Im picking up my 93 RX7 here soon and I'm dropping in an LS1. Now I want more kick than a stock LS1 I sold my 864rwhp cobra to pick this car up so I'd like at least low 11's. I was looking at cams but the idea of having to check my springs every 10k miles and even replace that often is kinda of keeping me away from a very large cam. So... I've heard going with a Z06 cam can provide decent gains while retaining factory forgiving springs, but I'm afraid that would leave alot on the table with heads. Any other options that I'm overlooking?

On the heads side I've been reading up on flow numbers and the such and it seems to me that the Stage 3 Patriots flow even better than the AFR 205's at the .550 lift (Z06 cam is right around that lift I beleive). And at about 700 bucks less it seems logical to pick those up. Again any other ideas?

Now this isn't supposed to be an all out drag car, its a daily driven car but like I said I'd like to get more grunt than your average LS1. Any help would be appreciated. I'm a Ford guy so this LS1 stuff is all new to me.

 

CheaTR cam from Thunder Racing and AFR 205s for 430+ rwhp.
That in a 2800 lbs car will run low 11's and even high 10's if suspension properly setup.
I would look into a Kaaz rearend to handle that much.
Check out Hindson for RX7 conversions.

 

Even with the CheaTR cam wouldn't I have to mess with the springs all the time?

 

you would have to check the springs with nearlly all after market camshafts, especially one that you want to pull you into 10's/11's but with the T-rex i have I would check them every maybe 5-7K miles and replace probably around 20K and thats a MUCH bigger cam than the cheatR

 

T-Rex, man that is like one of the biggest cams you can fit in a stock motor. Not what you want, I garantee that.

 

The TRex would be bad on valvetrain, but it would be insane in a car with the weight of an RX7. I would venture to say you could see high 10s with stock heads and the TRex, and dip well into them with the right supporting mods, gearing, suspension. But from what you posted, definately not what you want at all.

As for the heads, the Patriots might flow better than the AFRs but you can't look at just the flow numbers. Most CNC LS6 heads after CNC'ing have intake runners in the 24x size range. The AFR 205s have a 205 length runner and flow damn close to a head with a much larger intake runner. This makes more port velocity and tremendously improves your torque curve. In a car as light as yours, you may be better off saving the money and going with an LS6 style head since the low end torque really won't matter as much. But still, if you have the money, the AFR 205s will be an awesome head and will make a lot of power with a "baby" sized cam. Another good option for a light car that would benefit from a lot of topend would be at ET 215 or 225, an AFR 225 or a TEA Trickflow 225 head. A cam in the mid to high 22x range on Xer lobes would not be that bad on valvetrain wear. However, you could go bigger or stay small and use LSk lobes with comp valvetrain components and be fairly safe.

You'll have fun no matter what you do, you are driving my dream car.

 

If your idea of dream car is a beat cavy then yes I am. Lol right now the RX7 is a peice of metal with nothing in it. I'm searching for my LS1 pull out but its hard to find one with everything needed for the swap, meanwhile I'll be sending my subframe off to Hinson soo and now I'm left trying to figure out what I want to do for cooling.

Also I don't mind a small amount of bump in my cam. The CheaTR seems like a great cam but if I opened up the LSA wouldn't I get a lil more on the top end? I'm looking a for a street car. I have a DD so its not that big of a deal but I don't want a car I have to spend tons of money on to keep running. Thats why i sold my cobra.

 

I'm using a G5X4 which is a pretty large cam that will make power to 7k RPM.

 

i jus picked out a cam for my LS1 FC. i'm running a pretty restrictive exhaust so i picked a cam biased towards the exhaust side. at first i was looking at off the shelf units like u, cus time was a factor. but i ended up waiting wut turned out to be only 3 xtra days to get the grind i wanted.

get a custom cam for ur setup. i would not bother w/ the Z06 cam. as far as springs, Comp 918s would be good cus i doubt ur going w/ an insane lift cam. ur an FD, so will u have long tubes and then a single comin out the back? wut size piping? wut heads/intake, etc? u need to give these guys more info to help u out.

 

I just said above that I will be using long tubes and the heads I'm looking at are listed.

 

I believe that Patriot's stage 3 heads are designed for larger displacement engines. Look around the dyno section for a Heads/Cam combo you are interested in. Pretty much all aftermarket cams require that you check the springs once a year. To me that's not that bad, one afternoon every spring? It all depends on how much maintance you're willing to do

 

sorry, i didnt see anything above stating that ur using longtubes. and i understand u r looking at various heads. jus trying to get all the info so the real guru's can help u out instead of the people that suggest the cam they have or the cam they want.

i know someone on here will point u in the right direction. goodluck w/ everything. r u on TC?

 

Another good street cam that is friendly on springs is the LPE GT2-3
That cam has 420rwhp potential with proper SCR/DCR

 

I was talking with Trevor at Texas Speed asking what cam woudl be good for a streetable car without having to replace the valve springs. He said that if I went with a nice dual spring (Like their PRC duals) and ran an MS3 cam I would get some good life out of them. He stated that one of the guys at the shop got 40k miles on that setup. He said the car is in pieced now to do a head swap (as I think it was just stock heads before) and that the valve springs were still in good shape. That is actually what I'm going with on my LS1 RX7. I'm going to keep the stock heads, put in an MS3 cam, PRC dual springs, intake, and headers and hope for around 380rwhp. I think it is realistic. But I will have one up on you, the LS1 is going into a RHD FD3S I imported from Japan. lol j/k

Later,
Adam

 

I'm doing the same thing. I was just going to keep my FD3S stock as I already had a hybrid (Z car). I visit these sites too often, though, and the temptation became too great. I bought an LS1/T56 and I'm going to merge the two. Since this will be my slow car, I want it to be streetable. Since you're ahead of me in the swap, I'll be interested in watching your progress. You're doing all the work yourself?. I've already done a hybrid swap and it was and still is a PITA. What Hinson charges sounds like a bargain, so I may send it out to them.

 

Silicone Boy,

Not to diverge too much from this thread but I'm not really that far along with this project. I'm still trying to sell my 750hp T88H turbo mkIV Supra, but that doesn't take up too much time. But I have 2 other projects that need to get done before the RX7. I'm in the process of making my Skyline GTR R34 street legal, registered, and titled so I can sell it. I'm starting an importing business and this is the first Skyline I have ever done. It is easy but just time consuming as you always run across something new. Plus I need to finish my Saker SVS project. Its a road race prototype race car I imported from New Zealand. It originally came with a Lexus 4L quad cam V8 but I coudln't get enough power out of it so I decided to put an LS1 mated to an Audi 01E 6 speed transaxle (which no has done yet either) into the car. So I'm currently building 2 LS1's for the Saker and RX7. One is a forged bottom end with heads/cam and all the other goodies for the Saker and will hopefully make 460-480rwhp. The other will be basically stock with a cam for the RX7 and hopefully 380rwhp. The RX7 project has not even started but since I already have the LS1 parts for that engine and the front subframe off thecar I think I'm going to go ahead and send it to Hinsons for modification for the LS1/T56 mounts, but I'm not going to get a T56 just yet or even start working on it as I really want to sell the Supra and Skyline before I dump more money into my personal cars. I think the only issue I"m going to have on the RHD RX7 is the fact that the AC will probablly hit the steering rack as they are now on the same side. But I will just have to relocate the AC which shouldn't be too bad. But Hinson currently has a RHD FD getting an LS1 so they shoudl be ahead of me so hopefully they will be able to help me figure it out before I get to it. PM anytime for questions and hopefully we can help each other out with these builds.

Later,
Adam

 

Sounds like we have the same disease. I have a twin turbo 383 in a 280Z that's running, but I'm still working on it to make it street legal. I'm starting a Shelby Cobra kit car that I'm going to sell to finance the RX7 project. Then there's the Hayabusa motor sitting around that I want to put in a Lotus Super 7 clone. Right now, too many projects, not enough time. Those Mk IV Supras are terrifying, and a real Skyline? Wow. Nice collection there.

 

Yeah apparently we have the same sickness but its fun so I can't complain. A turbo 383 sounds nasty. I bet that thing must fly. I'm hoping the LS1 in the Saker will be a nice combo considering the car is 2000 pounds. I'm not sure if I would sell a Cobra to get an RX7 but it is a hard call as I'm more of a fan of the modern cars as opposed to the old but the Cobras are bad ***. Yeah every one seems to freak out that I have a Skyline, its really all hype started by stupid people that like to argue on forums, but that wil only help me sell it when its done. Of course waiting on parts for it from Japan takes much longer then I would like but what can I do right. lol Yeah I realized that I have 3 of some of the most sought after jap cars in my driveway. I like all types of cars so I'm not really biased against brand or country of origin or engine size. As long as it is rare then it gets me going. I have a Prowler too, which I love even though it is a V6 and only came in Automatic, but you hardly see them so that makes it cool to me. I always feel like a cocky *** (well more then I usually am anyway. lol) when I talk about my cars but in reality the Skyline and Supra I'm not going to keep as I rather sell and make some money off them. The Saker, Prowler and RX7 are my babies though. I can't wait to take the RX7 to the road course as the RHD will give an interesting challenge. I brought the Saker to the road course when it had the Lexus V8 in it and it was fun as hell. I can't even imagine what it will be like with a moster LS1 in it. Man these engines are so freaking cool. I will miss the sound of the Lexus V8 though as it was awesome. Like a mix between a Ferrari and Mustang, exotic yet mean as hell.

 

Hey guys, Sorry to hijack your thread, I just realized it got a little out of hand. If you want we will stop or tell the admins to start this in another thread. Sorry, but I get carried away with cars as I'm sure we all do.

Sorry,
Adam