I have an 87 Iroc with an l98 out of a vette, it has a Holley Stealth Ram, headers, ls1 injectors. I want to shave the heads to up the compression but im unsure about a good cam combo. I want something streetable but sounds good, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

There are a lot of good cam choices out there. You can serch and find them on here. Comp, Lunati, even cheaper choices like a GM Hot cam, The thing is this, you need to re machine those heads to allow for more than about .470 to.480 lift safely. If you want to benifit from increased lift and duration from any of these you really should port those heads as well. If you are on a budget the Hot cam is 218/228 and .525/525 lift with 1.6's. I got mine new for $130.00 that would leave you the extra money to have new springs installed and ge the seats cut on the heads. There are a lot people who port heads. Besure to find one who can flow test their results. if you do this right you will really benifit from that Stealth Ram you bought.

 

So with those heads milled 0.030 what do you think the max lift is I can achieve? Yea I had planned the have them ported on polished and getting the 1.6 roller rockers.

 

Depends on the gasket and duration you go with but you should beable to run a fair amount of lift. If those heads are stock and not going to be opened up much, you wont need to go over .550... likely mid .530's will work just fine and something around 224 duration. Comp cams 503 is a popular grind. 224/230 on a 110 or 112, I like the 110

If they are ported and flow much better over .550, you may run mid higher .500's lift. Keep similar duration but just a more aggressive lobe shape to get higher lift...something like the xfi lobes or similar. Lunati Voodoo is good too.

 

Will it still idle good with a 110?

 

oh yeah, it will idle just fine...need a good tune but its capable of running just fine. It has the same overlap as my buddy's 360" motor that runs a 230/236 on a 113, and his idle is stable although lopey. Idle is more controlled on total overlap than LSA. you can have a 208/213 stock L98 type cam on a 108 that will idle cleaner than a 224/230 on a 114.

Still streetable but will give that muscle car chop if its tuned well. If your really worried, widen the LSA for less overlap. Gives a slightly different power curve but still runs strong.

 

I was looking in my jegs mag and on the lunati site and couldn't find one with that low of duration

 

The heads will need to be checked for the cams lift, but this is the cam i'm talking about.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Comp+Cams/249/08-503-8/10002/-1
Get it on a 112 lsa.

Now is this a 87-up vette motor with hydraulic roller cam?

Thats the biggest cam i'd run in a stock headed motor although you probably could go larger but it wont nearly be as streetable. That cam is driveable and will have a good bit of lope to idle, so it will sound good even with 112lsa. Just needs a proper tune to work well, like any other cam out there.

Next size down would be something like this:
08-502-8
http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/c...?csid=195&sb=0
Jegs for some reason has that listed for engines NOT originally equipped with hydraulic roller. Thats incorrect, as comp cams website says its oem hydraulic roller 87-98.

 

I'm not sure I just got it 2 weeks ago , but they are center bolt valve covers, I'm not 100 percent sure what year it is. So even milling the heads .030 I can still get about a .500 lift you think?

 

I would think so, thats not alot of lift and duration and I dont think .030 is putting the valves too close to the cylinders just yet. That is a good bit tho. Do you have to mill that much ? 58cc already has good compression, and alittle more wont hurt but not really necessary. I'd just shave alittle off the heads, just to ensure a straight/flat smooth deck for best head seal and be done with it. Usually around .006" per CC and .030 would be 5cc's. Thats a 53cc head, i never seen them below 54cc before. 54-56 is common and I'd try for that.

 

Yea I was talking to a buddy of mine and he told me if I shaved .030 I would bump my compression up about 1 point, which if that's the case why not. I'm not sure how different the vette and camaro compression ratios are but I believe the Camaro motor is about 9.5 to 1?

 

Yeah earlier L98's had a 12cc dish piston for about 9.3-9.4 to 1. Later L98's had flat top pistons with 7cc reliefs cut in. Those had compressions closer to 9.8-9.9 to 1.

Vettes had a similar situation with pistons, but later years were 10-10.25 to 1 due to 58cc heads. Earlier vettes were 9.5 to 1 from what I read.

Getting more compression is good to a point. If your at 10-10.25 to 1 with the motor as it sits, that will compliment the 224/230 cam fairly well and run on 93 octane. Going 0.030 off the heads is gonna make your compression likely shoot over 11 to 1 and thats gonna be harder to manage on pump gas. At that point, you might as well spend money on porting the heads out as much as you can and throwing a big cam in it to keep dynamic compression down.

If you do have the slight dish piston, then shaving them down wouldnt be a bad idea, but i'd still only take off just enough to allow for a flat deck. Maybe like .015-.020" off. You wont need much.

 

Ok I did some research and I'm pretty positive that it is atleast an 87. I talked to the guy I bought it from and he said those heads were on it so that tells me that its least an 87 cause that was the first year for aluminum heads and hydraulic rollers in the vette.