BillWS6Formula

Well the car is now put away for the winter (bastages are already going through putting more salt on the roads here than MacDonald's uses for french fries) so it's time to start pondering a little more seriously "what's next" I guess.

So first I suppose a little review of where I am already is in order. Complete list of mods so far:

- Borla cat-back (no plate)
- FLP long tube headers (with cats)
- Hotcam (redline now set at 6600rpm)
- B&M Ripper shifter
- MTI lid
- Smooth bellows
- Spohn tubular LCA's
- HPP3 tuning (to recapture timing lost to on/off false KR of 3.9* and less)
- MAF Translator
- !Baffles
- TR 55 plugs
- 180* stat

That pretty well covers it right down to the plugs. I do have a Z06 clutch in there and Nitto DR's (both now shot *L*), but I consider them to be more "wear" items than mods *L*. I'm still using the stock intake, TB and even stock MAF (screen and all) as a ported version just does not work on my car.

The big changes for the season just passed was the addition of the FLP's and Hotcam, and the car as it now sets is trapping at 115+mph so it's making decent power for a relatively small cam like the Hotcam and stock heads/intake/TB/MAF. I especially notice a big change in the car's performance at highway speeds where it just pulls like a **** right up to the new redline and KEEPS on pulling HARD well into triple digit speeds. I just returned from a road trip to the maritimes and put almost 5k km on the car and it performed flawlessly with the new cam and headers and never hiccuped once. Plus I was still getting 27-28mpg on the highway with the cruise set at 110km/hr (yes that took PATIENCE LOL!). Gas mileage around town did drop some, but that was as much from having fun <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> with the new setup as much as anything else I guess.

That's where she stands now. So what to do next? My goals for the car are to keep it NA and keep it a purely daily driven car. So that means streetability must remain good and I'm not into making it a "numbers only" car - what it does at the track is how it will do on the street, so no slicks or gutting the car either. Where I would like to end up at is with a car with enough power to trap at 120ish and with the above conditions/restrictions in mind. So how to achieve this? I know I still have some improvements to make to the induction side with a new LS6 intake/ported TB/and maybe a larger calibrated MAF such as the SLP version. That shouldn't affect the car's driveability (possible exception of the MAF and if it does, it's outta there) but still add some more power.

Now heads - I know I'll need to do this to get to that 120mph trap speed barrier and these are my biggest question mark right now. Now personally I like the Hotcam - it's sound and idle characteristics are great IMO, and it even makes decent power. Plus with it's relatively low lift, it's easy on springs and should be a relatively long lived/no hassle cam. So I'm happy with keeping it as part of the final "package". Consequently, with such a "small" cam I don't think going to "stage 2" heads would be cost effective as such heads would be overkill I think with the Hotcam? So would stage 1 heads (maybe the 5.3 truck heads and a little more compression), along with the remaining changes to the induction side like I've mentioned above get me where I'm wanting to do go powerwise you think?

As for the rest of the car, I'm happy with it's appearance and handling as she now sits - with the possible exception of lowering it down a bit. The ride is pretty damn good and I'm not into auto-crossing or such, so it handles fine for me as is. Again, a fairly comfortable daily driver with excellent streetability is my goal.

Any and all input welcome!

BillWS6Formula

OK, a single specific question then on heads, still my biggest question mark: would it be any real advantage going with stage 2 heads over a smaller valve stage 1 head, with the Hotcam in there?