My end game is to go supercharged but that is a bit in the future. For now looking to work towards that and get some gains in the process. With that being said which is going to be the better option ported heads and intake manifold like Loyd Eliot or a cam, rockers ect.? The cam would likely be a cc503 or similar. 94 Camaro lt1a4 mostly stock just headers and intake. Also I know I will need a higher stall torque converter to go with this.

 

Heads on a stock cam is STUPID. Intake porting offers minor gains guys have seen over 420rwhp on NA stock shortblock cars with unported intake.

Seeing as you are this far off now you should stop now and do some learning before you make any bad decisions.

 

I have studied into the subject of forced induction quite a bit. The heads and intake I have not as much thus why I'm here asking about them. I understand that the gains from heads on a stock cam are going to be small but I'm not looking for the biggest gains necessarily but the best order to work in.

 

If you want forced induction, build a motor that can take it. Supercharging a stock LT1 is not the best route at all. Neither is doing heads and not the cam. My advice is buy an LT1 that needs a rebuild and build it on the side for your forced induction purpose. Throw a cam and a stall at your stock motor to get you by while you're building the the new one.

 

That is good advise besides the fact that if he was looking at ported heads and cam on stock cam he isn't ready to start buying anything.

 

If your motor is stock with full exhaust and intake bolt-ons, then the biggest gains by far will come from doing a cam swap with the requisite springs, rockers, pushrods, guideplates, and a good dyno tune.

The CC503 is a good choice, however if you want to keep the same cam after you piece together a blower setup, I'd go with the 224/236.

It's a good idea to build a new shortblock when supercharging an LT1. The stock 10.5 compression and cast pistons don't like boost and it will be on borrowed time if you run it hard at all. A new shortblock centered around the stock block and crank, with a set of good forged rods and forged pistons for a compression ratio in the low to mid 9s is much more ideal for boost and will last.

Going the boost route with LT motors is not an inexpensive endeavor. For a durable and reliable boosted setup on an LT motor, plan on having an easy $10k in the motor, supercharger and fuel system alone, and that is before any driveline or chassis fortification takes place. After that you'll need the usual driveline build, which will mean, at minimum, a built 4L60 and premium converter. Since your car is an A4, the stock 10 bolt rear might live for a while if you don't hit the strip often, but it too will have a somewhat finite lifespan behind the kind of power a built and properly sorted blown LT motor can make.

 

Another thing is newbs fail to understand just how much HP can be gained NA even on a stock shortblock.
I wouldn't look at boost unless looking for stock manners emissions compliant 11s, or 10s with some compromise to stock-like manners and emissions.

 

Yes. With proper parts selection, careful assembly and good tuning the factory output can be very nearly doubled without having to touch the bottom end or use a power adder.
I'm nearly there, just have a few minor things to tweak with mine to find the last 15-25rwhp. Loosen the lash a tad, replace a restrictive Y-pipe with something better, maybe touch up the tune. It's all in the details.

It seems that most of the LT1 tricks that are old news to folks like us, are almost unknown to folks who haven't had a long history with these motors. I guess that's the thing with hanging onto a platform whose ownership base has been dwindling for 15 years now.

 

My car ran a best of 13.9 at 100 or 101mph at Texas Motorplex when stock. Put on LPE LT4 heads, LT4 portmatched intake, 1.6 rockers and 1 5/8" Edelbrock shorty headers going into stock y-pipe with cats and the car went a best of 13.2 @ 106. Dynoed somewhere between 270 and 280/310 stock and then 310/310 with everything mentioned. Torque and power band behaved just like stock.

 

OP

as mentioned doing a cam without doing heads or vice versa will yield little "performance" gain.

If your long term plans are to do a SC motor...I would build it with a donor block.

cam for a SC vs NA motor would be different so either do a LE H/C for the current motor and enjoy and build the SC motor on the side. Speak to Lloyd as you may be able to harvest the heads for the boosted project when you get around to putting that motor in and he can grind you another cam more suited for the SC build

 

Here is my "little performance gain" in the right lane:



My apologies for lying. I could have sworn it was a 13.2 @ 106, but since this was some 16 years ago...

After quickly looking through the slips the best ET when the car was stock was 13.9@101 at this track in good air.

 

That's about the type of gain I would expect with those mods. With an appropriate camshaft and full exhaust it might have gone 8-10 mph faster though.

 

Could have ran high 12's with a 106mph.. 1 5/8 Mid length headers, 12" 2800 stall, 3.73's and Hot Cam kit I went 12.93 @ 106mph..

 

SPRAY IT, until something grenades!

 

I know I'm sure I could've gotten more out of it, but I'm not trying to state if heads alone or cam only would be of better benefit. That's all relative. I liked the fact that when the heads/intake/etc were on it the torque band was exactly like stock, drove and sounded stock and surprised the **** out a lot of people. This is more addressing the comments of how ported heads/intake will do nothing.

 

My Caprice ran 13.2 at I believe 103mph with a ZZ4 cam, 2800 stall 3.42s, midlength 1 5/8" headers.
That cam was mild enough to be mistake for stock.

I would say your result backs up a mild cam is money better spent than heads with a stock cam.
And hell Herter tuned the ZZ4 cam setup mailorder so it was probably complete crap, a few tuned from him back then were so bad that when I backed the car out of the driveway it wouldn't climb the incline of the apron to get back in the driveway and I had to reflash in the road.
It had run I think a single pass best of 13.9 with that cam and stock stall, stock manifolds/cats, stock 2.93 gears.

 

Through edelbrock headers and stock ypipe with cats? I disagree. I am sure I could have eeked more power out of it with better headers and offroad. Ypipe. Besides the all around drivability is something which needs to be considered as well. I didn't have to bother with a tune.
IIRC a zz4 cam sounds pretty similar to a lt4 hotcam? Besides I don't want to get all caught up on what is better. It depends on what you want. I was slap happy with what I did with heads alone. Especially since no one else was doing it. My point is to debunk these claims how there is little to no gain with what heads and stock cam.

 

I'll also add in a bit of my experience with my cam swap.

Doing heads and/or cam without opening up the exhaust will choke the car bad. It's something I had read 1000 times over. I did the CC503 with stock heads, supporting valvetrain, 30# injectors, cold air intake, and a catback but stuck with stock exhaust manifolds as money with the project got tight.

I spent more than I wanted to get good supporting valvetrain parts...so I stopped short of improving the exhaust.

The car picked up only a couple of mph in the 1/8 mile and only a couple of tenths et after the cam install was complete. I was disappointed.

In nailing down my oil pressure/control problem(~10psi pressure dip at 3000, then full pressure back by 5000), I went to a 20185 Moroso pan with a Canton 20-013 pickup. They fixed my oil pressure issues, but made my stock exhaust not work as the pan kickouts interfered with the driver's cat. This then force me to long tubes, so I went all in with a set of Kooks and the catted y-pipe.

Man, the difference in power was huge with adding in the long tubes. I picked up ~5 mph and ~0.5 sec in the 1/8th.

I guess the moral of my story is you have to do both intake and exhaust in order to get the improvements in-between(cam and/or heads).

AI ported stock heads are next on my list of hardware mods(maybe a different cam to go with them...). So it will be interesting to see how they do from what I have now.

Here are the times as I did the mods. All times on street tires.

5/22/08
Baseline stock with K&N CAI and Flowmaster catback.
Warmed up:9.1@80.322mph
Full cool down:8.9@82.436mph

10/03/08
CC503, 1.6 NSA Pro Mag Roller rockers, PAC 1518 springs, Trickflow guideplates, 7.2" Comp hardened pushrods, 10* retainers/locks, stock heads, stock exhaust manifolds, catback exhaust, K&N CAI, FMS 30# Injectors.
Warmed up:8.882@83.770mph
No full cool down run.

2/19/11
Added Kooks Long tube headers(1 3/4" x 3") and dual cat y-pipe.
Warmed up:8.437@87.88mph
Partial cool down:8.389@88.354mph

 

Your car came factory with 2otl right? In that case with those mods it was very difficult for observers to tell it had any mods at all. You are correct, doing heads and intake while retaining the stock cam will give some gains. However, the numbers you ran are almost identical to what mine did with the internally stock engine, full bolt-ons, headers and off-road pipe, which was 13.20 at 106.4 in good air.
I guess it just goes to show how much of a restriction the stock cats and Y-pipe are. It'd have been interesting to see what yours would have done with a proper set of longtubes and free-flowing off-road y-pipe. I'd bet you'd have been closer to 108-109-ish mph.

 

As already stated, add a cam and rocker arms, etc. New heads and an intake with the stock cam won't add power.... Also as stated, you can get decent power out of a stock short block LT1 without adding a supercharger... My Comp T/A has great street manners and makes enough hp to get sideways if you punch it in third, and it has a stock short block. The previous owner had a 12 bolt with DRs and a more aggressive tune and his best time was 12.59 before putting the stock rear back in and de-tuning it a bit.... Another Comp T/A buddy also has a stock short block in his, very similar engine mods, and with nitrous, a 12 bolt and DRs I believe his best time was 10.72.