So im in the middle of putting a blown (LSA) L-76 Stroker (11:1, BTR Sage 4)/T-56 Magnum in my 69 Chevelle and my 96 LT-4 decides to display a strange noise from the #1 cylinder. The car is completely stock, drive train wise, as far as I can tell and has 56k miles. We will be pulling the drivers side head and likely the oil pan. If its piston/ring land/wrist pin etc. and is repairable without pulling the motor, that's the plan, as I don't want two cars apart at the same time. If it ends up being rod bearing or there is cylinder damage, we will pull the motor and rebuild it with new pistons, rings, bearings, seals gaskets and valve springs, etc., but plan to keep the rest stock, with the exception of cam and long tubes (for now).

Question is, LT-4 Hot Cam or something else/better? We will be doing long tubes regardless if the motor comes out, since I already have muffler deletes and X-pipe. I will be deleting the cats and getting non-smog long tubes. At that point we will likely be figuring out mufflers since we both (the wife) like loud, but not necessarily strait pipe. =)

I have heard guys in the past say that cam and long tubes alone really wake up the LT-4 and makes a huge 1/4 mile improvement, so if the motor does come out, why not? Ill likely bump up the compression some with the new pistons as well (around 11:1)...

 

Check this out:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...uide-matt.html

LT4 hot cam is old tech; however, it’s tried and true. There may be better options available depending on what exactly your looking for. The above link should help.

 

OP

while the LT4 (gen 2) stock cam is "ok"....it is 20+ year old tech and also emission compliance is a major factor.

Since emissions seems to not be a issue for you (long tube headers) than I would look more to a custom grind cam from Lloyd Elliott (Elliott Portworks). A PCM tune would likely be needed but discuss with Lloyd your goals

 

Thanks guys, I actually read through that FAQ already but it's antiquated, and I didn't want to necro a bunch of old posts to ask guys if they still liked their setups 10+ years later.

I'm just the kind of guy who can't pull a motor and NOT do certain things if it's going in a performance vehicle. No smog for this car, and my wife is a major gear head like me and daily drives 6 speeds. We both like fast and loud, but also like A/C and the brakes to work. My chevelle already needs hydro boost, I don't want this car needing it...lol

I also don't want to dump a ton of time and money in it right now. So I figured cam and long tubes only. I always replace valve springs no matter what, even if staying stock. So something that needs stiffer springs is fine, but im keeping stock style lifters and the stock roller rockers so nothing crazy. This car will be regularly, even daily driven, possibly, by one of the 2 of us.

 

Any bigger cam you put in will require some PCM tweaks. Off the shelf cams are about $50 less than a custom grind one so not a big $ difference

The LT4 hot cam is certainly no slouch on its own but since you asked and will likely have the motor apart there is certainly room for performance gains with a different cam

Lloyds 226/232 sounds like what you would want

http://elliottsportworks.com/?page_id=32

 

I tried calling them but their phones might be messed up. It goes to voicemail, there's no, "beep" and then like 5 seconds later you get disconnected?

I have an appointment with my dyno tuner tomorrow to see if his old machine can talk to the car. It's been many years since he tuned one of these.

Several guys on the Vette forum said the GM cam is within ECM constraints, but I certainly would rather hone the tune appropriately if possible. But im not buying a bunch of hardware and software if my tuner can't do it. I'll just stick with stock if I have too...

 

Although I put that guide together over a decade ago, it's not as antiquated as you may think and certainly not as antiquated as the LT4 hot cam. All the principles and facts in there are 100% applicable. I don't think it includes some of the Lunati cam options that are now available but it otherwise includes all the heavy hitters. Since car will be daily driven, I'd make sure that whatever you choose doesn't have too much positive overlap that way you can retain decent street manners. LT4 HC will give modest gain, sound decent, and it doesn't have crazy overlap so should drive nice so it may be a solid option for you. The ease of purchasing a single package with all needed components is certainly a plus for some people. The cam was designed before most LT1 owners on this site were born and is a bit light on the lift so I feel there are better options available but that doesn't mean it's a bad cam by any means. I like the suggestion of a custom grind from Lloyd Elliott. I think that's the best way to go in this day and age. More modern tech, cam is designed to work optimally for the particular setup at hand, goals and desirabilities of the user, etc. Plus Lloyd is a real nice guy and is one of the few who still support the LTx platform.

 

That's one of the big issues with these cars nowadays, hardly anyone tunes them. It's one the reasons why I haven't modded mine any further in the past 10 years. Fortunately, there's a couple guys/outfits that do mailorder tuning so that's always an option. I would wholeheartely disagree with anyone who thinks for a second that the LT4 HC is ok to run extensively with the stock PCM programming. It's ok to run the stock tune with it to get it to the tuner but that's about it. Been there, done that so I don't know what those guys are on.

 

If you can't get ahold of Lloyd Elliot, I would suggest the Comp Cams '503-cam'.

I've had the Hot cam and the 503 cam in my Impala....no comparison, the 503 provides more power through the entire HP & TQ curves and is subtle enough to be a daily driver. And the 503 cam will respond better to a bump in compression.

BTW....the HOT cam and the 503 cam will both be better served with PCM work....and a bump in compression will also make a PCM tune a necessity.

For tuning, do a search here for Moe Bailey.

KW

 

Did you try emailing Lloyd? He told me email works best and if he picked up every phone call he wouldn’t be able to keep up.

 

Lloyd called me back later that day, I told him about the weird phone issues.

He doesn't want me putting ANY cam in thre car without a tune. So I told him I would call him back after the car goes to my dyno guy.

That didn't go well...

So he was unable to connect through the ALDL. He has a harness that you unplug the car connectors from and plug directly in. He gets a connection indicator, but no response from the ECM.

He said 1 of 2 things. Either it's been flashed previously by someone like Hypertech which changes the firmware to only talk to them, or the ECM may have been compromised when the battery charger I was using wigged out.

The OEM radio died at the same time so it is highly probable. But he said he has a program he needs to dig up, that allows a forced reflash to OEM, he wants to try first.

I'll keep you guys posted, thanks a bunch for the input!

 

You tune the car "for" the cam you will be getting.....

Lloyd just makes the cams and would provide the specs, aka cam card, to you. Your tuner will use that info in making tune adjustments so your motor can make the full use of the new cam.

Mail order tunes are perfectly fine for Lloyds or a 503 cam. Moe Bailey is one recommended although I have not dealt with him. You can ship your PCM to the tuner while you are swapping in the cam and he ships it back. It should be plug & play.

If you have some other tune from something like a Hypertech you would need that Hypertech unit to restore it back to stock or a tuner can wipe it ad load a new base tune and go from there to adjust that for the new cam. If your PCM is somehow corrupted you can buy another used PCM for your year/model

 

I doubt I can convince a mail order place to turn off cat monitors. I planned to delete them with the long tubes. I don't want a constant SES light...

 

You might be surprised.

 

the tuner works for you....disabling IM is done frequently.

If you are comfortable with your local guy fine but IMHO having someone VERY familiar with LT1 is critical. I have had no issues with mail order tuning over the years as mods have progressed

Disabling air pump, for example, was SOP as is any other "request" from the customer to tuner

 

I had a mailorder tune on my heads/cam car with no emissions equipment, no cats etc. for awhile before I had it dyno tuned and it never threw a code and was never an issue come inspection time when inspector would plug into the OBD2 port. The tuners don't care and they know what they need to do to make it work for you. As said, Moe Bailey seems to be a solid option. I have not used him personally but I would not hesitate to given the positive things I've read/heard about him.