Originally Posted by philaeagle51

I drive a 2002 camaro z28. Mods: slp cold air package, slp loudmouth exaust, diablo sport programmer predator. What mod and or mods would be next for me? I was thinking headers, intake manifold, cam, but honestly I have no idea which one is best to do first. My car has 19500 miles on it so do t forget to take that into consideration.

Also: would it be ok to buy heads without a cam to match them? If I just bought headers, which ones should I get if my car is a DD with 19500 miles and an auto transmission?

Originally Posted by Pro_built7

you "can" do that, BUT your gains would be nowhere near the area they could be with a cam. your just not going to be able to move enough air with the stock cam to take advantage of the better/higher flow heads. If anything do a cam before heads, not vice versa.

Originally Posted by 99SSJarhead

Hey,

I'm in roughly the same boat as the OP, pricing out my build and what exactly I want to do while not decimating my monthly budget. Now I've got a general idea of where I want to go but I'm just curious in regards of the standard thinking on "cam before heads".

I know most people want the best bang for their buck in regards to power, but by doing the heads first, wouldn't it be cheaper/easier in the long run?



Just from what I have read, if I were to go for moderate to aggressive cam, it is usually required to upgrade most of the internals of the head (springs, retainers, etc) as well as some other internals (120k engine here, so lifters and the like) for the engine itself. So after installing the cam I'd have to do the add-ons for the stock heads at the same time, or close to it, just to keep things more or less in working order.

Springs/retainers/seats are a must. In your case new lifters would be advisable, but not completely necessary.

Down the road however, I want to do my heads and unless I go for a bare unit (I'm going cheap, so it'd more likely be a used set of low mile 243's after some machining), wouldn't I end up just having paid for materials (more springs and such) to add to my junk drawer, plus the actual work of switching the ones from the cam package to the new heads?

Depending on the mileage you put on the springs in between the cam/ head mods, you may not have to replace springs, valvespring wear is also related to cam lift/ duration and brand of valvespring as well.

By doing my heads first (and some engine refreshing in my case), while I don't get the large increase in power everyone wants to see, I'm also not buying excessive materials, or blatantly risking my engine with something to aggressive for stock.

All that being said, is my cheap-skatedness clouding my understanding of the general direction I'm going, or am I just over thinking this?

I know I could just do a H/C package, but I'm also fairly impatient and working on the car gets me out of working on the house (I hate carpentry, love mechanical systems), so I like doing the small things here and there (or the not so small things as it were). That and trying to save the 2+ grand without getting distracted by all the shiney toys our sponsers peddle is pretty hard.