Hi guys,
I just got my 383 stroker lt1 back from the machine shop today. I am looking at buying a cam for it. I have a crane cam 210/224 .479/.518 that I am thinking about purchasing. My heads are stock impala heads with the lt4 valve springs. What kind of power do you think it will make? Should I go with a bigger cam? Also do you think the heads are good enough for the combination? Have not bought anything yet. Also thought about the comp cam 306 but thought it would be overkill for the combo. Any thoughts?

Shawn

 

You need heads. You wont be happy with the #'s with out a good set of heads. Try TEA or something like that. Anything is better than non ported stock heads. I have a LT1 with fully hand ported stock heads and I went with the comp224/230, .503/.510 112ls. I put down 384.5 RWHP. As you can see if you spend alot of time on the stock heads youll do okay.

Heads and the 306 cam you should do good.
Good luck

Dan

 

Definitely go with a bigger cam, the 210/224 is a baby even for 350 cubes. Put it this way, my blower cam is a 214/222, which has more intake duration than your n/a cam (forced induction setups should have a smaller amount of intake duration to try to pack as much air in as quickly as possible so as not to bleed off air pressure by keeping the valve open too long)... Stock LT1 impala heads? Nononono... Definitely shell out the money for better heads, I would go with some AFR 190s at the least, but 195s would be more well suited. Remember that you have 33 extra cubes that you have to let breathe. What brand pistons did you go with? What compression are you going to be looking at? A cc306 would be a good cam, definitely go with duration numbers in the high 220s (230s would put out better power with good heads) and get that lift as high as you can with some 1.6 ratio rockers... I would stay with a 112 lsa as well. With that you should easily put out over 400RWHP. Are you still using your stock 7.5"/10-bolt rear? What tranny are you running?

 

the reason I thought about running the stock heads and crane cams is the vehicle the engine is in is a 1990 chevy truck. I thought this combo would make tons of torque with decent horsepower. I don't how much horsepower it would make but I thought around 325-350 rwh. Is that thinking to high or is this combo really not worth it?

Shawn

 

I don't know, but it seems like stroking her to 383 cubes is a lot of wasted money just to make some torque. THere are plenty of other ways you could have made more power, especially in the 325-350 rwhp range. Go with the heads and the cam, you'll make more torque, and the setup will be much more respectable... you could leave it with the stock heads and baby cam, but if you do I see it as a lot of money wasted in the stroker. Just my $.02

 

306 is far from overkill for your stroker, would probably be an under-achiever in fact. Not sure what pistons you used but I'd look hard at a custom grind that has the right base circle, open/close specs, etc that match your combo. I'd definitely look at AFR 210s too. Time for a solid roller cam dude, congrats on the new motor...

 

I would like to know how would I make 420rwhp in a LT1 with a stock bottem end because my next car is going to be a LT1 car and I want to make some power with it to take down some LS1's that I know. Any assistance would be great.

 

Go with ported heads and an 847/306/XE 230/236 cam and you'll be around there. Or go with a more mild cam and stock heads and use n20.

 

Ported stock heads? I want to keep away from nitrous on a stock bottem. Thanks for the help.

 

You can spray a 100-shot pretty easily on a stock LT1 bottomend... upgrade the fuel pump if you're worried. I can understand if youre nervous though.

 

Alright cool, all I need now is the car now lol

 

well I sold off the crane mild cam and went with a comp cams extreme energy 224/230 and a set of ported lt1 heads. I had the old computer set up for the crane cam. I am wondering if I'll have to get the computer reprogrammed right away? Or will it run with that program being the more cubes might help with the bigger cam. The reason i ask is I want to start it saturday and there is no way the computer would be back in time to do it. what do you guys think?

thanks

Shawn

 

car should run alright with the tune the way it is now, but you should definitely get it updated soon so you can run at your full potential.

 

I run a 233/239 cam in a 350ci LT1. I wouldn't dream of putting anything smaller than that in a 383ci LT1. I'd start with a 240 degrees of duration on the intake side for a 383. A good set of ported heads and the right tuning, you might be able to hit 500rwhp with a 383. 450rwhp for sure.

 

I agree.