Okay, so I've just recently finished my setup with the TSP 224R Cam, 243 heads, TSP LTH, TSP ORY, Flowmaster Cat-Back Exhaust. All of this done on a 98 TA WS-6 with the ls1 intake manifold. My numbers came down to(at the wheels): 370rwhp, 386rwtq before engine mounts were replaced.

I'm looking to step things up a bit.

For the Ram-Air:
Chrs1313 Ram Air kit. From what I've read, nothing comes even close to this and it's also at a reasonable price.


For the intake and throttle body:
I was thinking of going with the Fast 102 Ported Intake that is offered by Vengeance Racing and also the Fast 102 Throttle Body.

For the heads:
My father owns a CTS-V and is about to change his heads out. He's offering to give me his heads, of which I would have CNC Ported. Seems like the best bang for the buck for horsepower numbers.

For the cam:
I'm absolutely lost on this one. Unless someone suggests something better, I'm pretty much sold on the ram-air/heads/intake/TB above. However, for the cam, I'm really not sure which one would work really well with a CNC Ported 243 Heads setup. This car's a daily driver, but most of the time I'm not in heavy traffic. The one cam that I was looking at was the Magic Stick 4. I really like the lope at idle. However, a lot of people argue that there are better gains out there without having to go with such a big cam. Thoughts?

Valvetrain:
My current valve-train is this: Brian Tooley Dual Valve Springs, LS1 OEM Rockers (would need to be upgraded), LS1 OEM pushrods (would need to be upgraded), LS7 Lifters.

With a bigger cam than what I have right now, I'd of course update the rocker arms to Yellow Terra Rockers and also upgrade the pushrods to Chromoly Pushrods.

Additional Note:
Yes, I'm aware of the Chokemaster. Exhaust would be changed with the new setup to true duals. It was simply a matter of I didn't want to spend 700 bucks on a catback beacuse I knew I'd be switching to true duals later.

 

Id go with anything in the 233-240ish range and around .610ish lift. But thats just me. Also i dont see anything wrong with using stock rockers but theres definately no downside to upgrading!

 

Great now im thinking i might as well upgrade rockers too...

 

the 102mm thorttle body isnt gonna gain you any power. youre better off saving that cash and getting a 92mm

and also, be cautious of how stupid of a cam you get. if this car is daily driven you want it to have good street manners. bucking and stalling in traffic and parking lots suck.

 

**My opinion**

Get the donkey dick out of your head. Custom cam from Ed Curtis. Tell him your mods, and what you want. You won't be disappointed. You can do a lot more with less. ESPECIALLY for a street car.

Sell the 243's you have, and ship Dad's to AI (Advanced Induction) for their 226 program (or steal his valves when he isn't looking )

Upgrade the stock rockers with the Comp trunion upgrade. (Coupled with the hollowstem valves your Dad's 243's have and the light weight of the stock rockers should make for a very stable valvetrain) I personally wouldn't run a roller tipped rocker. Not until someone makes one that won't break, and won't add a ton of weight to the nose introducing valve float. There's better money to be spent...

Agreed with a 92/92 combo, unless you want to spend a lot more for the required upgrades you need to run a 102 set up.

Understand now a Chrs1313 won't show anything on the dyno. It's at speed where it shines.

You'll need at least 36# injectors. I'd upgrade the fuel pump as well to a Walboro 255 with the hotwire kit.

 

You didn't mention the rest of the driveline, might need some upgrades there too! Also if AI does your heads they could custom spec a cam for your mods or check with Martin@Tick, they have some new cams out that would work. Don't know if you have AC, but I believe the Chris1313 is for no AC (could be wrong on this). Good Luck with the mods!!

 

I agree with this but I was under the impression that you could run the stock injectors with a mild heads / cam combo.

 

Great post.

A custom grind cam would actually make a lot more sense. In the noobie tech forum they talk about how you need to make your head/cam combination match like peas and carrots or whatever that analogy was.

For the heads, I was actually looking for a specific place to take them. I will definitely be using their 226 program that you mentioned now. I did a little research earlier about headwork. Is this 5 angle valve job really worth it? Sounds like some people have gotten great gains off of what I've seen.

Great recommendation on the intake manifold. I was actually doing research on that earlier. Sounds like the Fast 92/92 works well. The Fast 102 is a lot of money for just a few more ponies. It also sounds like if you find the right person that an 85mm ported ls6 intake manifold works just as well if not better than a Fast 92. Of course, finding the right person for the ls6 intake job is crucial because it shines the best at 85mm/85mm setup.

Understood about the chrs1313 ram air setup. I've never really bought into the whole ram-air = +x-amount of horsepower. But i have always bought into the quicker you get air in/out, the better and the quicker your car is.

Fuel injectors and fuel pump also make sense as well. As a matter of fact, even with my current setup Culver was telling me bigger fuel injectors would have given me more power.

Thanks for the great post. This pretty much answers a lot of question marks that I had in my head.

Any recommendations on a good underive pulley? Good company to use for 4.11 gears? Good company for a 12-bolt rear? This sums up everything I had questions about.

 

Chris has a set-up for the AC cars as well.

Mike, I thought I could get away with stockers as well, as my cam isn't large by any means, but my graph shows otherwise, and I've got stock 28.8 injectors. On mild cam onl;y set-ups I'd say you'd be ok. For H/C/I I'd get 36's at a minimum.

 

Again, some of this is personal preference, coupled with research and results from this site.

I run a PowerBond and love it. ASP was hit and miss with throwing belts, but with as many folks say they suck, you'll find just as many say they have had no issues. If you're trans is an auto, you might want to upgrade the alternator to the KG3 145amp model from the trucks (think Escalade) as it seems the A4 guys are more prone to the charging issues than the M6 crowd. That's due to the fact the M6 idles higher than the A4, but is completely negated when a tuner comes to the table b/c he can adjust your idle RPM.

As for gears, I've always heard good things about Yukon. Pricey, but you know the saying....

I've never looked into a 12 bolt since I'm an M6, but there is a WEALTH of knowledge in the Automatic trans section of the site, as that's their rear end of choice.