Hi everyone,

Due to life, I have been out of the loop for a while but am ready to get back into my car and start gearing up to get some more work done to it soon. However, I am just wondering what direction to go in to accomplish my goals.

Right now, the car is a cam/stall/full bolt-on LS1 (specifics in sig). I took it to the drag strip earlier this year and it ran a best of 12.1 with like 3/4 tank of gas. I'm sure it might have a couple more tenths in it, but I was OK with that considering prior to those passes, I haven't been to the track in probably 6 years. It's an all original full weight, SOM SS with SLP CME, chrome 10 spokes, leather, SLP SS grille, ice cold A/C, T-Tops, BMR springs/SLP Bilsteins etc., etc.

That said, if at all possible, I really do not want to cut, hack, remove/reinstall bumpers, trim or mess with anything involving the exterior or interior of the car and would like to absolutely retain its complete originality as it only has 33k miles. So with that in mind, I am wondering what you guys would recommend to get this thing down into the bottom 11 second range, or even better high 10s if possible?

I've been looking at everything from LS7/LS3 shortblocks, heads and intakes for the SBE LS1 and I'm just not sure which direction would be best for what I'm trying to do. I am not really considering FI at this point due to the reasons above unless there is another way to install those kits so apologies if I am wrong. I know for sure I am going to need a built transmission as well so I'm factoring that in too. As far as budget, I'll do what it takes to have it done right. I've had this car for a long time and isn't going anywhere so I'll spend the money on it. So please, all ideas are welcome.

Thanks for any help guys!

Chris

 

You can hit your goals with minimal work. Doesn’t take an engine change. You could go mid 11s right now easy if you got your 60’ lower.

 

Heads and have the converter restalled to a Pt4000 would get ya to around 11.4.

What was your 60' ?

 

SBE
True Dual Exhaust,LLSR (something like ~235/243 hydro =~ 229/237) ~.630"/.610"
MMS MSD & Sportsman 223s, (don't need full on CNC 220s for your goals)
if you have the expertise and the time/patience you can do the
Darth stock Rockers with bushing upgrade and shims for adjustment,
once done should be good for 15-25K Miles spring life/Lash adjustment
depending on lift & intensity of lobes.

I got got ideas for larger engines also,
Fun to spend OPM LOL!

 

Ls3 with mild cam, ad a cut out for the track, sticky tires and get ready to beef up the trans/rear

 

Leave everything alone and add a blower. Your cam and stall will both work with a supercharger, and no need to tear out the motor or swap cams and replace heads. You don't need to cut/hack anything to add a centrifugal supercharger like a P1SC or D1SC. They show up used in the for sale section pretty often and will more than meet your goals without affecting driveability.

 

I agree if you decide you will do boost, that would be the way to go without messing with anything on the car that cant be "removed" just get a good fuel pump, injectors, and tune

 

Any reason not to spray it if you're just after a track number?

 

Great advice, thanks guys. My 60' foot was a 1.702 on my 12.1 pass. What kind of heads would you guys recommend? I have been researching today and it seems that maybe something like the TSP Stage 2 5.3s would be good with my cam.

Thanks very much for this suggestion. I have researched this and am really considering this route, I guess I hadn't looked hard in the past and just assumed it would require a lot more to install than it does. It looks like the D1SC or P1SC with the twin intercoolers would be perfect, looks like a clean install and I would probably get much more out of this than doing a head/intake swap. I know you said my stall will work, but what kind of transmission is good for an application like this? I'm assuming a built 4L60E from maybe FLT or the like would be fine.

Yeah I thought about that briefly, I will have to do more research on what it takes to have a proper nitrous setup. Just seems like I hear more bad than good when it comes to it but I'll do some homework.

 

for trans a 4l80e would be best, But someone like FLT would be an excellent choice to use to build the 4l60e if you decide to keep it.

 

I ran my stock 4l60e with no issues. Yank 3600 stall. Just kept the torque management in the tune. If you plan to rev it above 6-6200, you'll want to get something built. stock 4l60e's don't like RPM. It'll handle the power as its very linear with the centrifugal blower. Glad you're considering this. It'll make way more power than changing cams or adding heads, no bottles to fill, and gives you room to grow in the future. Get a set of Siemens 60lb high impedance injectors, a Walbro 450, and a hot wire kit for the pump and you have a fuel system good to 600whp+ for cheap.

 

You'd be surprised what a 75 wet shot can do. I never installed mine but I was content with the gains of a 75-100 wet shot, 125 max, Plus its super safe at that amount. a 125 wet shot can take a second off from what Ive read

 

The stock 4l60e is still going strong in my previous 2002 Z28(The car has around 25k miles) and it's been 7000+ rpm countless times. Torque management was turned off many moons ago. Shift kit and cooler are the only mods. It's even handled a few hits from a 150 shot so far. 4l60e is better then most give it credit for when tuned right.

To hit your goals NA, you will need a decent set of heads, Fast intake, more compression, better exhaust, and a better 60ft. Will need a tire of some sort as well. 275 street tires won't cut it.

Here is quick video clip of my H/C/I 4th gen. Ran low 11's on the street.

 

Nice to see someone else believing in the stock 4L60e for certain circumstances. Everyone wants to throw it in the trash.

 

That’d be perfect. This sounds like the way to go! I’d be interested to hear more about the 2000 SS in your signature as it sounds like our cars would be setup pretty similar.

Did you have the twin intercoolers on that car? I’m curious how that would mount on a Camaro. I read an old article and saw it installed on a Trans Am and it looks like they slide behind the air ducts beneath the DRLs/turn signals, but the Camaro’s have fog lights there so not sure how that works?

Also I stumbled across the thread you made about tuning the stock 4L60E to be able to handle respectable power and found that very helpful. Might be a stupid question, but on a setup like ours with the SBE, blower, mild cam, stall, etc., do you think having the car tuned to account for the stock trans vs. buying a built trans and kind of going all out with the tuning is leaving that much on the table? I saw one guy in the thread suggesting like either low 10s or 9s could be had if the car was tuned with a built transmission! Seems a little exaggerated to me so just figured I’d ask. Thanks again!

Beautiful car, very clean and it sounds awesome! That’s impressive that the 4L60 handled that type of abuse, people seem to really hate on them but the more I read I’m learning it’s longevity can really be prolonged with the proper tuning.

 

I went with a front mount as they are more efficient and handle more power than the twins, but for your goals the twins would be fine. You can choose to mount the FMIC or twin coolers multiple different ways as there's plenty of dead space up front in an F car, mostly cause they shoved the motor halfway under the cowl lol. You just pick a size cooler for your intended install area and power goals.

As far as the trans stuff, I have no doubt that had I turned 6800-7000 I probably would have picked up half a second as it was set to shift at ~6100. But to me, saving thousands of dollars and not having any downtime of swapping transmissions was worth half a second to me. It was just a fun car to run around on the street that drove very nicely and would run a low 11 at the track at low boost without an issue. If you were shifting at the same RPM and just talk about torque limiting vs. none, other people have said it was really only worth a couple tenths at best. Again, not worth turning it off to me for that little of a gain. If I'm going to do a mod, I don't care about a couple tenths, I want to drop a second or more on a change LOL. That's why I suggested boost instead of swapping a cam or adding heads.

 

I agree...FI is what I would do. Just get the P1x with twin high flow so you don't have to cut anything.

What will kill the stock trans is skip shifting from 4th(I always manually down shifted mine into the gear I wanted to pull from) or WOT shift into 4th. So I would set the trans up to shift 6800 1st and 2nd, (you are not at that rpm long enough to create a ton of heat)and don't run it in 4th. You should be able to run a gear that will allow 140+ mph in 3rd any way.

 

So funny that we did the opposite of each other and they both lived. I never manually downshifted even in 4th locked up and never had a problem.

 

Ha...well there goes our theory's out the window. However I am pretty confident that proper tuning is the most critical part. I have heard a lot of 60e's flair shift on the 2-3 and that always tells me something is off in the tune. ECU references quite a few different tables to set line pressure and shift timing...etc.

 

I do agree about tuning it properly....people always say set the rpm a couple hundred sooner so it shifts where you want it to....my car shifted at like 6125 and I set my shift at 6100 consistently.