Hello All,

This plan started last fall when I decided to start making a list of parts/direction I wanted to go with the car and I am super excited its finally almost done.My car is a 08 3LT M6 NPP car with basic bolt ons.

Backstory: Back in May of 2019 I had my car dyno tuned.


It made 403whp and 399wtq SAE on a Mustang Dyno AWD-500. (Basic bolt on's same as below for reference)

April 2020, I took my car to a local well known shop to have my ported heads/spinmonster cam installed and tuned.

Baseline Dyno Mods list

Halltech MF103 Intake w/beehive
Texas Speed 1 7/8ths LTH's
Texas Speed 3 inch off road X-pipe
Vmax Ported Throttle Body
Dyno Tuned (on prior MD-500 Mustang Dyno)




It made...



I was super impressed with the torque for a stock cam....

Now the parts list for install.

GMPP CNC Ported LS3 Heads w/BTR .660 springs/titanium retainers
Texas Speed Cam ground to 230/234 .615 .600 114+2
BTR 7.350 Pushrods
BTR TRUNNION KIT
Johnson 2110 Lifters
C5R Timing chain
ARP bolts
GM LS9 Headgaskets
Powerbond Harmonic Balancer PB1117SS
Along with all the necessary gaskets, etc.

A few pics of the install..






First start up idle untuned....


The car is going on the dyno today for final numbers. Stay tuned everyone.

Update: Final Numbers are in STD and SAE with a smoothing of 5.

https://youtu.be/qcoEYfPQGiE





Thanks for viewing! I will be back in a month or two with the addition of a GPI rod mod intake manifold and possible DSX Flex Fuel kit/injectors and a retune.

 

I'm a bit confused. The 403hp is just from the dyno tune and the 423 is from bolt ons and dyno tune? Curious to see what it'll put down with the cam!

 

It’s just showing the difference between two dyno’s, a mustang and a dynojet. I had the same bolt on’s both pulls.

 

Gotcha! That's quite a difference!

 

Those are good numbers BigRon, about what I expected with those heads; they're probably good for 10-20rwhp. They raised the peak to 6500 also, without the heads you probably would have peaked by 6300rpm. How did you come up with the 7.350 pushrods though, did they measure for pushrod length for those heads and lifters? I thought Spin always mentioned using slightly longer than stock 7.425 pushrods. Would be nice to see the dyno graph if that's not too much trouble. Also, are you going to re-dyno after you port the intake?, would be interesting to see what that picks up; should be good for another 10rwhp. Smart thinking replacing the lifters, balacer, timing chain and doing the trunnion kit while you were at it for the extra piece of mind/reliability. All around great build BigRon, congrats; now tell us how all the extra horsies feel and grip, & be specific. My build is not for another couple of months so I have to live vicariouslythrough you for now.

 

Thanks dAgent

The guy who put everything together did measure the pushrod length and that's what he came up with. The Johnson lifters require a .35 preload. I wasn't there to verify but the guy has built countless amount of LS motors and his shop does great work. I will upload a dyno graph as well.

Yeah I will install a GPI rod mod intake manifold and retune it to get final numbers. If Mike @ solar performance gets me there 95mm throttle body I will also include that. Yes definitely a good piece of mind with all the internals upgraded so I don't have to go in there again when I add a heartbeat supercharger down the road.

As for how it drives I only drove it home (about a hour) and around town a little but it was very cold in Michigan yesterday around 38-40 degrees. The car's idle is set to 800rpms and it has a good chop. It takes a little more gas to get going compared to before when I could just idle off the clutch. In terms of power, well it drives like stock I would say below 3.5-4k rpms but after that it really opens up and screams till 7k. Rolling into it yesterday from 55-60mph it step out on me many times. It pulls very hard and I am excited for the warmer days to come!

 

Yeah it was cold here too, woke up with snow on the ground. What tires do you have on the back? I squeezed a 305 on my base, FYI. Make some after tune idle clips if you can. Curious how low of an rpm can you parking lot creep in 1st gear without slipping the clutch and bucking, etc. Were you losing traction in 3rd or 2nd?

 

Always good to see these results threads posted. Nice build / parts list with great results.

Enjoy!!

Oh yeah, do you have the final dyno sheet to post up? Be curious to see it if so.

 

I have Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires on the back at 30psi with less then 3k miles on them. I think after these go I will run Nitto NT05r 305's. Here's a quick video...I apologize my car is dirty LOL.


I was spinning in 2nd rolling into at 55-60, I have the standard base/Z06 TR6060 with 2nd going to 90mph at 7k.

Thanks! Uploading some dyno pics now.

 

I assume the "It's alive" video was still at the stock 650rpm idle, so looks like going to 800rpm did not make much of a difference; maybe very slightly less choppy. Why not do a lower idle? Not surprised you were spinning, those tires need a little heat to hook, I spin my 325 Michelins in the cold with 420rwhp in 2nd also but when it's 80* and they have heat in them they hold 1st so the temps make a huge difference. I think you'll hold 2nd no problem when it's warmer. Looking forward to more videos and the dyno, Thanks Ron.

 

Yeah that’s correct. That was at the stock idle of 650. The guy who tuned it said I would give up a little driveablity for a lower idle speed and more chop I guess?

I hope so. Once it warms up I will take more videos and some speedo pulls! If you pm your number I’ll send you another video with the start up/idle

 

Thanks for the message telling me about your thread here.

It's funny after all these years that a daily driver cam effort on my part would have garnered an almost cult following. Your results look great. I don't think ported GM heads typically make such a big difference. I have seen stock head builds make north of 490rwhp often. The best result was with Trick Flow 235 heads on the LS3 and it hit 521rwhp/485rwtq on a dynojet. That build had stock compression because it was built for a supercharger application. If Brian Tooley is still porting Trick Flow as-cast heads, hit him up for serious power. I'm probably putting a date on myself here but 15+ years ago, he was at TEA heads and knew his stuff.

Get some tires on that thing and experience 0-60 in 2.4 seconds. Have fun but be careful.

 

No problem Spin! Thanks for commenting!

I left my compression stock as well if not a hair lower with the LS9 headgaskets because I do plan to add boost down the road within the next year or two.

I will be back in a month or two with updated names with a GPI rod mod intake manifold which has been proven to make 12-15whp.

I will def get better tires in the future as well as a beefy clutch!

-Ron

 

Spin, I'm planning on a build you have always suggested with my LS3 C6 GS sometime in the fall but besides the one 235 head build I don't think I have seen anyone else go the small port head route. Was wondering if I could maybe hit you up, pm or otherwise, for some advice than? I know you haven't been active here as of late so I don't want to be too much trouble or anything Sir. I planning on doing some autocross/HPDE events and will probably stay doing those so I kind of want to optimize the car for that besides the street. My goals are max N/A under the curve power with good street drivability without sacrificing much on longevity/reliability of the car so I don't want do things like rev past stock, go past .600 on lift, do too much seat pressure on the valve springs, etc; again I want this thing to last on track with sustained high rpm usage. Specifically I was thinking of doing your 230/234 cam with maybe very minor revisions, all the supporting mods like Johnson lifters, balancer, timing chain, trunnion upgrade, etc. TEA/BTR or whoever ported 225/235 heads milled for higher compression, MSD or Fast intake, maybe a flex fuel sensor with some E85 if's worthwhile so on and so forth. The build will probably be done by Speed Inc near Chicago where Blitzy did 497rwhp with your cam last year, I don't want to be unrealistic but I think 525+ rwhp is doable with those heads and higher compression. Anyway, that's sword of where I'm going with this build. Thanks

 

Here are some videos for all you guys wondering how spins cam is.





Enjoy everyone. More videos to come when its warmer out.

 

If you were local to me, I'd offer to do the s/c install with you. I've done it so many times. I have access to an AWD dyno here.

The ported runners with the heads you have are actually a plus plus for forced induction. You can hit 800rwhp with the paxton 2200 head unit on the ECS kit which I strongly recommend. I'm sure all the tech improved since my car's build.

 

Changes to the cam makes it a different cam. The reason I went with the XFI lobes back then with big lift was to get the valve open as fast as possible with big lift to get the same cfm fill as a bigger duration lobe would have been. The 260cc runner of the LS3 head is already too big for the application and porting them makes them even bigger with lower velocity. The XFI lobe with big lift let in as much air charge as possible while maintaining low overlap. Thus a 230xfi lobe had the same runner filling action as a 234 duration lobe but without the overlap increasing of +2 degrees. When you soften the ramp rate and limit lift, the intake runner doesn't have enough time to let in as much air/fuel as it would have. In practice the theory worked. Lift isn't the enemy, its the lazy velocity created by the 260cc runner. Even the LS7 used smaller 240cc runners.

The changes you suggest doing are likely only going to hurt low end tq just a small amount. I think throttle response isn't as sharp. I'd bet it would be something like 480rwhp/445 rwt

Bigger runners make more CFM but at a lower velocity and it was proved long ago that big cfm and low velocity doesn't make as much power. Tony Mamo proved with the 205cc AFR head that a lowly 305cfm could make 500rwhp on an LS1/LS6. The use of the XFI lobe with big lift fixed the intake runner fill issue. Texas Speed has a great lobe combo that wasn't available when I created that cam. I love the results they get with the new grind.

Lift is your friend

 

Bummer for real. I will be going with the heartbeat 2.3 blower within the next year or two. I would like to get around 700whp on E85 with tons of torque down low.

Also stay tuned for when I add the GPI Rod Mod Intake Manifold and possibly E85. I think I could squeeze 520+whp out of this setup at stock compression.

-Ron

 

At stock compression ratio, you won't see much of an increase with E85. When you add the Heartbeat, that's where the E85 addition will really shine. 750 wheel with crazy torque everywhere is very doable. It's a lot of fun on a street car. Effortless acceleration from any RPM. And, you can hook it at the track if that's your thing.

My previous Vette had a Heartbeat and mild cam. 660+ at the wheel on less than 10psi. Current Vette is heads/cam with a little milder cam than yours. I did bump the compression up a bit and used a ported/rod modded intake manifold. It made 500/454 on a D'jet. I'll be interested to see how the modded intake does on your rig. I'm really happy with mine. Not supercharged power, but 120ish over a stock LS3 and perfect manners. With the Heartbeat, you'll be having traction issues in 3rd gear also. You'll learn quickly what you can do and what you can't power application wise. You won't have to worry about throwing belts and heat issues either. Nice setup for a street rig.

 

Thanks Old motorhead! Noted on the e85. I’ll probably hold off then. For sure gonna do the intake manifold!

Wow...I’m sure that was a roudy car! That’s the blower I plan to go with in the future. For now I’m plenty happy with the N/A setup.

I saw you thread and those are solid numbers for a smaller cam then spins. You are right 120whp over stock and perfect manners is a great setup. I’ll keep the threat update for the future.