I am new to LS1tech.com, my Dad and I are putting a 5.3L LM7 in a 58 Impala. We are wondering if a stock LS1 camshaft would be worth putting in as we have to take the engine apart anyway. The cam is a brand new stock LS1 cam, if we put it in do we need new lifters or can we use the one in the 5.3 already? Thanks for your help!

 

ur 5.3 lifters should be fine, what year is the Ls1 cam, 98-99, 00, 01-02 were diff, the 00 cam was the better as it had .500 lift on it, the 01-02 was similar to the truck cam

 

Id look at atleast getting a hot cam for

 

if you are going form stock LM7 cam to the LS1 cam then yes you would benefit, but if you happen to roll across a LS6 cam it would be the better all around cam for stock like driveablility. more torque across the board and higher horsepower up top.

 

here is a page with some good info on stock heads, cams with flow numbers and duration info.

http://www.smokemup.com/tech/ls1.php

 

Have a look at the part number on the front of the stock LS1 camshaft and cross reference it with the camshaft tech post on here to find the actual specs. That will give you a better idea of the actual difference between it & your 5.3 cam.
You can then decide whether it's worth looking for something a bit more interesting or not.

 

There was a thread over on PerformanceTrucks forum, can't find it anymore, that a guy had put the .500 lift cam in his high milage 5.3 with tune. Did nothing else and it picked up, IIRC, 6-7 tenths. That cam I think is worth it if you have laying there. Other wise like everyone is saying, the truck cam is similar to the other LS1 cams.

 

Thanks for all the info guys, I really appreciate it! We do just have the LS1 cam in a box that we picked up cheep long ago knowing that we were going to do a conversion someday. I will try and look up that thread on the trucktech, thanks for that too.

 

Thanks a bunch for this!!

 

I put the 98-99 LS1 cam(which has the most lift and duration out of the 97-02 cams) in my 5.3 Silverado and it was crap. The wide LSA of the LS1 cam killed the bottom end and it didn't really make up for it on top. Stock 5.3 cam was 4 tenths faster at the track.

 

I found the numbers on the cam that I have, the top set reads;
04 24 20
264/02FM
1721
these are all the numbers I can find.

 

That's a 01-02 LS1 cam part# 12561721 196/207 duration .479/.467 lift 116LSA.

 

01-02 cam isnt worth the swap at all, look around for something else

 

Did you re-tune for the different cam? Just asking.

 

No it was running the stock tune. I installed a 6.0 liter which is also running the stock tune and it runs just fine.

The stock PCM is more than capable of compensating for the fuel requirements of a factory camshaft. So if you are going to say something about needing to be retuned to reach the full potential of another stock cam don't waste my time or yours. An aftermarket cam with excess overlap does not compare to a stock camshaft with regards to tuning.

 

Did not say it would not run "fine". The stock/factory tune is garbage as far as getting the most power from the motor, let alone installing a more agressive cam. Though, the said cam is a stock LS1. I hope "Pocket" chimes in on this, he has had a little to say about this before IIRC. No hard feelings here.

 

The best stock cam is the '00 'vette: 198/209-115.5 500/500. The '99-'00 F-car cam is also 198/209 and 500/500, but on a 119.5. The '98-'99 'vette cam is 199/207-117 472/479. The '01-'03 LS1 cam, also used in '01-'04 LQ4 and '02-'03 LQ9, is 196/207-116 467/479.

 

Of course a modified tune would have made more power than the stock tune, and that's the argument I didn't want started in here. It is a more apples to apples comparison when both cams are running the same timing and fuel tables. The factory tune was not lean so it did not affect the performance and was not the reason for the power loss. To be honest the LS1 cam pulled noticeably harder from 4800 to the rev limit, but with the loss of midrange and bottom it was to little to late. This is the wide LSA moving the power up in the RPM range and no amount of tuning will compensate for it. There is a reason why GM used a 114 LSA on only the 4.8/5.3 cam.

For the record(and the naysayers) I did tune it after the pass that showed it to be much slower and it made a marginal difference in top end performance. Picking up a couple mph and two tenths but all the increments prior to the 1/8 mile were still slower. I was not going to go back to the original cam because it wasn't worth the swap but I know the tuning would have done more good with the stock cam in place. A tune will not fix poor valve events... period.

The plan was to put a 6.0 in the truck for towing so there was no point in swapping cams again. Towing is also where the LS1 cam really showed it's lack of bottom end. The original 4.8 got the trailer moving better than the 5.3 with the cam swap.

I have no hard feelings here either. I just don't want to see a bunch of folks posting in here that a tune would make the difference if you use the LS1 cam. What tends to happen when a bunch of people jump onto the same bandwagon is the OP will say hey maybe the "shoulda tuned it mob" are correct. That many people agreeing have got to be right, right?

The truth is that the best stock cam for a 5.3 is the one it came with. I don't even like the LS6 cam for them. Sure it will make more top end but the bottom end will suffer. Now if you grind a cam with the same duration and lift as the LS6 but on a 110 or 112 LSA then you'll have something.

 

thats good stuff

 

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?for...l-ls1-cam.html

read this. Have I done this? No, hopefully people are being truthful.

Not computer savvy. Go to the site for a better read.