Originally Posted by gnx7

I would check out WCCH. Richard at WestCoastCylinderHeads will touch up the exhaust side of the factory LS7 castings and maybe a little clean up on the intakes. The intake port flows plenty already... the exhaust side just needs to catch up a little. They flow 360/250cfm+ afterwards. I have a set and they look awesome. I also had the spring pockets machined for larger 1.46" springs rated at .700" lift. Unless you are going forced induction or plan to spray a ton of nitrous... the factory castings should suffice. I plan to spray a 100-150hp shot without issues and rev it to 7300rpm. Harlan Sharp rebuilt stock LS7 rockers and the CTS-V race lifters are in it. I would say that is the main reason for wanting a thicker deck with the ETP castings IMO. No distortion/deflection with high cylinder pressures affecting the head mating surface to the block.

If the ETP heads are only a few hundred more... and offer the thicker deck. Go for it! The power is in the heads and your cam selection. It will leave options for the future wide open. ie forced induction/tons of nitrous.

The LS7 intake is the highest flowing intake for low/mid/high RPM's out there. Better than the FAST 90 and certainly better than an LS6//LS2/L92 intake. All the custom $3K intakes get smoked by it all across the board until you reach about 7K rpm. That is when a hand fabbed setup that suits the high RPM's starts to shine. The 6-9K RPM range. Anything below that RPM and the LS7 will kick it to the curb for overall HP and TQ. The LS7 intake is truly the reason why I went with an LS7 in the first place. It will still make power beyond 7K RPM and is great down low as well.

If the lash caps were an issue... you would see a recall from GM to fix it. They may not be optimal and do throw another complexity into the mix.... but if they were a problem... wouldn't the masses that own the new Z06 be having problems on a large scale?

If I were to do it again and didn't want a dry sump motor... I would most likely go 415ci (L92 block/4" crank) and ETP LS7 small bore heads with LS7 intake. You will save a few grand and essentially achieve the same results.

IMO the attraction of the LS7 block is the low entry price for a dry sump style motor. Plus the factory forged crank is well priced and will get the job done. I found out that if you swap in forged rods (Lunati ProMod billets) that aren't titanium like factory... the crank balancing is $$$'s due to all the mallory they have to use. If people are making 1000rwhp with factory cast LS1 cranks... the LS7 has more potential than that being a forged piece.

Originally Posted by VictionOne

Will do.

btw, anyone know who will give the best price for a GM LS7? Gmpartsdirect has it for $12,000 plus shipping.