243's on stock ls1 motor?
 

have a set of stock 243's i was thinking of just swaping heads only on my 98 camaro ls1,for now,meanwhile i do cam and my other plans on it.
my question is is the time worth it? rwhp
any downsides of just swaping heads only ? would i need a tune after i swap them?
thanks in advance

I'd wait and do heads/cam at the same time! Id assume you'd need a retune if you did do it though.

You can gain 15-20 hp maybe more with stock 243s.

Wait until you are ready to put the cam in then do the heads, that way you can do the valve springs while the heads are off and do the lifters too.

20Rwhp..

My friend did this a while back. Engine definitely felt "peppier", but if you can wait, I would definitely get them ported.

+1. It's a crapload of work and if you have as little time to work on your car as I do, you'll definitely only want to tear it apart once.

About 20 rwhp! Have them ported and do a cam at the same time if you can.

Since you already have them wait and get them ported for sure

Your gains will be in the cam. The 405hp Z06 engine is nothing more than a LS1 with 243 heads. If you swap the heads, do the cam too.

So the cam and intake are the same?

What about the exhaust manifolds, injectors, throttle body. Same? Same computer too?

do a valve seat leak test ,get a valve job if any of the valve seats leak.do it all at once ,pay for only 1 tune .

If you put them on "stock" you will notice a difference. They are a big improvement over the stock 98 heads if that's whats on the car now. As far as porting goes- more money more power. Its the name of the game after all. IMO send them out to TEA or AI or WCCH and get them ported if you can. Then tune it 1 time versus 2 if you pull the heads to port them. Either way it needs to be tune if that makes sense.

Corrected.


( technically, the Z06 also has the LS6 block, intake manifold, valley cover and PCV system, and a different PCM calibration )

No, the cam is the LS6 cam, and the intake manifold is the flat-bottomed LS6 manifold... and the Z06 has vehicle specific exhaust manifolds.

Depending on the year, yeah the block was improved, but no power to be had there nor in the PVC system.

What I was trying to say, slap on the 243s and the LS6 cam, you will have the 400hp. "LS6" and "LS1" are just engine codes. They are the same bore X stroke,