Car: 02 WS6 M6.
Mods: Full exhaust, stock gearing.
Budget: $3k
Goal: No special HP or ET goals. Just a nice bump in power with a moderate to minimal driveability impact. Still being able to run A/C in a traffic jam is a must.

EDIT: Didn't know that the little "chat window" feature would make a literal post. Wasn't ready for that quite yet as I wanted to do more informal research before littering your board with another "which cam?" question. Sorry about that guys

 

Do you prefer to buy used or new? Btw, seeing that you are in MI I know a great tuner that I can send you to

 

Thanks for your reply - new. Always open to recommendations. I've used SB Tuning in the past, and heard mixed reviews on Solomon. Was thinking of trying Dr Phil next.

 

I have someone who can do better than those guys when the time comes. I know Texas Speed and Thompson Motorsports have some pretty good deals. A while back my PRC 5.3 heads were like $1300 from Texas Speed. Thats a hard price to beat for a fully ported and dressed setup. You might wanna check Livernois Motorsports as well since that's not far from you

 

Dont forget oils and gaskets as well a better clutch and fly. If your looking for just a fun street car then this is easy. I would go with clean stock ls6/799 heads on ebay for like 500-600 bucks (usually at this price point they are cleaned, resurfaced with "sometimes" a valve job) pull centre covers from a junkyard and get brackets off amazon, sand and paint covers if you are **** about looks. A 222/226 EPS cam for a nice stealthy clean idle. Get good dual valve springs and new retainers, locks and seals. Get the ls6 oil pump on amazon and ls7 lifters and trays from ebay. LS2 chain as well since your there, just the chain no need for gears unless your are damaged somehow. You also need push-rods, you should measure for correct length but if your lazy then 7.4 should be fine with a small cam and stock ls6 heads. If they are milled then I wouldn't guess, I would check. If you want, you could get new rockers or do the trunnion upgrade. This is optional, many here say you should do it but I know guys who have been building engines forever that say stock rockers are fine, especially if your not spinning very high which you wont. If your heads are stock and you want to spend a bit more, you could get a quality competition valve job by a competent local machinist. If you want aftermarket then PRC and TFS heads, no bigger then 215cc will be good on a budget. AFR 205cc Mongoose heads will give you massive under the curve power provided you have the coin. (Make sure when you buy heads you ask if you can or cannot use the stock rockers) You may want an LS6 intake as well. If you want the best, call Tony Mamo and have him spec you a heads and cam package. Be very honest with him with what you want and he wont disappoint. Be prepared to pay for the quality and craftsmanship of the heads.
A small cam (220-226 intake with 220-228 exhaust) with <.600lift and stock ls6 heads and intake will probably net you around 390hp tire and 380tq. Aftermarket heads will make considerably more power. This will drive like stock, run on 91 pump and pull from any RPM you desire. 6th gear cruise will be like normal and A/C will blow ice cubes. Once you get into 228ish cams and bigger with more than 4deg overlap you will see trade-offs. If you want a hot street cam that will impress people here with bench numbers and gets looks at stop lights then a 228-232 will be great. I wouldn't get a cam that makes power over 6600 since the stock bottom shouldn't be ran above that anyways and the ls6 intake manifold will limit peak horsepower around 6300ish. 222 cam will work nicely with 3.42 gears. Wont be a dyno king though, as if that matters. In fact many vendors spec custom cams for free, I would call them and say this is what I have, I want my car to do this and I will use it as a "____". I don't care about horsepower dyno numbers, I want area under the curve and the most average torque possible while spinning under 6600 RPMS. Let them spec to your desire. The more aggressive the lobe the more power it will make but the more abuse the valve-train will take. This isn't a drive ability thing so much as reliability. This is your choice with how often you want to pull covers to change springs and such.

edit: You don't need to pull covers from a junkyard, yours should be center bolt already I believe, as well as have an LS6 intake. I forgot that it was an '02.

 

We can certainly help you with any of your goals. Give us a call and we can go over some options. We look forward to the opportunity to speak with you.

Thank you HCI2000SS, We greatly appreciate your support.

Thank you,
Kyle
972-853-2450