Its been a while since I got my LT1 swap going (not as long as it was sitting though) and i've put about 12,000 miles on it. The car has seen multiple drag strip days, and is a consistent proven performer. It'll run a 13.3 at nearly 103mph all day long on a slippery street tire, with only a 1200rpm food brake launch (any more and it overcomes the brakes, or blows the tires away for the first 60 feet)

its time to upgrade. I've thought about the Gen3 route, however to go that way I'd have to give up some goodies.

• Reason 1: T56 6pd tranny. I have a M29 T56 (out of a 93' Z28 with performance axle RPO), which cannot be modified to work with a Gen3 without uber money. So I'd have to trade my freshly rebuilt T56 for a used LS1 T56. I've had enough of Trans issues to last a lifetime. The one I have now was rebuilt and upgraded to handle more power for a good price.
• Reason 2: This car already runs, and has been proven a reliable swap. It is also a strong performer with a good history. Only 61k on the engine, 12k of that is me.
• Reason 3: Wiring, I hate wiring. The harness is sorted out and EVERYTHING works. Which is what i want.
• Reason 4: All my 6spd swap stuff is already here, clutch, pressure plate...etc. New master/slave...

So to swap to a Gen3 I'd have to give up most of my 6spd swap stuff at a loss just to stay with a 6spd. I'd rather have the LT1 6spd over a 5.3L Gen3 auto.

So that leaves LT1 options on the table. I'm leaning heavily towards a LE1 setup with one of his cams. LE setups are proven performers at their price point. Though there are better options out there. Plus the cheaper setup would leave more money for other upgrades I need (weather stripping, new gta badges, steering rebuild.....)

My power goal is honestly between 350 and 400rwhp. More than that I don't want right now. I couldn't handle it, and the rest of the car couldn't handle it without more upgrades. Power is something I can build later.

Advanced Induction is more money, and makes some very nice heads, but they start at about $1400 and don't include a cam. This would also cut $$$ from the other things my car should get this year to make a better daily driver experience (but HP is so addictive I am still considering it.

Existing mods:

• B-body LT1 swap, 4L60E
• Moroso CAI, ceramic coated Hooker 2055 Headers, SLP 2otL catback.
• upgraded fuel pump, 26# injectors (more than a stock LT1 needs, tune compensates for this)
• Lower Control Arms, Panhard bar, Wonderbar.
• Fresh rebuilt T56, upgraded clutch (not installed yet)
• TunerCAT and data logging. (Ability to tune the car, but still learning)

My shorty headers are going to be sold shortly and I will move to long tubes because thats what the engine already wants.

So the hunt is on. Recommendations are welcome. I'm all for the Gen 3 swap, but not at the cost of a 6spd. A 6spd would make the car infinitely more enjoyable to me.

I'm mainly looking for alternative options to an LE1 setup. Cam wise I don't think I'd want to get much more wild than a CC503. I am considering the LE 226* cam, or his 224 emissions friendly cam. I already have a LT4 hot-cam from a previous engine, i just never got around to installing it in my current engine.

 

You should try to find a set of Fbody aluminum LT1 heads...I think they are alittle better than iron and give up some weight reduction and possibly increase compression. i think the 93-95 ones are the best...there is a certain casting that allows for more port work that LE and AI use in their big stages.

To get 350whp, in a 6spd, guys have done that with CC306 cam only setups with all the bolt ons. Much more than that will require head work, although the most I"ve seen on a stock set of Aluminum f-car heads was 370whp with a cc306 cam i believe...Thats getting it done, but likely a high dyno reading. Average is 350.

Since you dont want much more than cc503, and i dont really blame you as those other big cams are quite large for a stock cube LT1, then you may need head work. 218 to 226 cams typically end up in the 330-340whp range and thats with longtubes

if you cant afford LE1 heads or AI stage 1 heads, then try to find a local porter to just do a mild clean up and bowl blend/pocket port. Shouldnt be much more than a couple hundred bucks and swap in new springs. Run the 503 cam or similar and it will make 350-375whp. Dont need much of a head flow gain to get 10-15whp more out of it.

Then again, same thing can be said for the iron heads...alittle clean up and they will run hard but iron is harder to work with when porting so it may be more money. Some people have said the iron's arent any worse than the aluminum LT1's and that they resemble the vortec head. You may beable to work with them but I'm not too familar with them.

 

get the best heads and intake you can afford.

a matching cam to the setup and to what you want to do. cam technology has come a long way so research the options out there.

 

I should mention that my budget for the heads/cam is $1600 max, though I would prefer to keep it at $1200 or so. I have a little of 2G's to spend, but the car needs other things so I can't go hog wild with the heads/cam. Too many other things on the car need to be fixed.

Already have two sets of Aluminum heads on the side. Both are the better casting. One of the sets is stock, the other already is cut with PAC 943 springs and ready for a big cam. I bought these off Jason Short on CamaroZ28 when I was going to just toss the LT4 hot-cam in and run stock heads and a cam for a while.

I know the average #'s. A LE1 setup with the 226 cam should make upper 300's on a 6spd no problem. I don't want to go big cam small head. I'd rather go big head, small cam. Same power, much more usable. The AI head is tempting, but thats $1300 for a head that flows about 275cfm and 200cfm on the exhaust with a 190cc port. But that doesn't include a cam, so I'd end up spending another $300 on a cam. This would blow the budget for the other things i need to be doing to the car (steering rebuild, weather stripping because the wind noise is horrendous and its a C&C T-top car)

LE1 is what I will most likely go with. AI is the more expensive choice. There is a local guy who does good work, but he usually does Gen3 porting, and turbo setups) He can do me a good favor.

My short block is stock, though I am considering purchasing ARP rod-bolts and having them installed for piece of mind. Its only like $70 for the bolts plus installation. It would make me feel better about a big cam. This is the other reason I want to keep the cam smaller, rather than going all out. I'd like to keep the shift points about 6k or so as thats well within the safe zone for a LT1 in decent condition.

Iron LT1 heads are almost 100% identical to iron vortec heads. If you look at the #'s posted by guys with HSR's, and Vortec heads with a hot-cam its VERY similar to LT1 guys running a hot-cam only.

 

I'm well aware that the engine needs to work in harmony with everything else. It does no good to run a CC306 with a stock stall and 2.73 peg leg. Vice versa, 4.10's on a stock LT1 with nothing else done would be a waste.

There is no "intake" to buy with an LT1. There are other, more expensive options but the LT1 intake unlike a TPI is good till the 9's. I've never missed the "TPI" torque with this engine. It just flat out hauls from any RPM and will SING to 6 Grand.

See this video, the car is shifting about 5,950-6050rpm according to the data logs in this run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c9j2Kg43c4

1.93 60ft, 80mph in the 1/8th and almost 103mph on the 1/4. The car has trapped as high as 83mph (1/8th mile) in better air. You can hear the massive RPM drop on the 2-3 shift (and a slight stutter, the 2-3 shift sometimes is a little late and it hits the 6100rpm rev-limiter I have set. The 4L60E is on its way out. Its lost its engine braking, there is a PCM/harness/trans conflict as the Trans a 95, but the harness/pcm is 94, so I don't have PWM TC lockup, or 4th gear. Still, I drove it to and from work like that because I knew it would be replaced with a T56.

Its got a Buick Roadmaster drivetrain which has the smaller B-body cam, and a converter meant for a much heavier car. That foot-brake launch is about 1300rpm. Any more and the car overpowers the brakes. The converter is a little tight in my lighter GTA. Race weight with me, and my laptop in street trim is about 3750lbs. The engine is making about 320 crank HP with bolt-ons.

I'm more interested in Auto-X and HPDE's than drag racing it so for me a 6spd is much more preferable than a stalled auto. I don't care about consistency as much.

I need $$$ left over to rebuild the steering, and upgrade the brakes to handle road courses like Road America. As it is, while i would run on Road America with these brakes, it would bring the enjoyment down as I'd constantly fear the brake fade that would happen within 2-3 laps at speed. ESPECIALLY with heads/cam. I'd easily exceed the braking capacity of the car if I'm hauling it down from 140mph every 3 minutes or so.

 

I would definately use the f-body head done up by Lloyd the 503 cam works very well just be sure to use 1.6 roller rockers or possibly 1.7s depending on the vavlespring you plan to use. Its more cash but Lt1s prefer longtubes 1-3/4 diameter. 32-36 lb injetors.be sure to have an awesome cold air set up.leave the stock mad alone.......................
Sounds as if you are going to convert to an auto trans so you will want nothing less than a 3200 stall 3600 being better...
3.73 gears, ET streets(26x10) I use MADTUNER for all my tunes he has done me great for over 6 years.
You should have NO problem running in the 11s.
I am a mild bolt on 6speed,3.73s,DRs and 12.9-13.1 is usual for me it looks rather slow but thats what 3000-4000' DAs do to me at level 12.5-12.6 all day

 

Actually, i'm converting AWAY from an Auto.

I have a T56 that is freshly rebuilt waiting in the wings to go in with the heads/cam. Pedals, crossmember, master/slave, clutch, pressure plate.....etc. I got it all. I bought the T56 for $200 out of a cash for clunkers Z28 (SCORE), and a friend who rebuilds T56's on the side do me a favor and rebuild it for $450 with some upgraded internal parts and parts updates that got put into later T56s).

I have about $800 total into the T56 parts, I could easily sell it for a profit and go Gen3, but I want manual so I'll stay LT1 for now. I can make the power I want on the LT1 setup.

Already know i need long tubes. The CURRENT engine wants LTs. Opening the cut-out gave me NOTHING. No performance gain whatsoever. The hookers 2055's primary port is too small, and even though the Y-pipe is great, LTs will be better in every way (except ground clearance) And they'll sound better too.

As for Tune, the current "tune" was done by MadZ28, but its pretty much just a stock bolt-on B-body. So there isn't much done to it. I've actually done more to the tune than MadZ28 has.

 

Sounds like you know what you need to do. I agree with the smaller cam, bigger head theory. It will make for a powerful car with great driveability.

Just need to find a decent porter that will do a mild clean up to the set of LT1 heads you have on the side, and then when you are ready, bolt them on.

You can save money by buying the cam used...there are many cams for sale in classifieds, mainly the big 4....hotcam, cc503, cc306, and gm847....but you will see others at times. Hydraulic rollers dont wear out so no harm in buying used...just make sure they didnt cut the dowel pin down for a sbc application.

 

Thats one of the reasons I haven't used my LT4 Hot-cam. its been cut for a SBC and I'm too lazy to have that fixed. The Hot-cam is too small for my wants. Since I have an M29 T56 its ratios are shorter overall. It makes the 3.23's in my GTA equivalent to the 3.42's in a normal 6spd car.

So I can go with a larger cam, and being a 6spd thats not really drag raced the 3.23 isn't as much of a draw back as it could be. But if I go too big with a cam then 1st gear may not be very fun. Or cruising around town it may chug if i'm being particularly lazy.

I've been thinking about a heads/cam setup for the past 2 years. However, I didn't have the $$$ to do it so I never thought real hard. Now i have the money, i'm ready to spend it. I just need to research to see what meets my needs. I left a message for Lloyd Elliot earlier today to discuss cam options on his LE1 heads. The Package is $1200 + core.

I'm also scouring the net looking for used AFR/Dart/etc heads that have been ported. Found a few good deals. Found a screaming deal on a set of ported Dart Pro-1 heads, however they are 230cc runners and I don't plan on running a cam that big, or going to a larger displacement LT1 so I wouldn't be able to use those heads to their potential, and I'll lose power from lower port velocities. And I don't plan on spinning my LT1 to 7 grand or more.

Also have a message out with a few local guys who are knowledgable about the local porters to see if they can offer any kind of work similar to LLoyd Elliot in his price range. If they can, and can provide flow bench#'s then I may go with them over shipping to LE.

Also found a few LT1 vortech and Procharger setups in the heads/cam price range. But i'm not sure how much they'd need to be modified to fit in a thirdgen. But a boosted car is nice.

I have also considered a Remote mount turbo, not a fan of the placement, but it does work well for what I'd be doing. Limited street use, plenty of usable power. But it introduces many places for leaks and scraping the "exhaust" over bumps because a much bigger issue than just a noisy problem. The Leak possibilities scare me, but plenty of people have been able to do this turbo system on a budget.

In the end, it will probably be a heads/cam setup, because that is the easiest for me to do. No specialty skills or tools needed. Just a place to work and a basic tool set with a good torque wrench. Nothing I haven't done before.

 

I would definately recommend LE. If you haven't already called him that should be your first thing. He is very smart and loves to discuss what your options are. A simple stage 1 with a port matched intake will be pretty inexpensive. (I've got a spare intake, PM me if your interested).

 

Called him already, no answer, left a message though. I'll try again monday. It was later in the day when I called him. 4:30 central. He's in TX, so it was about 5:30 there.

 

Hit the classifieds. There are tons of guys moving away from LT1 performance and parts have decreased in value dramatically.