Hey gents,

Finally getting around to making a build thread. A little delayed but simply been too busy. So let me start with a little backstory:

'07 C6 Z06. Old setup was K501 cam, Halltech 103 CAI, MSD intake manifold(unported), NW 102 throttle body, ARH 1 7/8" & catless x pipe, B&B Fusion axleback, stock casting LS7 heads with Texas speed PRC 265cc CNC work, McLeod RXT clutch, stock gear/trans.

So in March 2019 I made a trip to the strip and made three passes. On the final pass I got a new PB of 10.66 @ 129.50 with a poor 1.72 60'. During that last pass something felt a little off. Got it home and did some digging around. Found that the previous shop had installed LS1/LS3 1.7 exhaust rocker arms instead of the 1.8 ratio LS7 rocker arms. Do not ask why.. car was already modded with this setup when I took ownership in 2017. Needless to say the exhaust valve tips and the rockers were beat to hell.. as well as a loss of lift from the wrong ratio rocker arms. Car had made 575whp/506wtq at Ragin Racin(they did not do the poor install, only the tuning once I bought the car). Checked valve guide play and as I figured the exhaust guides were shot. The Straub bushings I had were also showing quite a bit of wear too. So I knew the heads were coming off.




Also sent off for an oil analysis from Blackstone and upon receiving results decided to give the engine a freshen up. Titanium and copper levels had went up. After teardown I am pretty sure the titanium levels were from the Ti-retainers "wearing in" when I did the valvespring swap and the copper levels were elevated due to the bronze Straub bushings wearing.
So disassembled the shortblock, cleaned everything up and decided to re-use the rotating assembly as everything checked out within spec and seemed to be fine other than some trash evidently making its way down and into the bearings. Faces of the rods seemed to be in good shape as well which is a known "wear point" on these LS7 titanium rods. Little scoring on the cylinders.

 

Polished the crankshaft


Hit the cylinders with a Flex Hone to get a nice crosshatch





Installed new King rod and main bearings. Went back in with New OEM rod and main bolts on final assembly after using the old ones for bearing clearance checking, etc. New Mahle replacement piston ring set, all new gaskets.

 

Installed new Moldstar 90 guides to replace the worn out bronze guides. Honed guides and valve job then started porting. All the porting was done by me at IronMask Airflow Innovations. Took the stock casting which has previous 265cc CNC work from TSP and handported to 280cc intake/95cc exhaust. These heads have already been milled .030 with these heads I knew exactly how the intake would be setup and I knew what cam, etc so I ported to match that. I also had the heads flow tested on a Super Flow at Diamond Racing Engines in Hammond, LA just to have proof of my portwork. Ported one head and left the other as is. Tested them back to back. Enjoy




And the port work

 

New and correct 1.8 ratio LS7 exhaust rockers this time lol. CHE bushings(super good quality), Manton 3/8 .145 wall pushrods Series 3, BTR .660 platinum springs with titanium retainers, Johnson 2116 LSR lifters, ARP head bolts, C5R timing chain

 

For the intake manifold it is an MSD that I ported and modified the runner length to suit the rest of the build. I knew what the heads did on the flow bench and knew where I wanted the powerband to be. Also painted to match the exterior(Atomic Orange)

 

Now for the numbers. Ill have three graphs #1 is old setup 575/506 then the BLUE graph is new setup with ported standard length MSD 640/556 then the RED graph is new setup with Short Runner (what I am calling MSDsr) 649/559 wheel. We made two back to back pulls which made 651 and 655whp with the short runner but got into knock so we dialed it back. The tuner would not go past 7000 rpm. I instead on stretching its legs to 7300 and will report back. On the dyno day we originally dynoed with the standard length MSD which was ported by me then left the car strapped down and swapped intakes on the dyno to my MSDsr. Wanted to do a back to back still strapped same day so we could elimate as many variables as possible. Only difference in the intakes are the runner length.





And here is the video of the 649whp/556wtq pull

 

What cam did you end up going with or did you stick with the K501?

 

Nice port work.

Solid and simple approach to the rebuild, too.

 

Thank you sir 👍🏻

Yeah didn’t do anything too extravagant on the rebuild.

 

No I sold the K501 and went with the IronMask 26 camshaft.

 

Nice work. Whats the CR? Looks like a nice ls7 refresh.

 

Thank you sir! CR is roughly 11.8:1

 

Cool build. Probably feels great ripping around town

 

Very nice work!

 

Thank you. Yes indeed, power EVERYWHERE lol

 

Thank you sir 🍻

 

Awesome numbers and work, it paid off nicely! I hope I can get my LS7 to make this kind of power in the coming years

 

Great power IMO. What were the specs of the old K501 cam?

 

The K501 is around like 235/251 on a 113 and like 650-660 lift.

 

Nice work bro and good numbers. Were those GM LS7 rocker arms? And are you now in south Louisiana?