx Tuner has some other heads for me that would not surprise me. Torque Converter and some other goodies. This has been a very eventful Father day. I want to keep the suggestions coming I’m almost decided.

 

Thank you Sir! Very Stout build I like you defiantly have my cogs turning. I do not want to save money on the build as I appreciate high rpm shifts that drive me home. If it takes till xxx day of this November to do a A&A it’s a possibility but tomorrow is a new day.

 

I had a installer/tuner do a Stage 2 Brian Tooley Racing cam (and kit - double valve springs, pushrods, trunnion upgrade), and aftermarket harmonic balancer on my LS-3. My concern was the car passing my state emissions test. I was told the Stage 3 will not pass and that's the reason I went with a Stage 2. It does have a nice lope, and has a noticeable increase in power. I'm satisfied with my decision. Don't know what the emissions standard is in your state.

 

RobJoy, Please confirm:

1) That you also have what size and brand of long tube headers ?
2) A6 with stock converter or M7 trans.
3) What Horsepower did your Tuner achieve on what brand of Dyno
4) Labor cost for install in N.C.
5) Labor Cost for Dyno Tune in N.C
6) Labor on West Coast is Much Higher

Chuck Auburn,WA

 

A conservative opinion here... hi-stall converter, 1 3/4 headers/x-pipe, & CAI. TC makes a huge difference in an auto, & improving the intake & exhaust flow will get you to a point where the car will be very livable, good track car, & won't spend a fortune. Around town mileage will go down, but we didn't buy Corvettes for MPG, did we?

I'm guessing that you'll be having a shop do the work... ensure that it passes all scrutiny... if you go this route headers larger than 1 3/4 aren't ideal, and you CAN do this all yourself in your garage with help from a buddy, just bribe with beer... the headers/xpipe are pretty easy, but the help is a huge assistance to lower the diff/trans/TT to install the TC (or a clutch). Just think this through, about how much $$ you want to invest & keep the car friendly on the street. Good luck & let us know how you decide to go!

 

1. Did not do header install since a Stage 2 cam really doesn't benefit from it, and it's several hundred $ saved, and headers that are not wrapped does increase engine compartment temperatures. I do have NPP exhaust.
2. M6
3. My pull was 451 RWHP on Dynojet after cam job. I really would have liked a pull before the cam job and a pull after the job, but the tuner wanted $400 extra for a before-the-job pull. I decided to forgo that.
Calculating a 15% drivetrain loss, which is typical of most cars, this should equal a crank HP of about 530; with a more conservative drivetrain loss of 12%, which I'm told is what the C-6 is, it equals 510HP at the crank. A Mustang type of dyno (not associated with Ford) will yield about 6% less than the Dynojet. I have a 3.42 axle ratio which is typical of the C-6.
A stock LS-3 (430HP) with a 15% drivetrain loss will yield about 365HP at the rear wheel; 430HP at 12% drivetrain loss will equal about 378 at the rear wheel, so the net gain at the rear wheel on my job shows about 73 HP. Brian Tooley Racing says the gain is about 67 HP so this is in the ballpark of their estimate.
4. Parts and labor was about $2600. for a reputable installer/tuner (3 years ago). My injectors and air intake system are stock.
5. Dyno pull was included in cost of cam job.
6. Yes, I would say cost for this job is higher on West Coast, like most labor costs there.

 

Thanks for all the awesome reply’s. It is great that we can all brain storm in one place. I have solidified a course of action with my beloved. We both agreed that we are going in for a Full Tune to check the entire Vette out from top to bottom.Update* Good Karma is out there my Tuner apologized as the heat get to us here and I totally understand. Honesty is key with me. We drove the vehicle and Checked over everything.
1.Tune was redone yay!!( Thank you Jesus for taking the wheel)
2. A bad BCM as we were experiencing 60-70 mph traction co from active with no errors or codes. Tech 2 stuff. I will be taking it in to have that taken care of.
3. Transmission Yay it checks out very stout.
🤞 to continue in the near future. Tech 2 diag. the body control module issues 🤞🤞

 

the heads flow plenty in stock form. What will have a much bigger effect on the power band is changing the compression to match the cam. I had a C5 with a cam-only LS1. The cam was a 236/244 duration on a 112 LSA. I later had the heads decked to bump compression from 10.5 to 11.5 and picked up over 100 ft/lbs of torque at 3500 rpm. It bumped peak horsepower by about 20 as well, but the real improvement was in the midrange. My suggestion to you is to use an online dynamic compression calculator to calculate the static compression needed to give your cam of choice the same dynamic compression the stock cam had.