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I have an lq4 with iron heads that I swapped in a 69 chevy short bed truck. Im looking for a little more power and planning to swap aluminum heads on with a cam soon. I want to keep the bottom end all stock. I'm looking for about 400-450 crank hp without needing to run a stall converter or need bigger injectors. The truck has 1 3/4" mid length headers with dual exhaust and cold air intake and 3:73 gears. planning to run rebuilt gm heads to keep cost down. I'm looking for suggestions of which head and cam to look for?
Had in mind a little bit hotter of a cam. But I dont know when the point that I have to run a stall converter is. I don't want to run a stall converter because traction is already an issue from a dead stop.
How is the truck set up and what do you want it to do when you are done?
You know how it is with hot rodding, once you start stepping things up, you need other stuff to go with it. If you want to step up the cam, it is going to want a higher stall converter, deeper gear, headers, then maybe better intake, throttle body etc etc. Ask me how I know about the slippery slope. LOL
Right now the motor is all stock except for electric fans, cold air intake, headers, and dual 2.5" exhaust. Trans is stock too. The rear end is a 12 bolt with an eaton posi and 3:73 gear. Truck has a 255/55-18 tire all around. This will never be a truck for the track just for cruising around town. All I want is more power and thought I may be disappointed with that cam, but I may be wrong.
If you want a great hotrod setup that will have killer midrange torque and horsepower, I would consider this cam along with a Circle D 2B stall torque converter: http://store.cammotion.com/60-ls2-34...-compression-2
Thanks, now I need to decide what heads to use? Also Im not understanding how a stall converter will benefit me. I feel like it will just cause me to spin more off the line and empty my wallet. Lol
Thanks, now I need to decide what heads to use? Also Im not understanding how a stall converter will benefit me. I feel like it will just cause me to spin more off the line and empty my wallet. Lol
The stall converter will indeed do both of those things. LOL. But, here is how it will help you: When the cam gets larger, the low speed torque starts to diminish below 2500-3000 RPM. This can make the vehicle feel lazy and unresponsive. So, even though it will perform better once it gets wound up, it is just not a very good driving experience compared to the smaller cam or the larger cam with a higher stall.
Here is something else that may seem counter-intuitive: Even though the vehicle will spin the tire more easily, it will still accelerate quicker if you modulate the throttle. Here is an example. In my car, I changed from a 3000 RPM stall converter to a 4000 RPM stall converter. My 60 foot times at the track with good traction improved by .15 seconds and my 1/4 mile ET improved by .2 seconds. Now even when I spin and have to feather the throttle, I still run a bit quicker than I did with the old converter. In your truck, if you were to install a 3000 stall, the truck will go about 4 tenths faster in the quarter than it would with a stock torque converter. And even if you spin badly and had to feather the throttle, you would still outrun the times your truck would run with a stock torque converter.
12-24-2014, 04:14 PM
Lq4 cam and heads advice 
