Let's beat a dead horse and talk intakes
 

I'm adding a more boost friendly cam onto my '99 procharged, but stock internal ls1 and turning up the boost on the D1 to ~8psi. If I can figure out a cheapish head to run I'll be doing that as well. Currently I've got an ls1 intake with egr block off, should I just stick with the ls1 intake or switch it to something else (ls6, fast, etc)?

Why bother with doing heads or intake? Just turn the boost up to get where you want to be. At that low of boost you have plenty left on the table.

Honestly I just feel weird about replacing the springs on the 145k mile 853 heads and a used set of something or older 243s didn't seem like a terrible idea since they'll be off to swap lifters anyways.

Either way I definitely want to do the cam, would the 853s and ls1 intake not be that big of a problem?

I think some 799s or 243s would be good just don't expect much in gains. If your doing it as more of a refresh than for power it makes sense. Ls6 intakes are nice but everyone wants top dollar for them. With what you have I'd have your heads rebuilt, valve job and turn up the boost a bit.

how much power are you trying to add and on what fuel? if on E just turn it up. if on straight pump, port the heads, $300 ls6 intake

Trying to pick up another 100hp at the wheels on 93 so trying to get there without cranking up the boost too high. Once this engine pops and I go forged it'd probably be nice to have the ls6 intake.

I'd probably leave the cam and heads/intake and just turn up the boost.

X2

A pulley and a tune are a lot cheaper than heads, cam, intake, and a tune.

True, but $350 for an intake that gets me some extra hps and I can move over to the next engine doesn't sound horrible either. Sounds like an ls6 intake would probably be worth ~25hp on a boosted application?

So would another 1 PSI.

Spending money on unnecessary parts to increase your power completely defeats the purpose of adding boost to overcome the need to spend lots of money on parts to increase your power...

Any reason to not push 8 - 9psi on the stock valvesprings?

If they haven't softened up from super high miles, then no.

Stock valvesprings with 145k miles*

If they're not floating, they're not an issue.

Fair point, either way the car needs to be retuned so I guess throwing another couple lbs of boost at it isn't going to cost too much.

I'm fan of reducing restriction via ported heads, cam, intake then meeting the boost goal.
I vote for a set of 317's, procharger specific cam w/ springs and LS6 intake plus more boost.

I think that is going to be the winter plan, after a longer conversation with my tuner and some of the feedback here we're just going to turn up the boost to 8-9 psi and I'm going to start saving for a forged motor for next winter so we can max out the D1. If I can find a deal on an ls6 intake before we up the boost I'll slap that on as well, but it seems like a cam and heads probably don't make sense on the existing block.

edit: Also going to do the 8-rib conversion which isn't necessary at my target boost levels, but will be nice to have in a year or so.

Do you not see the duality of this?
You don't want to spend a ton of money with expensive heads, intake, long tubes, stroker kits, solid roller, roller rockers, etc, so you go with boost.
Then you decide "I don't want to run much boost, I'll just go buy some of that other stuff instead".

I get extremely perplexed when someone says "I just want low boost". But why? Why is everyone so afraid to run a slightly higher boost number, and would rather spend $2000 on head/cam/intake on parts to run 4 PSI less boost to make the exact same power.

Hey Joe, I can see the duality but for me I'm limited to pump fuel.
So my thought was if boost is a measurement of restriction and does not equate to overall power then in theory I should make more power by increasing flow with cnc ported heads, boost specific cam and high flow intake while keeping the boost at a pump gas friendly level.
Plus I bought all these parts used so I saved a considerable amount of coin lol.
I've always operated under the premise that an internal combustion engine is just an air pump so the more you can move the more power it will make.
I'm open minded about this btw so if I'm wrong I can take it lmao.