Dude, all kidding aside, the "driver-mod" is the best and most important upgrade you can ever do. If you have a nice car and want it to stay nice, and you want it to stay yours, then don't be a ********.

And that's probably the best advice I have ever given anyone.

 

Best advise for a high powered RWD car. The nano-second you start to feel the back end come out just take your foot off of the gas. No braking or shifting until it's back under control.

 

That is one reason it is good to BUILD a quick car incrementally, driver skills hopefully progress with the capabilities of the car.

 

I'm pretty much outta cash as far as any more big mods. I've spent $5650 already. I would like to have some je or diamond piston but can't afford it right now. I read that the wrist pins are bad about going out with the stock ls1 pistons.

How often does this happen and if I drive in moderation should I have to worry about throwing a wrist pin?

 

As far as the porting goes, they are being hand ported. The mechanic told me thAt the $600 and $800 port job was not worth the cash. So I opted for Full Porting for $1200. He's also including the valve job and milling the 243s for $1200

 

Does he know what he is doing with LS heads? Can you verify that?

Generally cylinder head guys can get a fair amount of gains from simple bowl work and the gain per dollar going further into the ports is less but most of us opt for full porting long as they are off being ported.

For $1200 I would have used a KNOWN reputable vendor and preferably CNC because it is more consistent port to port and if that is just the porting, valvejob and milling you could get some of the best proven CNC work for LESS.

AI is $995 for porting/milling VJ
TEA is $1338 with valvesprings
TSP is $750
These shops specialize in LS and have verifiable results.

 

$1200 includes the porting, milling, and valve job.

The same guy ported some 317 heads on a 99 ls1 Ta automatic and they got 400 Rwhp on it. They guaranteed me a 30-40 hp gain.

Texas speed said they would only do a stage 2 for $950, plus shipping and a two week wait time.

 

This. $1200 seems high. I also like to stick to the reputable guys on here because their results are proven. There are dozens of threads on here with proven results from TEA, TSP. Mamo, etc. For that much money I want to know what I am getting and that it will work as advertised. I hope it works out. I would look at the work to make sure your satisfied with it before the heads are bolted on. Asking for flow #s wouldn't be a bad idea either. Not saying the guy doesn't know what he is doing, it is just an unknown. Best of luck.

 

Don't get hung up on "stage X" look for results to compare top and I don't mean strictly flowbench or dyno.

Anyone can wave a grinder around and call it "fully ported" that doesn't equal a result and if material is removed from the wrong place can hurt performance.

The guy you are using might be the best ever head porter or might be ruining a set of castings, without some results to look at how do you know where between those extremes it is likely to fall?

 

I appreciate the criticism and skepticism of getting the heads done without having something to compare them to.

I'm going.to.ask him tomorrow if he can provide a flow sheet and I'm definitely going to look at the heads and take pics before they get put on.

The rebuild is being done by Sxt performance in San leon Tx. They're well known around here.for building 650+ horsepower vettes and building 11'second Silverados. I've never heard anything bad about them, and the owner has been building race engines most of his life and only uses 1 cylinder head guy for all his headwork. He promised me 30-40 hp gain on the ported heAds. Other than that, his word is all I have to go on. Everyone I.have spoke with.says they take they're time and do.great.dyno tuning

 

If the engine shop is well known for LS stuff and they use his heads then that is some sort of reference. Flow sheet is almost worthless, I wouldn't worry about that.

For the price though I would have gone with someone I knew something about.

650+hp and 11 second Silverados sounds like boost is involved so that doesn't say much about heads.

 

OMG....what kind of advice is all this?

OR...instead of just buying a whole bunch or random stuff that guys usually buy, you can buy a used procharger/vortech setup for 2500ish bucks, and be completely done with it.

But, that's just me....I don't like to waste my money. Stock 400dollar 5.3 with any flavor of blower that you like will run hard. 2500 usually get you the injectors too. Be patiet and look around.

 

They built a 440 cube naturally aspirated Silverado extended cab that ran an 11.8 second quarter mile. There's videos of it even.

I agree, that for the money it Mau have been better to send them off to Ai or Texas speed. I would be close to paying $1200 either way after taxes and shipping.

I'm going to ask them tomorrow if the heads have been started yet, or I will probably send them off and wait a few weeks.

There's a nice used vortech supercharger in my area for $3000. I wish I would have seen that a week ago

Either way, I like naturally aspirated cars, it's just something neat about a kickass sounding hot rod.

 

Lol. I like the way you think.

 

I found a used set of 30# svo injectors locally. I read that on the Ls1 fuel system they make 36#. Is this enough injector for my.application, or too much?

 

30lbs is enough for 500rwhp NA so you have lots of room. That number does not agree with injector theory but does agree with reality.

 

There's a thread on this site that says 98'Trans ams have 28.6# injectors and 99-00TAs have 26.4# and 01-02 have 28.8# injectors.

Is there any truth to my.99 having smaller injectors?

 

I just don't want to take a chance on leaning out my motor and blowing it up, especially if I only have 26.4# injectors. Will 26.4# push 420-430 rwhp?

 

Can't you get the part number off of your injector and look the specs up to be certain?

 

I could, but it's in the shop right now being rebuilt. It's supposed to be finished this week. I guess I will go over there and look.