I have a 96 impala completely stock and im tired of having the image of a fast car but nothing under the hood to back it up. 260 hp is alright but it seems to not be enough. Im new to discussing cam packages, engine bore size, etc. I was wondering what cam/heads would be best for my imp as far as rwhp on a car that weight.

 

Holy double thread Batman!

Anyways, no one can really help you until we know what kind of build you are after on the car. Is a a daily driver? A show car? A drag car? A weekend warrior? If you just want to get h/c package for a daily driven car, lpe makes some good stuff. Then of course you have the LT4 Hotcam which is always good for daily driven lt1s. Give us some more info on what you want to do with it. If its just a dd car and your looking for more streetable power, I would just get a stall (assuming its automatic) and a lower rear end gear. Then some bolt ons would really wake her up. I'm not really sure if I would go for a 373 or a 411 rear gear in a car that heavy. Maybe a 342. I dont know a whole shitload about impalas. But bolt ons and gears are always a good idea.

 

Read all of this first:
http://www.impalassforum.com/vBullet...d.php?t=228114

and then come back and tell us what you want to do with the car.

I had mine going 12.3's with the stock cam, so don't think by any means that a cam is necessary to make it a fairly quick car.

 

You do things like gears and a stall converter and you will liven it up a LOT without going into the engine. Eventually though things snowball and you endup like Pat and I, going into the engine, neither of us did a stroker motor though.
Mine is complete with AC, power seats, ABS etc yet.
If you follow advise from guys like Pat and I you can have a daily driver Impala that will run 12s on your normal street tires.
Back when I had a slightly milder heads/cam package from the same company I ran 12.6 on the street tires right after a 150mile drive to the track, with the tools and slicks in the trunk yet. You can do the same.
The 3400stall might be slightly more than you want but the 3.73s I had in the car then are likely perfect for you. I had 3.42s when I put 20K on a year those should have been stock instead of the 3.08s.

 

Thanks, srry for not being to specific but like I said im new to this. I wouldn't be driving the car everyday that's the purpose for getting a little gas saver so I don't have to use it as a daily driver but. I didn't want to really put a cam in it because I've heard it messses you up in the long run. Top speed is not really what im looking for. More of 0-60 time. I took a look at some msd spark plugs, k &n intake, and also performance chip.

 

I've also seen some ebay twin turbo kits. But I just shook my head on those. 1.3k for a turbo kit seems a lil but to good lol. Guys in my school always tell me to go with a 383 I've done research on those and they seem to pack some power, I just didn't wanna give up on the lt1 because it only has about 50k on it. I also took a look at a msd optispark for 500$a I was wondering where they worth it. I noe my questions may seem like common since to you guys but im learning lol I refuse to be the only 1 scared to race my car versus some stock dodge charger IF IT CALLED FOR IT.

 

Read everything in the link I provided, and hopefully after that you'll understand that you still have a lot of reading and research to do before diving into anything such as heads, cam, or stroker. Your mention of MSD optispark, "performance chip", etc. tells me that presently you're a marketer's dream; hopefully we can move you further up the list of understanding

 

a $1300 turbo kit is going to be junk, a properly done 383 is probably going to cost a good $10k, more than that by the time you do all the supporting mods and wont give you much over a good heads and cam setup. Displacement can't add power without airflow and heads and cam is airflow, the additional airflow of good heads and cam with supporting mods can pretty well DOUBLE stock power without having to bore the engine or buy crank/pistons/rods.

You do NOT want MSD plugs or any fancy plug at all those of us going fast tend to use plugs that are under $2 apiece, the MSD opti is JUNK much LESS reliable than stock.
K&N intake is OK IF and only IF you need to pass emissions inspection, if inspection is not a concern you can accomplish the same thing for probably a third the price or less.
Far as a performance "chip" these don't have chips and any of the piggyback chips that companies sell to modify pcm commands are junk. Custom pcm reprogramming can be good and is required with some modifications. It also cost far less than something like Hypertech which has been shown to pretty reliably SLOW cars down.

I know I am telling you your existing ideas are poor and the input you are getting elsewhere is even worse. Please don't be offended, take this opportunity to learn from Pat and I as we have been at it a good long while and we can save you a lot of mistakes and wasted money IF you let us.
Most 383 b-bodies are not even as fast as my car much less as fast as Pat's.

There is also a LOT you need to do to a car before it is time to really do much to the engine, you need cold air intake, exhaust from headers to tips, a little suspension work like aftermarket rear lower arms, a good performance tranny rebuild(or at least shiftkit) from someone with a proven trackrecord with the 4L60E, rearend gears which might require a new driveshaft. Once you get into the engine you need things like bigger injectors and fuel pump, larger throttle body.
It adds up to a lot of money fast, in the end though you have a big, fast,comfortable car that you can enjoy driving or take to the track and spank a nitrous LS car done the magazine article and Summit way.

 

If im going in the wrong direction about this please steer me right. I don't now exactly what a "marketer's dream is" but im willing to do research if that save me engine trouble, help me gain hp, not to mention save money lol if I can.

 

LOL it means there are tons of companies that would love to separate you from your money for little to no performance gains and sell you shoddy products. Do your research...cold air intake, headers, dyno tune, stall, gears, roller rockers, then you can START thinking about stroking, cam, heads, ect. ect.

 

To elaborate even more, even "reputable" companies like Edelbrock who offer LT1 parts are not necessarily any good. A proper ported GM LT1 heads and cam package should make as much or more rwhp as the Edelbrock stuff does at the flywheel for similar money and the same amount of effort. bowtienut's heads/cam car puts down I believe 425rwhp, Edelbrocks LT4 package makes 406flywheel HP. between the flywheel to rear wheel losses and the fact it just makes more at the wheels than the Edelbrock kit does flywheel you are talking likely over 100flywheel HP more from Pat's setup and mine. I have the same basic setup but have not dyno tuned it.

To put that in perspective a stock Impala has about 220rwhp, with nothing more than rocker arms and valvesprings swapped you can put that number up into the 300rwhp range, headers, CAI, full exhaust, tuneup, custom reprogramming etc.
Then heads and cam can push it up to the 400rwhp-425ish range like Pat's has domumented, then the 383s using the same heads and slightly larger cam have been shown to make440-455rwhp.

If Pat had a lockup converter in his car I think he could easily show another 10hp or so at the wheels which is getting really really close to doubling stock rwhp without a stroker build.
You have a LOT to do first but just so you can see more of why I keep refering to Pat's car when mine is similar, his is better documented.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...1-119-7-a.html
Mine is slower because it is not as refined as Pat's and is more of a street car heavier, less stall etc. Pat has always been wonderful at wringing everything out of a car so his results are harder to duplicate without his skill. I on the otherhand just bolt good parts together competently which should be easy to duplicate.

 

Read Read Read..............

 

Listen to what these experienced people are telling you. If you are not willing to even install a cam, your performance gains will be highly limited and you will probably have to lower your goals.

 

That brings me to a point I forgot to make earlier.

It is just fine to put a cam in these.
We cammed a friend's Caprice(former cop car) at 160K miles a year and a half ago just shy of 200K we pulled it out and put it in his WIFE'S car another daily driver Caprice. I haven't asked what the current mileage is but I know where they live and where she works and it has to have at least 215k miles on it.
When it was still in his car we went to a big national Impala gathering, my car was FASTER than most of the 383 and larger engine cars and his cam only car was within a couple tenths of them.

You said it only has 50K on it? That is barely broken in.

 

That 425 SAE rwhp was with the old Yank SS3600 converter and TCC locked.
If I were to dyno it now with the non-lockup ATI 4200, I'd guess it would show a "loss" of probably more than 10 hp.

 

OK I didn't realize you had run anything other than the ATI with it.
The idea still stands though you can gain a couple hundred HP at the wheels without having to build a stroker.

 

Thanks for the info im still doin some of the research but I had 1 more question. Stock impala 0 to 60 time is 7 secs or so. I was wondering what would it be ruffly with a dry shot of nos nothing big around a 125 shot.

 

That engine has 223,5xx on it now and judging by the tires, she doesn't drive it easy.......

Jim

 

Didn't you just buy those last spring?