I have a 95 Lt1 A4 camaro. Its current mods are as follows:

GMMG
Jet Hot Lts w/ ory
CAI
Tune
3:73 gears

It has 125k on it.

I would like to throw a cam\heads in the car this spring but the questions remains. Should I pull the motor and go completely through it( new bearings etc) to freshen it up.

OR

Throw a cam in the car do all the other things nessary like RR, springs etc. with out pulling the motor and not doing heads.


I'd like to go with the 503 cam.
Here are the question:

What is ball park price range if I don't pull the motor and just do the things necessary to the cam install doing it all myself?


Or with that many miles on the motor of my car is it better to pull the motor and go through it?

I'm sure this has been asked before but I can't find it searching...

 

go through it and do a stock 355 rebuild, cam, and clean up the heads.that way later on if you want to go bigger cam or heads you have a good starting point with low miles.

 

Dude, this all depends on your budget. You can keep a cam swap below 1000 counting parts if you do it yourself...Heads and cam depends on what your goal is man. You said a cc503 but what heads do you plan to put on it. I learned the hard way that you need to plan ahead and make sure that whatever cam you coose will ACTUALLY WORK with what heads you wanna get.

Your talking about 2 ends of the spectrum here though. a cam swap can be under a grand, but pulling the engine apart and refreshing it you could be looking at ALOT of money. It all depends on your goals...

What HP do you wanna be making when its all said and done?

What are your intentions for the car?

Is it a daily driver?

How much money are you willing to spend?

 

if you can afford it i would suggest going through the motor and at least replacing bearings. There have many guys that do heads and cam on a high mile motor but i would kick myself if i did that and something breaks soon down the road

 

In all reality, you should go through it if your going to start modding it. No telling how much life is left on the internals. And like 97camaross said...a 355 is a good starting point for mods. But its not exactly cheap to do if you do it right. If I were you I would forget the cam and heads for now and save up for a 355 rebuild first

 

It's really my high school car so I would be happy with just a cam in it. But since its got a few oil leaks here and there I should probably be pulled and new gaskets put it as well as a new opti but a cam would set the tone for the car.

If I put a 503 in it do I need a stall to match to make it drivable? I've done some searching and I don't get a straight answer...

 

With that mileage, I would hold up on H/C for now. IMO

 

x2

If you throw in H/C ant the bottom end is shaky then something will go out, you may spin a bearing or something. Then you will have to tear it all down AGAIN to rebuild it anyways and now not only are you out the cost of the H/C and labor, but now you have to add in a complete rebuild anyways.

Do the 355 rebuild. Get that out of the way. Then on a fresh build you can add in a cam and some heads with no worries.

 

X3! I'm personally doing a 383 build before I start messing around with my heads/cam. I just want to do it once and do it right

 

i would slap the cam in it and keep the shift points around 6200 and run a good synthetic oil. it will give you the sound youu are wanting and at a fairly low cost. it will drive just fine without a stall on the cc503 but you will be leaving alot on the table. then as soon as you get done with the cam swap start saving for that engine rebuild. as long as you dont just rip on that thing the cam isnt going to effect the longevity of the motor and you will have all those parts that you can reuse wen you rebuild the motor. thats just wat i would do. i wish i had a cam in my car when i was in highschool, so i say go for it! i woouldnt do the heads yet tho

 

Why else would you put a cam in it besides A. sound good...and B. rip on it?! lol. I wouldnt risk it. I would hate to be wrong about that and end up having NO car and having to tear it all apart AGAIN right after finishing putting it together....TRUST ME, that feeling sucks. Been there before.

 

x2 camin' it won't kill it any sooner as long as you keep the rpms down, keep it below 6k and it'l prolly run forever but of course you'll be leaving power on the table but you'll be safe.

I cammed mine last summer on a budget, I had to tear it down a bit to change the intake gasket so figured it was a good time although I had to cut some corners. I could of saved more if I bought 2nd hand but I don't have the time to watch the classifieds in the summer.
I already had spare heads layin around for the porters which were fully assembled w/ cc918's I bought off here for $150 so that saved me some loot. I bought a cam kit from AI minus the springs/locks/locaters/retainers rocker arms & studs for $6XX somin. I wouldn't recommend skimping on the rockers tho, I planned on baby'in it until I had the $$ for good RR's(I later bought the RR's in sig off here for $200). After buyin everything else I needed including oil, coolant, thread sealer etc & egr block off plates & re-tuned pcm, it came in just under $1000.

Originally I planned on doing the H/C at the same time but the oil leak didn't coordinate with my wallet very well and I didn't want to do all that work to change a gasket w/o doing anything else. Best advice I can give tho is not to rush it if you don't have to. buy everything 2nd hand off here and cz28. I just picked up some LE2 heads and NIB comp R lifters, both for half price, now all I need is a fuel pump, injectors, new h2o pump & a good timing set and get my intake mani P&P'd. If I buy all that 2nd hand it will probably end up running me ~$24XX total for heads/cam w/ NO corners cut(except for my opti, has never had a hic-up so why swap it).

If you don't bring your car to the track allot I'd leave the bottom end til a later date, just don't rag on it and keep the rpms below 6300. hell theres quite a few LT1s on here spraying stock bottom ends w/ over 150k!

 

I would buy forged ft pistons like SRP, Mahle, Probe SRS etc and a set of Scat ProComp I beam rods with 7/16" capscrews, cam & new timing set, new lifters and gaskets, new oil pump. Then save the money to get the block work done and while the engine is apart send the heads to LE and get them ported to at least LE1. Then get a 2800 stall and shift kit (or rebuild the trans as well) and go have fun.

 

LE2 Heads and Cam.

 

im running h/c/i on a 164k bottom with no problems... yet atleast, i would talk to LE or AI about cam and heads if i were you, it dosent cost money to talk

 

do it right and do it once ,i did a cam in a 64 k stock motor spun the lower end 100 miles later redid the motor to a 358 with a fresh set of heads and so on its been great .if your smart you can be into a new motor with cam for under 4k

 

I guess i don't see how just changing the cam can ruin a bottom end unless you somehow get stuff into the engine while changing the cam.... First build i did was on a gen 1 sbc and the number 7 piston blew a chunk off of it and it sounded like it spun a bearing.... got that fixed and now i'm running a stock crank with scat forged rods, keith black hypers and spin it to 6500 regularly. As far as i'm concerned the only thing you have to worry about is spinning the stock bottom end too high... keep it under 6300k on the stock LT bottom end and you'll be fine. I personally don't believe a cam change can kill a motor. I see plenty of guys running around with motors with over 100k and with h/c/i.

 

It all boils down to budget and time.

I would do the cam it, roller rockers, springs, a fresh water pump, a new opti if you haven't already, new radiator hoses, 160* thermostat if you haven't already, and a fresh tune.

I'm looking at it like this, you're in highschool, you probably don't have the big money, and you don't want to be out of a car. Not many highschool kids around here have modded Camaros and it's fun to stand out.

 

The first bolded statement happens quite frequently. On CZ28.com a few years ago there was a rash of these happening and it was deduced to sloppy installs.

As to the second bolded statement, IT HAPPENS! You should be a little more open-minded and realize there is always a risk with performance parts.

 

I would pull the motor. get some .030 over pistons and have it bored & decked. The stock crank & rods are pretty strong, maybe have them reconditioned if necessary and some arp bolts. Then try to find a used valvetrain from someone in the classifieds. IMO this would be the best budget minded route. You could always do a head swap right in the car, when you get more money. Just a fresh motor with a cam & tune and stock heads will run pretty strong. And you don't have to worry so much when you wanna beat on it.