I currently have the heads off of my 2007 base 3lt corvette with the ls2. I have them off because at hot idle (low oil pressure) the engine starts to get a tick from the top rear drivers side of the engine, which after checking the rocker arms I concluded was most likely lifter tick. (I also checked for both vacuum and exhaust leaks)
Since I have the heads off, I started to consider porting them out / polishing them up because I have ported several heads before on other cars.

My question is, will I need a tune at this point? I know I will not see the benefits of porting without a tune, but will I run into any drivability concerns? Will the engine kick on a CEL for running lean? This is my first ls vehicle so I am not too sure how sensitive they are.

The modifications on the car are currently:
Long tube headers and full exhaust
K&N intake
Melling oil pump
Cam (Dur@.050 280/286 Lift .561/.561 LSA114)
Tune

I did not to any of the modifications myself, but they all seem good and the tune seems to have no issues. I will be getting a different cam down the line, but do not have the time to do it right now as I have a drift event in 6 days.
Will the car be good without a tune on ported heads? Or should I put them back as is and call it a day.

Much thanks!

 

I spent lots of time in your neck of the woods 45ish years ago. Fried more than a few brain cells at Gruene Hall. Fell in love with a barmaid there. She was an absolute goddess. Didn't work out...dammit. Somehow a college student with no job and no money didn't do it for her. Maybe hooking up with a barmaid wasn't the best for me either

My build has a similar cam, ported and milled heads, ported intake manifold, ported throttle body, long tubes, etc. It ran fine on the stock tune. Drivability was excellent. Whether it would still be fine running ***** out is another thing. I'd get it checked out before pushing it to the limits.

 

Haha awesome! Since mine is tuned for everything except for ported heads I think it'll be more than fine

 

Incase anyone finds this thread while researching the same think, I did not end up porting my heads due to time; although from my research it seems everything would run fine without a tune. No CEL or running lean, you just won’t get much if any benefit from porting until you do get a tune.

 

Let me guess. You contacted Tx Speed about porting your heads and they told you it would be 2 months + turn around time.

 

Nope! I would have ported the heads myself by hand; No way in hell would I pay well over a thousand dollars to have them CNC port my heads.

I didn’t have time because I had to have the car ready to drive to drift corpus by (this past) Friday, and I started on it the Friday before. Lifters, remove clean replace bushing and fix leak on the rack and pinion, and lots of cleaning gunk & carbon build it while also working full time Monday through Friday. Not to mention putting in a radio and fixing my window regulator

I know some people may have been able to do it but I’m only 21 and don’t have decades of experience. This is also my first Chevy vehicle so there’s that too haha

 

I think you will be OK without a tune. I doubt you are going to make enough difference in airflow to significantly impact your power enrich tuning much. The O2 will correct for any changes when not in PE.