Ive been doing alotta lurking and reading tons of threads. I came over to the LS1 bandcamp from the LT1 camp cause i was dazzled by these stories of outrageous power. Now im seeing alotta setups in the low 400s with headwork and a cam. Now the LT1 guys have stock casting heads ported with a not too crazy cam putting down 420-430 with full boltons. On junk GM castings. Wheres all these big RWHP combos at? Whats it take to go 450+ or 500 at the wheels, will stock heads ported make it? Will a 346 make it? Im just trying to pick a way to go for this year. Next year ill be going to a turbo setup, but i wanna make big power off a heads and cam setup for this year. I guess im looking for some proven combos that make big #s. Big cams dont scare me, i dont mind reving.

 

Do you want you build it just to make big numbers, or to actually be fast? Lower numbers may still get youi to the end of track, or to the next light quicker.... you want power under the curve to be a mean machine.

Also, heads and cam are not the only part of a big power combo. Intake, exhuast set-ups, misc internals can nickel and dime you to death on the HP! It's all about finding the right combo. You could be making 400 h/c and simoply by switching to a different exhuast and different intake get 35rwhp. Everything has to work together!!! 5 hp here, 5 hp there... the smalls mods that compliment eachother will start to add up.

Why do you want to try to make alot of power RIGHT NOW with heads and cam if you're going to go turbo soon? To make big power N/A, you have to build the motor to run at the optimal level as an N/A engine. On pump gas... you're going to want a medium-high compression ratio that fits your fuel needs. Probably in the neighborhood of 11.5:1 for 93, and sorry, but you're not going to be able to drop to 9-10:1 for the turbo by just using a thicker headgasket, you'll likely have to buy different heads. To make optimal power cam-wise, you're going to have a cam built for n/a use, you'll likely have to switch cams again when you turbo. You may have to change to dished pistons to lower your compression, which you're not going to want to do until the turbo....

It just doesn't make sense to build the hell out of an engine to run n/a, and then have to rebuild the whole thing in a year for a completely different purpose. Unless you just won the lottery... I'd start building the motor for one path, and stick with it for awhile.

If you want to run 3lbs of boost... fine.... but you seem to like peak #'s... so I'm betting you want to make the most power you can with the turbo as well.

Will stock ported heads make it? Prolly not... will a 346? Definitely, with the right combo, and the right tune!

 

keep in mind, with an LS1 you can pull 420rwhp CAM ONLY if your willing to go big and rev high. Most head/cam combos are 440-500rwhp, with strokers hitting 600rwhp. The biggest restriction is the intake on these things, if someone can get the harrop intake to work watch out, the numbers are gonna skyrocket

 

 

it probably would be best if you used the motor you currently have and get a set of 57-62 cc ported heads,cam around approx 228-234 duration with around 588-610 lift,lts,bla,bla,bla and 430 +you will have. but if going turbo i would highly reccomend a forged dish short block and reuse your stock heads with decent springs if you don't plan on huge power,there has been decent numbers put up with stock motors with 317 heads.