basically its a 406 and so far the things im gonna use are

edellbrock performer rpm vortec intake
vortec heads, home ported
holley 750cfm

what cam,gears and stall will work best with this?

 

what are your power goals? Do you want to drive it often, or are you tryin to get a lot of performance out of it?

A good street cam probly will be in the 220-230 duration range with near .500 lift for those vortec heads.

a better street strip cam will be in the 230-240 range. racier cams in the 240+ range.

for a street car, i wouldnt go any higher than 3000 stall with 3.23-3.42 gears. let that 406 low end power get it moving. more street strip setup with bigger cams, i'd try 3500-3800 stall. racier setups, go 4000-4500

but it all depends on what ur goals are.

 

street strip. Id like to see 11's n/a

 

My friend has a 408 with stock vortec heads and a comp xe274 and he runs low 12s.I think it makes about 440hp and 500+ftlbs.He has the performer rpm intake and 1 5/8 true dual headers.He wanted a lot of torque and he got it.1 3/4 headers will get you another 10hp but you will lose some low end torque.I think you need something like the compxe284 to get it into the 11s with a full weight car.It just depends how radical you want it on the street.My freinds is daily driveable.He has a lopey but nothing serious idle with 408cubes.He has a 700r4 with a 2500 stall and 3.42 gears.Its pretty fast for vortec heads and a cam swap.He put $2,200 in the motor and he runs 12.4 with 2.0 60fts so I would say thats pretty good for a budget small block.Elevens will be alot easier with high flow heads and a larger runner.170cc is a little small to build hp for a 400 but it will make gobs of torque.This I promise.My freinds car has so much torque that your back will hurt a little after him flooring it all the time for a late night cruise.

 

forget the 'home' port job, unless you flow them, you don't really know if you help or hurt...

Vortec with sping upgrade and screw in stds, XE274, RPM intake and #4779 750 DP and 1 5/8 heads sounds like a good combo, 2500 stall, at least 3.42's

 

i suggest a bigger cam then and somewhere around 3400-3500 stall. a roller cam would be great. i dont know too much about flat tappet stuff. custom grind with something like 236/242 and .500 lift would be a nice start for 11's. combine that with 3.42-3.73 gear and it should get there with good suspension work

 

What kind of vortec heads? If they are the 170cc ones, they are too small. A magazine built a 406 with the 170cc vortec heads and a 230° cam and horsepower was 430 or so at 5000rpm. No power after that.

Put bigger heads in. The 170cc's limit your high rpm power.

Now if you use the 210cc Fast burns, that'll be another story.

 

Check my VB garage for my Vortec 406 combo.
Haven't had it to to the track to verify an 11 sec time slip but it will be very close. My heads are "home ported" and flowbench verified. They flow 245+cfm@.500". 228 is stock.
have 2.02x 1.60 valves.
You will need some gear (3.73 minimum) and a high stall converter (3500+) to launch the car hard enough to get 11's.
Long tube headers are needed too. Some other cams that will make a bit more power than mine are Comps #12-678-4
CS XS282S-10 and #12-502-5 CS 280TL-6 These are mechanical flat tappet cams. But still street able. look the specs up on Comps site.
Get the cr as close to 10:1 as possible.

 

the 12-502-5 cam is really nice with the vortec heads.

 

Are you using that one? Its on my list, if the XE Hyd doesn't cut the mustard. But seems to be making great power as is.

Will need some chassis and suspension upgrades to get a 11sec time slip. (frame connectors, lower control arm relocation brackets) I'm using air bags to adjust ride height, spring rate and geomety. also to bias right/left tire loading at launch.

 

Don't you need a cage once you break 11.99?

 

At my local track (IHRA) you need a 6 point bar @11.49 or quicker. Don;t think the car will ever be or care if it is that quick. It's a street car.

 

F-Bird, I completely agree you'll need subframes, and lca's and air bags to launch straighter. I'm using that cam and it works really well. Actually runs better with the super victor on it instead of the RPM air-gap, motor is kinda soggy below 3000 rpms with that intake, but with a 3600 stall it really doesn't matter once I punch it. I still need to swap to 4.10s or 4.30s to really optimize the combo I'm running at the track, so that will be a winter 9" swap for me. This cam is much quicker than the XE274 is and isn't really unstreetable at all. With the new carb I put on it, runs like a champ compared to the old holley DP i had on it initially.



Yup and that's why most of us have a 6 point in the car. I really wish I could get someone to get video of me at the track, guess it'll have to wait until spring since it's cold and snowing out again until march.

 

A video of you at the track? I thought your combo and timeslips were hush hush?
ha, I was going to say, that cam with a 106 lsa, tight lash, 250* duration and only .540" lift would rock with vortecs!

did your carb replacement fix the "choke" starting issues? I remember you had a carb without a choke, and cold starting it at the track sucked, did you get a different carb since? Doesn't run pig rich at idle?

 

I would look into the recently released AFR heads. The Eliminator versions flow around 300cfm. That will flat get it done with a 400. I would also look into a cam in the 230 degree range and lift of around .600" with 1.6 rockers. With the rest of the supporting mods 11's will be no problem. You might even be kissing 10's.

 

You don't need a 6 point bar until you run an 11.49.

I'll recommend the XE274 or XE284, 3000-3200 stall, and 3.73s or 4.10s. And another vote on not porting those heads yourself Matt.....

- Justin

 

i was talking about the launch, not so much the engine combo. Would be nice to see how the car leaves the lines, besides what I can tell in the drivers seat. Yes cold starting at the track sucked, I swapped over to a proform 750 race series carb, with removable air bleeds and playing with different air bleeds made the car act like a completely tamer version of itself. I can start it with one pump of the pedal and then it will idle immediately on its own. I have it tuned a little rich at idle, to allow for better cold starts, but nothing to drastic that your eyes burn when it's warm. In fact after I get my jetting dialed in more, I'll see how far I can lean out the mixture screws even more. But slam that pedal to the floor and it just screams. Also I'm actually able to idle it at 700 in gear with the motor moving the car up and down one inch at idle...so yea I'd say it has a lopey sound to it.

 

So my moms bitchen about the car leaking something on the driveway, and I now have 1 grand to get the new motor in

if you know anyone selling vortecs let me know

also ill be going with xe284

 

I thought you already had the vortec heads.

 

nah I was just saying that when I get vortecs i will port them my self. or i might not or pay some one to do them for me

 

Racing head service has their much improved version of the GM vortec head. They ave all the missing machine work that is nessessary to run on a high performance motor, they flow more air, will make more power, and the casting is much thicker. Just a way better deal. Simular to the GM "Bowtie" Vortec heads.

I did my factory OEM "062" vortec heads (porting, flowtest, valvetrain machining, heavy duty parts) before the much improved "ready to race" aftermarket and GMPP Bowtie stuff came on the market, but would buy the RHS or Bowties in the future.
I recomend this route, if you want to go the vortec way.

 

torque or HP?

I have an xe262 on hand

 

Ok dont quote me on this but I was researching the old topline vortec heads and found a thread about some guys who CCed the heads and they were actually closer to 190ccs rather than the advertised 170cc intake runners. I cant speak for RHS but since the heads are coming from the same casting plant then they may be same.

 

I have received my summit vortec heads,cam dizzie and my RPM intake.

should be pretty fun