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Porting my LS3 heads

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Old Jan 19, 2011 | 03:11 PM
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Default Porting my LS3 heads

I have a 2008 A6 vert and want to get some more HP and wanted some opinions and or real world experience on the gains with porting the LS3 heads. Here are the current mods:

1 7/8 Kooks headers
Haltech CAI
227/231 .614/.617 115+3 LSA Cam
3.42 gears
Tune

Here are the flow numbers if I get them ported:
Flow Numbers

Intake Exhaust
.100 80.9 60.3
.200 159.9 129.9
.300 237.1 180.1
.400 291.2 226.0
.500 330.8 255.9
.600 365.9 268.1
.700 376.6 272.1

Thanks
Ken

Last edited by ktoonsez; Jan 27, 2011 at 09:54 AM.
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Old Jan 20, 2011 | 06:56 AM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
I have a 2008 A6 vert and want to get some more HP and wanted some opinions and or real world experience on the gains with porting the LS3 heads. Here are the current mods:

1 7/8 Kooks headers
Haltech CAI
227/231 .614/.617 115 LSA Cam
3.42 gears
Tune

Here are the flow numbers if I get them ported:
Flow Numbers

Intake Exhaust
.100 80.9 60.3
.200 159.9 129.9
.300 237.1 180.1
.400 291.2 226.0
.500 330.8 255.9
.600 365.9 268.1
.700 376.6 272.1

Thanks
Ken
I personally would be concerned about keeping port velocity high. Ports that are too large could hurt the torque curve. Especially since you have the A6. Big CFM tells me the ports are larger and that means lower velocity to me.

There was a recent article in Hot Rod Magazine that compared 11 cylinder heads and the bigger CFM heads did not make the power you would have thought. You may want to look up that article on the Hot Rod magazine website.
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Old Jan 20, 2011 | 07:21 AM
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Originally Posted by Mez
I personally would be concerned about keeping port velocity high. Ports that are too large could hurt the torque curve. Especially since you have the A6. Big CFM tells me the ports are larger and that means lower velocity to me.

There was a recent article in Hot Rod Magazine that compared 11 cylinder heads and the bigger CFM heads did not make the power you would have thought. You may want to look up that article on the Hot Rod magazine website.
actually the head with the biggest intake runner volume had one of the highest TQ outputs.
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Old Jan 20, 2011 | 08:37 AM
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Thanks for the feedback. I looked at the article and they did the test on a 468ci engine and had a 4.185 bore so I can't really get any great info out of that to see what I could get with mine.
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Old Jan 20, 2011 | 08:07 PM
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Anyone else?
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Old Jan 21, 2011 | 06:08 AM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
Anyone else?
contact a sponsor that has a lot of experience with L92s.Va.Speed is one that comes to mind.
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Old Jan 22, 2011 | 10:00 PM
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You will not gain much from the ported heads alone. The stock heads you have already flow more than the engine can use. I would get a fast intake and port match it to the heads, underdrive pulley, and get the exhaust opened up behind the headers. Did you go with stronger valve springs? A better converter in your trans will make the car accelerate like it has a lot more hp also.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 07:22 AM
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Not worth it to port them. When you see hp gains on ported ls3 head most of that gain came from the mill. If you just mill the head and leave it stock otherwise you will see the same gain. However you will kill you ptv clearance. If you mill them I would keep the cam around 224 ish intake duration.
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 11:41 AM
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Thanks for the feedback guys
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Old Jan 24, 2011 | 10:07 PM
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Originally Posted by ChucksZ06
You will not gain much from the ported heads alone. The stock heads you have already flow more than the engine can use. I would get a fast intake and port match it to the heads, underdrive pulley, and get the exhaust opened up behind the headers. Did you go with stronger valve springs? A better converter in your trans will make the car accelerate like it has a lot more hp also.
Yes I do have Patroit gold extreme's. I have wanted to go to a new converter but it doesn't seem like there are any good ones out there that you can trust not to blow up the tranny. Have seen 6 people and heard of countless others that lost there tranny due to aftermarkets stalls.
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Old Jan 25, 2011 | 07:16 AM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
Yes I do have Patroit gold extreme's. I have wanted to go to a new converter but it doesn't seem like there are any good ones out there that you can trust not to blow up the tranny. Have seen 6 people and heard of countless others that lost there tranny due to aftermarkets stalls.
i have seen a few failures,but that was due to either not running a tranny cooler or the wrong stall for the application.of course this was on the F-Bods with the 4L60E.
on my old Z-28 i had a 3000 stall with a B&M cooler and billet servos.i pounded the hell out of that car with no problems.
i did have the tranny flushed when i added the converter.
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Old Jan 26, 2011 | 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by gtotoocool1
i have seen a few failures,but that was due to either not running a tranny cooler or the wrong stall for the application.of course this was on the F-Bods with the 4L60E.
on my old Z-28 i had a 3000 stall with a B&M cooler and billet servos.i pounded the hell out of that car with no problems.
i did have the tranny flushed when i added the converter.
When I think about this, will it actually help? My car spends all its time from 3000-6500 RPM. Would it help due to being looser than the stock one? I was always under the assumption that it just help from the RPM of your old stall to the point of the new one, I.E. at 3200 stall would help accelerate better from the stock point of 1400 RPM to the new 3200?
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 09:48 AM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
When I think about this, will it actually help? My car spends all its time from 3000-6500 RPM. Would it help due to being looser than the stock one? I was always under the assumption that it just help from the RPM of your old stall to the point of the new one, I.E. at 3200 stall would help accelerate better from the stock point of 1400 RPM to the new 3200?
You need a shorter duration intake lobe with as much lift as you get live with. .620" + A 227 duration lobe with those heads and LCA will want to turn 7000+ The head/cam combo will feel weak under 5000rpm compaired to a smaller cam with tighter LSA.
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 11:01 AM
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Originally Posted by G8-4-speed
You need a shorter duration intake lobe with as much lift as you get live with. .620" + A 227 duration lobe with those heads and LCA will want to turn 7000+ The head/cam combo will feel weak under 5000rpm compaired to a smaller cam with tighter LSA.
I have comp cam # 54-458-11 cam, which is extremely close with TEA LS3 Heads on a 6.0L

It makes 350rwtq at 2750 and made 411rwtq by 4500 (table flat torque) peaked with 467rwhp at 6500RPM.

with a stock clutch M6 tranny
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 11:09 AM
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Another option I am starting to consider:

Thinking about doing a head swap for Mast Black Label Med. Bore. Anybody done this swap on LS3 or similar bore/ci engine? They are saying 50-75 HP with the swap with my current setup.
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 12:50 PM
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I'd look into Texas Speed. Jason and those guys have spent a lot of time testing various cam and head combos. I think they've got a good $-friendly CNC ported LS3 head, I'd go contact them and see. I think when you compare stock ported vs aftermarket, I'd look at the cost and results and see if the cost is worth it. Only reason I suggest you stick to stock ported heads is that your cam is not very big so I'd keep it simple.
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 01:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Pro Stock John
I'd look into Texas Speed. Jason and those guys have spent a lot of time testing various cam and head combos. I think they've got a good $-friendly CNC ported LS3 head, I'd go contact them and see. I think when you compare stock ported vs aftermarket, I'd look at the cost and results and see if the cost is worth it. Only reason I suggest you stick to stock ported heads is that your cam is not very big so I'd keep it simple.
I have talked to several of the porting companies out there. They all range from 15-45 HP (45 HP seems way high) depending on who and which company you talk to. Another reason for considering the aftermarket is I believe all (at least the big 3) of the aftermarket heads will give me more PTV clearance to put in a larger cam down the road, LS3 cam durations are really limited.
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 06:07 PM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
Another option I am starting to consider:

Thinking about doing a head swap for Mast Black Label Med. Bore. Anybody done this swap on LS3 or similar bore/ci engine? They are saying 50-75 HP with the swap with my current setup.
I'm not familiar with them, but I'd be amazed to see a 75 RWHP gain over stock LS3 heads and pretty surprised to see 50 RWHP. How many 540 RWHP 6.2l cars do you see out there? See plenty of 490+ RWHP LS3's and some 520 - 530 LS3's running aftermarket heads.

LS3's work well with mild cams so I'd be surprised to see you gain 50 HP with a head swap. If you make the move, and assuming your cam is well tuned now, I'd expect closer to 30 RWHP assuming you get a mild CR bump in the swap too. I'm hoping I'm wrong, b/c if 60 RWHP could be obtained from swapping heads, 530 RWHP here I come.
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Old Jan 27, 2011 | 06:16 PM
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Originally Posted by ktoonsez
Another option I am starting to consider:

Thinking about doing a head swap for Mast Black Label Med. Bore. Anybody done this swap on LS3 or similar bore/ci engine? They are saying 50-75 HP with the swap with my current setup.
Wont go wrong with Cary's stuff
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Old Feb 1, 2011 | 05:27 PM
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bump ttt
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