I talked to a rep at Edelbrock last week to find out if they have a good combo for cam, intake, and heads. And what he suggested was I eliminate the roller lifters and go with hydraulic. I thought that the rollers were better than the hydraulic. With all the camaros with the crappy L03 engine in it, you would think that they would have more perfomace kits available. Does anyone know of a performance package for this engine? Or am I going to have to Frankenstein it? I would do an engine swap, but it runs with no problems now and with all my toys, it's hard to convince the wife that it needs a new engine! Help please!

I've attached a picture of my car, I just wish it was as fast as it looks. Thanks!

 

How much money do you have and how fast do you want to go?

(You'll have to frankenstein it.)

 

stick with the stock roller hydrolic lifters. Their infinitly better then the flat tappets + flat tappet cam that he suggested. I dont even know why hed suggest doing that. Just get a better intake and roller cam and maybe a good set of heads if money permits. They dont all have to be part of a kit, jsut buy parts that complement eachother.

 

Because its cheap.

 

I want to stick around the $1000 mark. I can do the work myself, but I am not that good that I would know what parts compliment each other. That's why I was hunting for a performance package. I'm not trying to make my camaro a drag car or anything, but it sure would be nice if it had at least as much horsepower as my Taurus! I've owned 5 different camaros and this is the slowest of them all. Thanks everyone.

 

Are emmissions a issue where you live?

 

No emmision restrictions in Michigan.

 

I got some cheap hedman headers that are none-emmissions legal. (Cheaper)

A LT4 or a LT1 cam.

Vortec heads and Intake would have you about 1500 or so. (A little over budget. )

 

personally, i would like to build a 350+ and drop it in there...

but with only a 1k budget, that probly isnt going to happen...


i would do heads/cam/headers/intake first of all


i donno if you want to convert to carb... if you are willing to learn alot, you can convert to TPI based multiport injection, but i would suggest using a better intake then the stock style TPI one...


unfortunatly, before you can have any decient (by my standards) power from a l03, everything has to be changed... the heads suck, cam sucks, exhaust sucks, intake sucks....... heh, even the bore and displacement sucks....

first thing anyone should do though is tune up their car completely..

my lo3 with the car at 3615lbs and a 700r4 pulled a 16.0 flat in the 1/4.... only "mods" were a open element (cheaper then stock replacement) and a full tuneup.

 

Headers with 3" y-pipe and a full 3" exhaust. Used LT1 cam for $50 or less. 3 inch tall open element air cleaner and Ultimate TBI mods ( found elsewear on this site) should have you in the 14's with change left out of the $1000. While I was changing cams I would go with a performer TBI manifold. There are other manifolds that might add alittle more peak HP, but the performer TBI is a direct bolt on and performs great on a dailly driver.

 

If swapping engines later is something you want to consider,
concentrate on mods that will move with you. (Headers, cat-back,
heads, intake manifold, throttle body, aluminum driveshaft, etc...)

The L03 is not really the world's best performance engine, but if
it's what you've got to build from I say make the best of it.

You're not the only one in that boat

 

I would start with a full exhaust which will run you anywhere from $450 (cheap headers, cheap cat back, no cat)a ll the way up to $1500. Personally I spent a lot on my exhuast and wish I would have spent more. But you could get a used LT1 cam for about $50, Dynomax cat back/Hooker cat back $200-$250, uncoated Flowtech/Summit racing headers and y-pipe for $200, and fabbed up pipe to replace your cat. An open elemet air cleaner on top of that for $15 bux. Honestly If I were you I would do a full exhaust, open element, and maybe an intake manifold. That is what I did in the order of my mods and I was happy for the following reasons.

This is all compatable with your stock tune (no custom chip needed)
Made the car like a million times faster and more responsive and sounded great.
Didn't have to spend more on things like springs, machining, custom chip stuff, all things you have to spend to run a different cam. You can get away with the stock tune but you will hate it.

 

IMO go with a bigger cam then a LT1 or LT4 cam...
Although many people are too picky in what they call streetable IMO

 

If money is an issue and you do not want to touch the heads the LT1/LT4 cam is great. You can use your stock valvetrain (well with new springs) and not exceed the max lift on the stock heads. You can always go bigger and make it streetable with the right combo of parts and tune but the right combo of parts makes it a lot more expensiveand defeats the purpose of a cheap mod.

 

Full exhaust $450

Open element $30

bumped timing FREE

Ultimate TBI FREE (if you have the tools)

+ gears and posi $350
_____________

FASTER CAR FOR NOT A LOT OF MONEY

If you're still not happy with it, THEN jump into the motor. The great thing about these mods is that they'll be usuable on a 350.

 

Believe it or not, most people cant/wont burn chips to match a cam.

 

i cant believe they said ditch the roller, thats insane, ..wtf were they thinking.....since when is friction a performance item heh

 

I appologize. I meant to say it was Holley that told me that. I was calling them about the performance tbi they have and wanted to know if it would work on my car or not. They told me that it wouldn't. Then I asked for their opinion about a performace package. Just wanted you to know who it was that told me that.

 

A really easy/cheap thing you can do is take off your stock snorkle (from your intake) and replace it with dryer ducting. Take the now moveable (and wider) intake and put it near the front of your car sticking a little out the bottom. You now have a makeshift cold air intake/ram-air.....

One thing I learned the hard way (especially living here in the -fridgid- state of Arizona) is the open element filter, where it DOES give you a lot better breathabily (specially after 4500rpms where the stock setup just isn't getting enough air) it takes in a lot hotter air. Your getting nothing but air coming from the engine bay and that = bad. Get a ram air hood and your good, but that = $$$. I installed the Edelbrock open element on my car, which you can see on my site, and when I took it to the track I was almost a second slower. Put my old intake on and got my time back....

Bruce (90RS305)

 

you live in michigan?
I'm right outside Ann Arbor.

I've got an LT4 standard cam I'm not using... It's perfect for an L03 I'd say.

 

whatever you do, dont keep the soda staw that passes itself off as the stock tbi. Youll need at least a 454 tbi. I had the stock one and i had 3+ inHg of vacuum at 4k at WOT with my stock tbi. Although my blms hit the skids with the holley and the 65 pph injectors, it made a huge difference in all aspects of the cars operation. The stock tbi will never cut it with any modded engine.

 

What kind of performance improvement would I see with the LT4 cam and different intake and mod tbi? I live in G.R. and I might be interested in that cam.
Thanks

 

I've heard of 40-50 hp from the cam swap alone.
it's a much larger cam than the stock one.
You'll probably need a chip burned (www.tbichips.com is recommended, $30) but it will run without one.

 

well guys how much hp do u get of a lt1 cam swap?and for the blue convetible camaro

here are u best mods

1.headers/exhaust $400
2.open elent with k&n filter $70
3.gears and posi $300-500
4.lt1 cam $40(used)
5.stage 2 tbi chips $50


that is a very nice start setup and then u should run like a like a 15.2 15.1

 

don't waste your money, spend $150 and get all the stuff to burn your own. we actualy saw track results where the person actualy lost 2 tenths with the TBI stage 2 chip in his car vs Stock.

 

Get Full exhaust and make sure it's a 3" cat, best and easiest way to make power in a LO3 except nitrous. Cheap intake mods seem to work, K&N etc. and bumping the timing to ~6*.

I ran 14.7s and 14.8s @ 92-93 mph with the stock cam and heads.