L33 5.3, BTR Cam too big?
09-17-2020, 11:45 AM
#21
Impression - Very COOL car project
A++ choice on the Nova! Wish you the best of success with the project
Summary - No guts no glory. While the cam is on the big side for a 5.3 it does suit the personality of a 66 Nova I'd keep it and risk needing a mail order tune from Frost to fully sort the car's driveabilty out. I'd up the stall to ~3800 or so. I'd keep the gears as is with the light weight car. I'd see if i could find a better flowing intake than an LS1 intake.
Comments - As planned basically strikes me as a combo of semi-mismatched parts that will automatically provide the given tuner with an excuse if you don't like how car idles/drives/performs. You should be able to get by with what you have knowing it possible a mail order tune from some one like Frost may be needed to sort the car out with the given parts if your tuner lacks skill.
Suggestions to consider.
1) More stall say closer ~3600 to ~4000 as others have said. I think the 3.55 gear will be ok with more stall. It with an excellent tune your car will drive well enough too and be a lot of fun with?the current BTR cam. Just be prepared that a 2nd tuner MIGHT have to be called in to fully sort the car out driveabilty wise depending on what you end up with from tuner #1.
2) The LS1 intake is really a crappy intake manifold for NA. A truck manifold or TBSS would be better if it will fit and not break the bank. What you have will work but
3) Raise compression as much as possible with the current cam selected.
Just my .02 worth
A++ choice on the Nova! Wish you the best of success with the projectSummary - No guts no glory. While the cam is on the big side for a 5.3 it does suit the personality of a 66 Nova
I'd keep it and risk needing a mail order tune from Frost to fully sort the car's driveabilty out. I'd up the stall to ~3800 or so. I'd keep the gears as is with the light weight car. I'd see if i could find a better flowing intake than an LS1 intake.Comments - As planned basically strikes me as a combo of semi-mismatched parts that will automatically provide the given tuner with an excuse if you don't like how car idles/drives/performs. You should be able to get by with what you have knowing it possible a mail order tune from some one like Frost may be needed to sort the car out with the given parts if your tuner lacks skill.
Suggestions to consider.
1) More stall say closer ~3600 to ~4000 as others have said. I think the 3.55 gear will be ok with more stall. It with an excellent tune your car will drive well enough too and be a lot of fun with?the current BTR cam. Just be prepared that a 2nd tuner MIGHT have to be called in to fully sort the car out driveabilty wise depending on what you end up with from tuner #1.
2) The LS1 intake is really a crappy intake manifold for NA. A truck manifold or TBSS would be better if it will fit and not break the bank. What you have will work but
3) Raise compression as much as possible with the current cam selected.
Just my .02 worth
The following 3 users liked this post by 99 Black Bird T/A:
09-17-2020, 12:19 PM
#22
"If a customer contacted us with this combo we would recommend the Ghost cam that Kfxguy mentioned. Specs on it are .600/.575, 222/233, 115+3 with -3* of overlap."
Same engine, LS6 intake. ^^ This cam.
3500# 55 Chevy sedan, 3.73 gear, Summit converter, at 2600/2800.
We'll see.....
Same engine, LS6 intake. ^^ This cam.
3500# 55 Chevy sedan, 3.73 gear, Summit converter, at 2600/2800.
We'll see.....
09-17-2020, 02:44 PM
#23
Run it with a 4000 ish stall. It's a cruiser, don't worry about the gears right now just run it as is.
Absolutely would benefit from a better intake manifold, even and old FAST 90 or 92 would be excellent
Mill the heads down quite a bit, and get a good valve job (mulit angle) and it'll **** and get and make more power than this below
Here's a dyno with a very similar cam in a 5.3, really comes alive around 4000, even the torque jumps up quite a bit.
Absolutely would benefit from a better intake manifold, even and old FAST 90 or 92 would be excellent
Mill the heads down quite a bit, and get a good valve job (mulit angle) and it'll **** and get and make more power than this below
Here's a dyno with a very similar cam in a 5.3, really comes alive around 4000, even the torque jumps up quite a bit.
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Ls7colorado (09-17-2020)
09-17-2020, 03:57 PM
#24
So much great advice here, thanks for all the input. So I’m leaning towards - get it tuned and run it to see how it runs first so i have a baseline, then work from there. If I change it up to a btr phase 1 cam; hoping i can keep the springs, z06 lifters and not have to get into the heads yet. does that sound reasonable?
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Ls7colorado (09-17-2020)
09-21-2020, 09:23 AM
#29
So much great advice here, thanks for all the input. So I’m leaning towards - get it tuned and run it to see how it runs first so i have a baseline, then work from there. If I change it up to a btr phase 1 cam; hoping i can keep the springs, z06 lifters and not have to get into the heads yet. does that sound reasonable?
The following 2 users liked this post by 68Formula:
00pooterSS (09-21-2020), G Atsma (09-21-2020)
06-07-2023, 08:46 PM
#30
It’s been awhile - life- plus had to wire the car, exhaust etc… got it running and tuned- actually decent street manners.. the cam is nasty- nasty good if that’s what you like- rear end breaks looks easily at 4k and gets down right scary - need more tire— car is light and gets squarely, can’t really even take WOT because it’s angry… anyway - sat the car for awhile as I need to install a cooler- trans gets hot. 3.55s are ok but thinking more gear might be more fun. I will say when idling at 1k and creeping into garage- this f—ker is bouncing like bare double Ds— literally the front end is bouncing- is that cam surge? I have to admit- I don’t know because my other big cam car is a 489 with a 5 speed.