John_D.

iTrader: (2)

I've had the C5 for about 2 1/2 years now. The mod bug has come back. (I had modded the heck out of my Camaro that I eventually swapped for the C5)

Eventually I want to install a supercharger. After working through the dollars per hp factor, for lots of different mods, a supercharger comes out ahead, with nearly no other mods. And a cam is pretty cost effective too as a stand-alone mod. And the cam is probably the most effective supporting mod for the supercharger too.

So I'm going to do the cam first (and hopefully pick up another 40-50 hp if the internet is to be believed...) Blower/stealth cam. Somewhere around 224/230 on 117-120 lsa, advanced 4 to 6 degrees, .58 to .61 lift.

The car is a 1997 with 80k miles.
LS1 engine, perimeter bolt valve covers, LS1 intake.
A cam should really wake up this early version LS1.

Will be street driven, occasional drag race (1/4 mile), some local autocross, and some road racing (HPDE at NCM).
I want to make the power at 6200 and down, to help preserve the engine and transmission. Some torque management will remain. I have hptuners and a wideband.
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With the cam swap that's coming up first, I'm going to do some other upgrades/maintenance at the same time:
- beehive valve springs and titanium retainers
- valve seals
- hardened pushrods
- oil pump
- single row LS2 timing chain (but not sprockets)
- timing chain dampener (katech or TEA)
- water pump
- all coolant hoses
- pcv catch can
- vacuum reference the '97 fuel pressure regulator
- fuel pressure and boost gauges

Still undecided (to do now):
- ls6 valley cover (pcv pickup relocation)
- trunion kit to beef up the rocker arms
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To do later, when I do the supercharger:
- injectors
- boost-a-pump
- tran cooler
- katech belt tensioner
- speed density tune (no maf), 2-bar map, keep stock pcm ("slow")

Still undecided (to do later):
- headers
- upgraded radiator
- beefed up lockup converter (Circle D)
- exhaust cutouts
- fuel pump (depends if stock + boost-a-pump can keep up)
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Not going to do at all:
- lifters
- heads
- intake
- throttle body
- rod bolts
- keeping stock fuel lines and fuel rail
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Am I leaving out anything?

Any major concerns with the stuff I'm excluding?

Anything on the list considered excessive?

HCI2000SS

iTrader: (2)

If you are not doing headers it will severely limit the amount of power the cam can make

tmoney82

I'll try to get a full exhaust done along with the cam.

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

Looks like a lot of fun.

1. Definitely do the LS6 valley cover. It cleans up your engine bay quite a bit. Especially with the catch can.

2. Trunion upgrades on your stock rockers definitely, even with beehives. The comp 918's for example are much stiffer than stock springs

3. Beehives might be OK with that cam. Depends on the ramp rates. If those are xer lobes, you'll want duals.

4. File this under "Don't forget while in there doing the supercharger" - The cam you've listed should run fine and it will need the advance on the street while running NA. When you install the supercharger, consider moving the ICL back to 115.

5. Since it sounds like you want mid-range power more than anything else, a roots type blower (magnuson / eaton) might make sense over a hairdryer (procharger / vortech). The blower will give you strong torque right off idle, and moving the ICL back up to 115 will help it carry power up to redline.

6. When you do the supercharger, pay close attention to how you do the PCV. Do a search for how many people FI their ride and can't figure out why pressure is building up in their blocks and smoke is pouring out of their oil cap and valley cover seals.

John_D.

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the input!

In the back of my mind, I've wanted to do the headers all along anyway. But I'm probably going to do them after the s/c instead of before, just to get the $ for the s/c sooner... It would be easy to do them now, but it just delays the s/c that much more.

Makes a lot of sense to do the valley cover while I'm there. Was originally going to skip pulling the intake off, but better to head off oil problems while I'm doing the cam teardown. With my old turbo setup on the Camaro ('98) I did this too. And rigged a brake booster check valve in the line to prevent boost from blowing back into the crankcase.

Good point on doing the ps bracket while it's torn down too. Then the s/c install is just bolting things on, not taking things off.

I think I knew I needed the trunion upgrade too, but needed to hear it...

Trying to manage cost. I went way, way out there on the Camaro, and trying to learn from that experience. It went through a progression: V6, V6 + spray, V6 + powerdyne, V8, V8 + turbo. With a bunch of other goodies (cf driveshaft, level 3 trans, circle d converter, vfn hood, konis all around, converted to manual brakes, no a/c, converted to manual windows, front breather conversion, rewired nearly the whole car, etc, etc.

Great point on the cam advance. I had been kicking around getting a 2 piece cover and a Cloyes adjustable timing set. Now I'm leaning that way even more.

I need to research the maggie type blowers some more. The thought of giving up an air to air intercooler is probably my main hangup there.

I figure the cam swap will tide me over for now, while I continue to plan and gather the funds for the s/c. Plus I can even go ahead and do the custom os with sd tune, 2-bar map, ditch the maf, etc while I'm waiting. Be getting the cam and ve dialed in. Then fill in the boost regions after I get the s/c. Maybe get a jump on the injectors too.

John_D.

iTrader: (2)

Looks like I'm going to add a DTE differential brace to the list too.