Does anyone know if there is a differance between the say 88 corvette L98 CAM and the F-body 88 L98 CAM. I think everything else is the same with the motor expect the cam right? I think Vette's have a mild CAM from factory? Just wonder because i'm porting out my upper and lower intake and hope that with my CAM in my vette the porting with be worth it.

thanks

 

No difference.

All L98s have a very mild CAM in them.

The Vette motors had aluminum heads, and since those heads had on exhaust crossover, they had an externally plumbed arrangement for bring exhaust gas to the intake. They also got cuter valve covers. Beside that, there's not much difference between them.

As far as whether porting is "worth it" along with a CAM, I guess that depends on the nature of the port work, and the CAM. It's easy to grossly mismatch a CAM to TPI. It's best to stick with CAMs designed as TPI-specific.

 

Cool thanks that helps. I have steel heads though i guess some came with Aluimin huh
thanks

 

There are no steel heads that I know of.

Besides aluminum, the only other material they're commonly made out of, is cast iron.

If your heads aren't aluminum, then it isn't a 88 Vette motor.

"from a Vette" = the 2nd biggest lie in used car (and parts) sales; right behind "It's a 350, runs too good to be a 305". And don't forget, your check is in the mail.

 

forget the fact that unless said vette is a pro street monster, it's pretty identical to an fbody motor, with few notable exceptions. (post 1972, anyway.)

 

I've read a few adds over the years in the paper, my favorite one is. "High Performance 5.0 V8 from 82 Camaro with rare performance crossram fuel injection $1500. " Or "High performance TPI injection setup from 84 vette $2,000"

Also forgot every used car has a rebuilt engine but my dad, mother brother has the paper work.

 

Opps i mean Cast Iron heads not steel heads your right. So guess i have a differnt motor in my car because it's for sure not using aluimin heads. The reason I ask this question about the cam is becasue my car at idle it's got cam not too much but you can hear it loopping. anyway so now what? I need to figure out what motor is in this silly thing?? Can anyone help me. I'm not pulling the heads of thats for sure. There is a stamp on the block somewhere right? It's gonna be a mightmare to figure out i can feel it already. I hope i have a ZZ4 motor that would be nice maybe bord over .30 or .60 It's seem to run like a 350 should if not better. I'm pretty sure it's not a stroker becasue it was using a stock chip (before i tweeked it with tuner cat) and it would run like crap i think until tweeked. This kinda sucks but then it could be a better motor then stock was? Anything would help

Thanks All

 

1. All piston motors have cams. So it's fairly certain yours does too.

2. Why do you want to know "what motor" it is? That is to say, what would you do differently, depending on that fact? If you can come up with a clear and rational answer to that question, then it's worthwhile to go through the exercise of identifying it; otherwise, you're wasting your time and everybody else's.

3. You can get the casting number off of the block; conveniently located right behind the driver's side head, on top of the bell housing flange. That will tell you what block casting you have; nothing more, nothing less.

4. You can get your head casting number from underneath the valve covers. Ideally the 2 heads are the same casting; but you never know. Like the block casting number, that is a vital piece of information. It tells a great deal about them. It DOES NOT tell about what work has been done to them, if any.

5. There's no way to know, from outside the motor, whether it's been bored or not. That doesn't make a motor run any differently, by itself. Although, when doing that normal engine maintenance, the pistons have to be replaced; and that gives one an opportunity to substantially alter the motor. Usually it's for the worse.

6. There's no way to know from outside the motor what crank it has, or what cam is in it; with one exception. That exception is, if somebody built a 383 with a stock 400 crank, they would have had to use a 400 crank damper, which is "unbalanced".

7. There's a stamp on the block, on the deck surface, right in front of the pass side head. It will tell you a great deal about the engine that the block was first used in. It will tell you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER about anything that has happened to the block since the factory installed it in a car. It WILL NOT tell you, for example, how much HP your engine makes; what cam is in it now; etc.

 

Yeah your right. i guess i really don't need to know what it is unless i'm doing some mods to it or something. Guess i'm kinda wanting to know for my own info to tell you the truth. I would'nt mind knowing if it's got a differnt level cam but sound like i might be pulling it out to figure it out. besides that nothing else. anyway thanks for the help

 

Maybe it's better that way....

Sure it's great to know what it is, but that only matters if you want to know what to change.

Meanwhile, if you want to know how much power it makes, go to the chassis dyno; if you want to know how fast it is, go to the track. Those things are reality. The rest, like what the cam "sounds like" and all that, is useless. I've heard lots of motors that "sounded" great, but the car was a complete pig; and lots of other cars with motors that "sounded" tame as a kitten, but would spank the mortal dog poop out of those other cars with the "good sounding" motors.

If the car isn't fast enough at the track, or you don't like what you see on the dyno, then maybe it's time to get serious about trying to identify stuff.

And of course, there's alot more to making a car fast, than just the parts the engine is built out of. So if there's nothing wrong with the motor you've got, like it starts up and drives around and doesn't leak or make bad noises or whatever, maybe it would be better to just leave it alone for the time being even if it's built out of garbage, and work on some of those other things that DO need attention. Those might possibly include exhaust, gears, torque converter, suspension, etc.

 

yep very true thanks alot man

 

The 1988 ans 1989 L98 cams were the strongest of the bunch - they made them milder in 1990.

 

Oh i see they had a little more cam to them those years huh. Cool thats great. Well i just found out after really looking at my block and heads all is stock.it has aluimina heads. I honesty took a look at the heads for a second from before and just last night i finally remember to look at them. reason they looked cast Iron is because they where just a little dirty i guess. Anyway i feel a little stuiped but i guess i got my question answered.

thanks everyone

 

Hey Paul this is Tony--what year motor did you put in your Camaro again?

 

there are a few sites you can go to to check what black it is and when it was made. the stamp on the block is located alot of times on the rear of the block on the driver's side where the tranny bolts to the block

 

While on this topic, Will my stock corvette aluimin heads be a restricktion on a 383 block. I wanta be able to replace my block soon, since i have pretty good heads i might want to keep them and just get them recondisioned. I think since a stroker 383 has a longer stroke and not a bigger bore the heads should be fine right?

 

All the heads care about, as far as whether they're a restriction or not, is FLOW. The engine's flow requirement is a property of CUBIC INCHES and RPMs. The heads do not care whether the cubes come from bore or stroke; they still have to deliver that many CI of air/fuel per engine cycle, each cycle, however many cycles there are per second.

Yes they will be a restriction, just like any other stock heads. You can DRAMATICALLY improve them with a good porting job. Which is not the same thing as 3-tooth Cletus "hoggin em out". With a good port cleanup and smoothing, and a set of good qulaity valves with undercut stems like Manley Street-Flow ones, you can improve their flow by a good 20% over stock.

 

The motor is a 1990. You remember it was a Tiny "special".

LOL

 

Uh-oh--Tiny Special? I forgot about that!!
Still have it? Miss that hatch!

 

I still have it.....

That hatch is such a POS - not your fault......