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We took in a beautiful 05 GTO last week for a top end overhaul. The car is stock 6.0L (LS2) 6 speed car sporting a Monster Stage 3 clutch, Svede CAI, Kooks 1 3/4 headers, catless mids, and a ported TB and intake. The car was nice but it just left the customer looking for more in the power department and the cam sound that we all have come to love in late model V8s. So with the customers goals of a streetable car that gave him the kick in the pants power he was looking for we went straight to our warehouse and started piling up the parts for the build. We started with one of our custom ground camshafts from Bullet Racing. From there we picked up the necessary GM LS7 lifters, trays, head gaskets, and Comp chromoly push rods. We knew that the customer already had a good CAI, so to back that up and help feed all this new power we grabbed a set of Trickflows 225cc CNC cylinder heads with .675" springs and titanium retainers. Keeping in mind we were installing what a lot would consider a big camshaft for a LS2 we knew we needed a good set of rocker arms. We picked up a set of Comp Cams Ultra-Gold 1.72 Roller Rockers that we knew would take this task head on without missing a beat. Also with the Comp Ultra-Golds you will need a set of Yella Terra valve cover seals for extra clearance under the Holley Valve Covers (Krinkle Black Shown on Car) as well as stock valve covers. To make sure we kept all this new power together we backed the cam up with our HINSON C7-R timing chain, the Trickflow heads with ARP head bolts, and then strapped the engine down to the cradle with our HINSON Motorsports urethane engine mounts. Stay tuned as I will try to update daily on this thread and answer any questions you have. This is all I have time for at this moment so until tomorrow thanks for tuning in.
Comp Cams Ultra-Gold 1.72 Ratio Roller Rockers
*As you can see the rockers come with 7/16 bolts and since they are non-adjustable they are a direct bolt on for most cylinder heads. The rockers are extremely beefy and light. That combined with a full roller setup makes for a very nice and smooth valvetrain.
That is something we keep confidential with our customers that purchase our camshafts. We custom grind every shaft for each individual customer and their needs and wants. No 2 cams are ever the same and they are never cataloged.
Last edited by HINSON Motorsports; 12-31-2014 at 11:46 AM.
Thanks for following the thread. Im glad you enjoy it. I can't claim to be a photographer or anything but we try to get the important stuff . This car does have a stock intake and stock 90mm TB that have a mild port job on them. Its not a huge port job but it has been ported.
This car is a really well taken care of car that has lots of nice stuff added to it. The car also has DBA rotors, Hawk pads, Russell SS Brake lines, BMR subframe connectors, Mishimoto silicon radiator hoses, Holley valve covers (krinkle black shown), Monster stage 3 clutch kit & a Harrop diff cover (all of which you an get from us). Some of the other things that are on this car that you cant get anymore are some of the Pedders suspension components, Bohnman illuminated door seals, and then it has a GMM Rip Shifter in it as well.
Ok so the final numbers post is here. Im sorry it has taken so long to get this up but I wanted a chance to actually post something that gave adequate feedback about the car from all angles. I wanted to be able to not only show you a bunch of pretty pictures of parts we all drool over on the interweb, but tell you about the real things you have questions about. For example, can I do this at home in my garage? What kind of power did the car make? Hows the the drivability? I also wanted to give some feedback on the car overall.
So lets address one of the most common questions. Can I do this at home? The short answer is yes, but only with proper preparation. The installation of this stuff is pretty straight forward but can be a little time consuming and messy for the weekend mechanic. The project doesn't require any special tools that wouldn't be in most tool boxes of car enthusiast that enjoy working on their cars as much as they love driving them. This project is considered what is commonly know as a bolt on project because all you are doing is unbolting stock parts and then replacing them with aftermarket performance parts. With this being said, it is an advanced bolt on project and you need to make the proper preparations of acquiring all of your parts before you start, as well as making arrangements to have things to collect and dispose of all the fluids from your coolant that will have to be drained and a complete oil and filter change after the work is done before restarting the vehicle. Other things to prepare for would be having your A/C system recharged because as you see in post above you will have to remove the condenser which will release all of your frion. Now to put this argument to bed before it starts, yes there are people out there that have done a cam swap by picking the condenser up and moving it over the top of the driver side headlight carefully at the risk of breaking a hard line, condenser, or creating a slow leak that leaves you in traffic on a hot day with hot A/C. So I ask you, is all the risk and hassle worth saving a measly $25 over because you didn't prepare for your project correctly? No, its not. Do it right and spend the money to recharge the system. With all the things available on the market to do A/C at home this is a no brainer. The other things to prepare for would be a custom dyno tune after the parts are installed on the car. Although the car will start after everything is reassembled it will not run well, nor will it be safe to drive long distances to a tuner. This is one of those moments that generally determines whether a customer "can" or "cannot" do this project at home. My suggestion here is trailer the car to your tuner for it to be tuned. If you don't have a trailer then make a new friend (beer usually works here) with someone that does, or just talk enough crap to a car guy or girl about how your cars going to beat his/hers until he/she volunteers his/her services just to make the race happen. We have seen that both methods work equally as well here.
After everything was said and done we picked up some really good overall power and more importantly a lot of power under the curve where this 3700lb car needs it. So, what kind of power did the car make? With this heads and cam setup we actually exceeded what the customer expected as well as what we thought the car was going to make on a conservative and streetable tune with 100,000+ mile LS2. Anytime we can exceed customer expectations, thats a good day. When we started the base run on the car was 388rwhp and 394rwtq with headers, ORCAI, catless exhaust, and a mild ported LS2 intake and throttle body. After the heads, our custom grind camshaft, supporting valve train components, and our tune the car put down 476hp and 433ft/lbs of torque to the pavement. Thats an increase of 83hp and 33ft/lbs of torque to the wheels. Pretty good increases considering our base line was with all the supporting mods and a tune already. To put this into perspective this is around 130rwhp and around 90rwtq over stock LS2 numbers.
Well all those dyno numbers look great and we know the car is going to sound awesome with all the chop, but hows the drivability?From a drivability standpoint the car is about as ideal as you can hope for from a big cam car. The cam surge is minimal and almost nonexistent in some places at low speed. We took some time to focus on this because the customer lives in a neighborhood, like most of us do, and we all know how frustrating a car can be when its bucking like a wild bronco through a parking lot or neighborhood. Plus we all like cruising the car shows, and parking lots watching jaws drop and heads turn as we drive by in our car with a big cam and nice exhaust system just pounding the pavement. Lets face it thats half the fun, plus its just down right cool and rewarding. So we wanted to make sure that he could do that in style instead of making it look like he just learned to drive a 6 speed last week. If your going to draw all the attention you better look good doing it right? Otherwise instead of people taking pictures and videos to show their buddies, they will be taking pictures and videos to make your car into next weeks meme on social media. Going down the road the power comes on quick and smooth to help make the best all around experience. With this cam and heads setup we managed to find a great balance between something that was very streetable and still make killer power, sound great, and not have to upgrade the fuel system or the intake and throttle body.
The car overall is down right exciting to drive. From a power perspective it doesn't leave much on the table without entering a gray area of reliability and leaning on the car too hard to make power. The car is very streetable and mannerly, which is important with a car that sees a lot more street use rather than drag strip time. The power comes on fast, hard, and very consistently. When you get off the clutch, and stab the throttle you can watch the RPM needle shoot up the tach to the red line and before you know it your kicking the clutch again, and then your all over the next gear with the back tires burning and the a$$ end of the car all kinds of sideways. When the smoke settles, you realize you have a car that will go from white line to white line with the tires screaming while your trying to kick the clutch and rip through the gear box as fast as possible..............Thats driving excitement. This car delivers that level of excitement all day long without missing a beat. You have to love pulling up to a red light and hearing the plastics in the car and the dome light thump and vibrate with the camshaft....... then you look over and see the guy in the car next to you look once........then turn to look at his light, hang up the phone, and look back at your car bumper to bumper like he just saw a hotwheels car come to life before him. These are the types of experiences we hot rod guys live for, spend countless dollars for, and long dirty weekends in our garages and shops with our buddies and a 12 pack for. To watch this experience come to life and live it makes all of it worth it. If it doesn't then maybe you have the wrong hobby. Try something less exciting like golf, maybe thats your thing IDK. But if you would rather fill your trunk with nitrous bottles than golf bags then your doing it right in our book. In closing the car is leaps and bounds over a stock GTO and still has a little room to grow. The customer in the near future is planning to possibly upgrade to a FAST 102mm intake, and a Nick Williams 102mm throttle body. Also a set of gears that as of today have already been purchased for the car. Can't blame the guy for not waiting now can we? With these upgrades it will put the car well over 500rwhp and the gears will just help this 3700lb monster get through the rpms and gears that much faster. Both of these would be money well spent IMO.
At the end of the day we want to build reliable cars that our customers will enjoy for years to come, not just throw up some great dyno numbers and then the car blow up weeks later. We like to shoot to exceed customer expectations and do everything we can to deliver great cars and more importantly great customer experiences. We all have the same passions thats why we have things like forums, car shows, dyno days, and meet and greets. We build cars but we also build excitement and we like it that way. Every car is a new experience, every customer wants something different, but at the end of the day its about the cars and the customer experience. Stay tuned for dyno videos and idle clips.
12-22-2014, 05:37 PM
6.0 GTO Heads & Cam Swap @ Hinson Motorports 
. This car does have a stock intake and stock 90mm TB that have a mild port job on them. Its not a huge port job but it has been ported. 
