I'm trying to figure out how much power I am sacrificing by keeping my truck civilized with my mild custom cam. And weather it's worth upgrading to a more aggressive cam/spring/tune combo.

The truck has a 5.7 ls1 short block and 243 heads. A custom cam/spring from Flowtech Induction, and now a set of Kooks 1 7/8 long tubes, Kooks cats, and a single 3 inch exhaust. Still running the truck intake setup. It made around 315/323 (with stock exhaust manifolds) on a Land and Sea Dyno-mite dyno. It is 100% perfectly reliable. It doesn't stall or buck or jerk. It's perfectly tame.


The cam is spec'd at 215/223 609/592 112. Lunati double springs.

How much power do you think I could gain with a simple cam swap?
Actually, I don't care how much power it makes. How much faster could it be with a simple cam swap?

I'm not willing to change my intake manifold.

 

I'd leave the cam alone and get the heads/intake ported by Ai or somebody reputable and gain 40+ RWHP and have BETTER drivability than just throwing a bigger cam in a heavy truck IMO and have worse manners, gas mileage, ect....all for what? 10-15 HP?

 

While I agree that is a good recipe for a well mannered street ride, it is not a good recipe for my wallet. That would run at least $2000 for 40hp.

So you think that swapping to a cam that makes a bunch more HP, is definitely going to make the truck suck to drive?

 

Head porting would be around $900-1100 depending who does it plus gaskets, bolts, and fluids. But as he said will pickup about 30-40hp and you will retain all driveability.

What trans, converter, and rear gear do you have? You are near the limit of cam size for use with the stock converter and if you don't care about HP so much as wanting to go faster then a mild stall converter is going to get you more for less $$$ than anything else you could do besides nitrous.

 

Why are you not willing to change the intake? If you swap to the TBSS intake, you'll gain horsepower without sacrificing anything.

 

HP gained per dollar spent it's actually much "cheaper". By the time you buy a bigger cam ($400+), high quality dual valvesprings ($200+), pushrods, retune, ect....just for 10-15 HP gain at most up top. As the others mentioned will probably need a new stall/gears too to make most use of it. When you could have gotten 40+ HP, better torque curve, more usable power, better manners for just a bit more $$. I also think upgrading the intake is also a better option than the cam.

"Suck to drive" is subjective....one person's "race car" is another's tame daily driver.

 

The trans is all stock 4l60, stock converter. Rear is 3:73. Im hesitant on converter, because im afraid it'll cost me drivability. Ive never driven a stalled auto, worried it'll be soggy and rev too much.

I will be installing a detroit trutrac next.

 

I've seen countles threads on the nbs to tbss intake swap. They require a bunch of custom fab work for the fuel rail,new tb, and a bunch of other little **** that isnt worth 10-15hp. If i do an intake, it will be whn my intake is holding me back, and ill go fast lsxrt, and tb.

 

This seems to be a good idea if i can get it done cheap enough, but im sceptical. On my SBF 347 mustang i upgraded from edelbrock rpm 170cc heads to Trickflow Twisted Wedge 185cnc, $1800 heads, and didnt see 40 hp, until i upgraded my intake manifold and a shlew of other parts.

So i'm rueling out the cam upgrade. It'll just shift the powerband upward to gain some power, but with my intake, would be pointless.

 

Fab work? You can swap to one without any fab work at all...

 

Found the problem...

Ok, now that that's out of the way, LS's respond very well to even mild porting. And you're right, upping the cam will get you more power, but it's by shifting the power band up, which is not what it sounds like you want.

Also, if you overdo the porting, you can have the same net effect - move the powerband up and sacrifice low end..

I suggest you look into the AI 218cc port job and milled down to 62cc combustion chamber to get the compression bumped up to 11.1 to 1. The higher compression will really help keep the low end from becoming soggy, and the smaller ports will actually help maintain higher port velocity, which should also help keep that low end nice and responsive. ANother really good option would be if you can find a set of used AFR205's, which are kind of the "go-to" heads for torque.

Now, if you really want to stay in the triple digits and get a faster, more responsive truck, gear up to 4.10, which will gain you ~10% rear wheel torque without touching the engine.

 

You might gain a few hp, but I doubt it would make the truck any faster. x100 on getting heads done instead.

 

Then leave the cam alone. You cannot go enough bigger to make a worthwhile difference. If anything you will hurt your lower to midrange performance.

 

yea? Would you mind elaborating? From whay ive read my fuel rail cross over pipe would need to be cut off and id need to weld on some hose fittings and use hose to extend over the taller intake. Plus the injectors wont bolt down right without homemade spacers. Plus id need the tbss tb for the larger port, and i think theyre dbc. The fuel filter/return thing from a corvette needs to be used. It sounded like a PITA for little to no gain. Plus retuning it.

But if you know of a direct swap option, im all ears.

 

Hey my little coupe ran hard in the end. 368/389 was pretty lite too.

Would the PRC 2.5 be a good option? They include a mill to fit each application.
How much does the AI 218 job cost?

 

PRC 2.5 is also a great option. I want to say it's about 1100 for AI. Their full name is advanced induction, there's a link to the right.

Still, cheapest thing might just be to gear the rear up. Both together, you'd start surprising people.

 

Another vote on getting your current 243 heads ported. In the end, it may not be much of a price difference than a cam swap, but you'll get more what you're looking for. Also, you want the truck faster and not necessarily more powerful, don't be afraid of a lower stall converter in lieu of the stock unit, maybe around 3200 stall. The revving and drivability probably won't be as bad as you think. I'm stickler regarding drivability also, so I wouldn't go higher than that.

 

About the gears. Im planning a detriot trutrac in a couple weeks, and the would be a good time to install a new ring and pinionb BUT, I drive a good bit on the highway. Cruising at 70ish (speedo might be reading low) i see about 2200 rpm.

Will that change?

And when i race my buddies 2016 Challenger RT, 8sp auto, we are real even until my truck hits 3rd gear, then he is gone. Like i dropped an anchor. Will increasing the gear ratio hurt my top end even more?

I already spin pretty bad from a stop.

 

Your highway rpm would increase to about 2500. You would actually do better in third gear than now. You'd gain about 10% rear wheel torque.

Tire spin would be worse but the locker will help that.