bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I suppose it was slightly ambiguous, however, I thought it was pretty clear that I am ready to get rid of this dual-mass garbage

By the way, I had been noticing a slight miss ever since I did my motor mounts. Started with checking all my plugs, lo and behold:



That's the same plug, with two pretty sizable cracks if I do say so myself. I love cheap fixes...happy I found it before the cam went in.

MN_V

iTrader: (5)

nice find. Staying tuned to see how you like the cam in the LS2 and new clutch someday. I will be doing an LS7 setup based on the nearly universal positive reviews, but am going to wait until I have a symptom making it necessary.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Cam installed. Very long day and there was no way I could have done it without the help of my buddy who has done 6 of them in GTOs. I also missed the memo about GM converting ALL LS motors to single bolt cam in 2007. I thought it was just LS3s...we just BARELY caught a speed shop before they closed and they had an extra 3-bolt cam gear. I was about 5 min from having to put the stock cam back in. All is well, car actually drives very nicely for what I would consider a medium size cam. Never revved it over 2500, and I'm getting tuned ASAP.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Car is now tuned. 414whp STD correction for those nit-picky people. So about 400whp SAE on the dot. The previous dyno posted at the beginning of the thread was the same dyno, same correction, so I picked up **63whp** all said and done. Very healthy gain.

No video because I had to leave the car at the shop overnight.

ryridesmotox

Too bad they didn't video it. Most of the dynos around here video it and either post it on their page or will give it to you.

MN_V

iTrader: (5)

Let us know on how it drives on the street compared to stock cam and how your gas mileage is once you settle down and drive it how you used to again! Congrats

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

It basically drives like stock. Cruising at 1500rpm, there is no noticeable surge. Still has plenty of torque at 2k rpm for passing on the freeway, etc. I'm sure there are tons of other cams that would behave similarly, but this one definitely fits the bill for people who want power all over the place and be traffic friendly.

DACTARI

iTrader: (1)

Numbers look great, and with good torque down low. You obviously traded a little torque under the curve for peak HP, but not much, and you chose a good cam for what you wanted. I went with more overlap on mine, which resulted in some low speed driving consternation, especially on hills and with a drilled LS7 flywheel. Your combo looks about perfect for a DD car.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Thanks. With a lower LSA, why are you having low speed consternation...low LSA = earlier power band, no?

tmonttt

iTrader: (10)

^^ The opposite with LSA.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Taken straight from TSP's website:

So what am I missing.

DACTARI

iTrader: (1)

Its way less smooth at parking lot speeds, needing more concentration to finesse from a start, especially on hills.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, I was really torn between 112 and 114. I think I chose correctly. Tamer idle, drives nicely at low rpm. If I get ported LS3 heads in the next year or two, I'll probably get a bigger cam, but we'll just have to wait and see.

On a side note, I know you are supposed to always check pushrod length, but I didn't have that luxury since it is my DD and I did the swap up in Austin, so I had to get the car home that night. Well I ordered the Comp pushrod checker and checked 3 different rockers tonight...turns out stock length pushrods are waaay too friggin short. After checking and verifying about 100 times, I need 7.500 pushrods, yikes. My valve train is definitely noisy from the slop and with a whopping 0.100" on the table, I am probably giving up a little power.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I need some 3rd party opinions on where I go from here with the car. This is looking very long term, probably 4-5 years. Basically, I don't plan on really adding any power mods to the car until I am completely set on a path. I'm hoping to get 150k miles (75k miles as of now) out of the stock motor, and once it starts growing tired, I need a plan of attack so I'm not wasting time or money, or both.

These are the options I see as being most reasonable:

-Have the stock motor bored out and forged with Livernois LS2 heads (or similar) with FAST intake

-Have the stock motor bored out and forged with stock or ported LS3 heads and ported intake

-Buy a low mileage LS3, put a healthy cam in it, have heads ported or keep stock, with ported intake.

-Buy a 404ci stroker LS2 with Livernois heads and FAST intake.

I realize I will probably need a fuel pump and some injectors to support most of these setups, though nothing special. Probably just a Walbro and some LS3 injectors.

I haven't crunched all the numbers (although I did spend hours one night researching a couple setups), but I don't have crazy goals for the car. I want the most affordable option and don't want much over 500whp. No plans for forced induction...MAYBE an E-Force blower, but that's a bit much on top of all this other work. So, what are your suggestions? Thanks.

InfrareV

My next motor will be a 427 LS3 shortblock from a reputable builder(probably Katech) with the Trickflow LS3 heads and a custom camshaft.

07CTS-V

iTrader: (6)

Cheapest and smartest route is to go heads & cam LS3 swap. It won't get you to 500 rwHp. The only fuel upgrade you need for 500-525 rwHp is injectors.

Stay away from boring out the stock sleeves in an aluminum LS motor. Unless you have it resleeved with some Darton sleeves. That being said, you might as well get an aluminum LS7, LSX or other iron block.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Hey Brian, appreciate the reply. Just crunching numbers, it definitely felt like low mileage LS3 swap is the smartest way to go, but I have learned it's better to get at least a couple second opinions. H/C LS3 should at least be *close* to 500, though, yeah?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Well, bad news bears. I had been burning oil since my cam install (1/4 qt in just a couple hundred miles), so my first thought was valve seals. Sure enough, it looked like I didn't completely press on the #7 exhaust valve seal. It didn't look damaged, so I tapped it on and thought I was good. Well, I decided to check my oil a few hundred miles after that, and I had burned another 1/4 qt, so I knew I was burning oil from somewhere else. Decided to pull my throttle body and check inside the intake...this is what I saw:


What is puzzling to me is the valve cover breather hose is bone dry, the PCV/valley cover hose is fairly clean inside. I ran a paper towel into the hose and it had some grime on it, but it wasn't completely soaked in oil. Also, if you look in the pic, you can see the PCV port in the intake and it doesn't look like a lot of oil is built up around it. Where is the oil coming from? I'm at a loss and starting to worry about the health of my motor.

05CTSV

iTrader: (16)

Do you see any blue smoke out the tail pipe at idle, driving, pulling away from a stop light? You'd most likely see some smoke of it were the valve seals. What type of seals did you use?

Maybe check compression next, see if you have a cylinder lower than the rest.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I have Lunati valve seals and I have never noticed smoke at idle.