I'm thinking of squeezing a few more ponies out of the LO3. Would LB9 heads be a good choice? And can anyone recommend a mild cam to upgrade to. I'm not very knowledable in this area.

Any comments would be welcome. Thanks.

Bill

 

LB9 heads and the L98 cam should go well together. The specs on one of the three L98 cams are .404/.415 202/206 114.5*. Alot better than the stock L03 cam and still milder than the LT1 camshaft. I was thinking about doing this swap but dont know if i want to swap cams on a 159K mile engine.

 

Thanks for the info.

What about casting numbers. What are some good one and some to stay away from?

 

there are only 2 diffrent LB9 castings. the ports on them are virtualy identical, some are pre86 peremeter bolt style, the rest are centerbolt. that is really the only diffrence.

also if you are looking for a little bit of a hotter cam. i am trying to sell an UltraDyne Racing cam right now.

specs
272/282
206/216
.447 .447
112

its a little hotter than the LT1, and will take some computer work to really dial in, but if you are doing a heads swap, computer work would be needed anyway.

 

That cam isn't bad. Would take some tuning but like mentioned above your gonna need it anyways.

If your gonna stay TBI I recommend you go ahead and get prom burning stuff. TBI will never run perfect when modded unless you spend the time to burn your own chips...a JET, hypertech, or some other aftermarket one probably won't do.

 

yeah, i think it would be a great upgrade for alot of TBI'ers it really is still fairly mild, but with TPI heads and a 4bbl intake, it would really wake one of these cars up. i acidently ordered the wrong one. the one i meant to get is 210/218 .500 .500 112 so i just need to sell this one, so i can get to correct one but my stupidity can save some lucky person some coin....

 

Are there any problems running pre-87 heads on a later syle. I am currently looking at some LB9's off an 86. Beside perimiter valve covers will I have to run a differnt intake if I don't mod the holes on my curent one? Is there any valve train differneces from a non roller to a roller set-up?

 

Good question Shifty, can anyone answer that?

 

yes there are diffrences.

the pre 87 heads, use pushrod guides that are cast into the heads. 87+ uses self aligning rockers. you can only use one method or the other. if you descide to go with SA rockers, you don't need to do more than just drill those factory pushrod guides out. if you plan to keep the guides, or drill them out and run aftermarket guideplates (i am going the guideplate option on mine) you need to get non-SA rockers. also, if you go with a guideplate system, you need hardend pushrods. other than that you should have no issues. you would of course want to check your geomitry and you may need custom lenght pushrods.

 

Thanks dewey. That really helps and was one of the main questions I had. You wouldn't know how hard it is to drill out those guides would you? And if I drill them out can I reuse every valve trian piece from my LO3 heads. (minus springs of course)

 

not hard, i actualy believe comp cams makes a tool for doing this, i did it with a large drill press and was just very carefull to line everything up, if you drill through to a port, you heads are screwed. if you are dropping the heads off at a machine shop for some work anyway, like valve guids, stud boses ect. they should be able to do it for a small bit of money. how far they need to be drilled really depends on the cam lift. with .525 lift, the ones i drilled where right at the edge, i probably should have opened them up even more.

and yes, if you drill those out, you can reuse everything. i am not a big fan of re-using any valve train parts (exept lifters) but that is just me.

 

Thanks dewey. I decided not to get them. That is to much effort and money put into something that I am trying to learn on and won't be really on the road consistantly. I may try and port my LO3 heads (for learning purposes only, I realize this is a waste of time). I just want a slight boost in power for a little fun whenever I take her out for a spin. I sold the LT4 cam and bought a used 97 LT1 cam instead. Saved a load of money there plus the cam will be small enough to keep with the stock 1.5's and new springs. Plus should be cake for Chuck! and I to datalog and tune.

 

it really is not that bad, and hte 416's are far and away better than the boat anchors we have. don't be scared to try it, so you mess it up, 416's are what 50 bucks?

 

Yea you are right but I was doing this swap within the next few weeks and the only set I could find was 65 bucks but I had to pay for shipping which brought the total to 100. A little to steep but I wasn't sure what heads like this go for. Kinda dumb to pay the same amount for shipping as you do for the actual thing. Can't find many out there. Also, most yards I go to will only sell me the whole engine. Now I don't need 2 305's just the heads

 

those heads came on so many diffrent cars, it is hard to beleive you can't find a set in the junk yards, all the 305 f-bodies before 87 got them, g-body's got them, i am sure there are others.