Heads and intake porting worth it?
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Heads and intake porting worth it? I have a 94 Z28 with full exhaust (shorty headers, damn emissions) CAI and some other basic bolt ons. I bought a hotcam regrind, new springs, lifters, pushrods, rockers, and a timing chain set. With my set up would there be a decent benefit in porting the heads and intake and getting them matched? What kind of numbers (Dyno or track) would I get with some basic porting and with totally stock?
LT4 hotcam/ported heads/supporting boltons/exhaust/ORY/tune setups are usually in the mid-to-low 12's range at close to sea level with stock race weight. That's assuming your gearing is good with a good stall if auto. Dyno wise around the 370ish range. IIRC there were a few waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when who clicked off high 11's. Can't recall.
But yes, heads, if ported well, will give you a significant gain in power.
But yes, heads, if ported well, will give you a significant gain in power.
If I were to guess with good ported heads you'll be close to a second better than that.
Oh, and because it's an auto I have no earthly clue what your RWHP would be. That 370 guess is for a manual. For me, guessing auto dynos is damn near like trying to figure out common core math.
Oh, and because it's an auto I have no earthly clue what your RWHP would be. That 370 guess is for a manual. For me, guessing auto dynos is damn near like trying to figure out common core math.
Last edited by SS RRR; Feb 6, 2020 at 11:58 AM.
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Definitely do the heads bro, even the basic LE1 Heads are pretty good and a really great bang for the buck. LE1/LE2 heads and a Hotcam should be a fun car and still fairly street friendly. No harm I'm doing all you can to bump compression as well. I think it's worth noting that every point in compression is with 3-4% in power gains.
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If I decided to get a cc503 cam with LE1 heads, would there be a decent gain over the hot cam? I would use the hotcam and springs on my 86 c10 lt1 swap project. Or with my shorty headers would sticking with the hotcam be a better choice?
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OP
if you are going to get another cam other than the Hot cam than get one from Lloyd with his heads (you send him your heads & intake). That will be the optimum gain but call/email Lloyd to discuss. He is very good on Customer Service.
if you are going to get another cam other than the Hot cam than get one from Lloyd with his heads (you send him your heads & intake). That will be the optimum gain but call/email Lloyd to discuss. He is very good on Customer Service.
I totally agree with this. If you're trying to save as much money as possible and keep the Hotcam it'll still run nice with ported heads and intake but if you're considering another camshaft definitely talk to Lloyd. He'll be able to pull a little more power out of it with one of his cams and the prices are good when you do a combo from him.
The 503 may give you a slight advantage in torque. I don't remember what people were running with it when there were those who actually raced. Seems the two were on par with each other. Good ported heads will help tremendously. Friend of mine had a LT4 hotcam and then went with GTP heads. I believe his best time at Cecil County Dragway (15ft. ele.) was in the 12.3'ish range at around 108 to 110, of course in good air. We installed the heads and, he was either having tuning or stall issues, but ended up running about the same ET's because he couldn't 60' worth a damn, but was crossing the traps at 115mph.
Basically if it's done right you will be happy.
In my opinion the cc503 is superior to the LT4 hot cam so you're moving in the right direction. The 503 is ground on better lobes and consistently produces more horsepower and torque throughout the range from what I've seen and experienced. I did pretty well with one way back in the day.
However, I do agree with ***** and Vicious that the most ideal way to approach this would be complete H/C/I package from Lloyd where the cam will be selected as complimentary to the heads and they rest of your setup, goals, etc.
However, I do agree with ***** and Vicious that the most ideal way to approach this would be complete H/C/I package from Lloyd where the cam will be selected as complimentary to the heads and they rest of your setup, goals, etc.
Just to throw out another option and not take anything away from Lloyd ever but Ed Curtis is a helluva great cam guy as well. Sometimes it's great to get a couple of different options on a cam to suit your liking. I personally enjoy seeing how close the two come to one another even though by specs you can't possibly see the entire lobe design. On top of this, even though he's an LS guy primarily I wouldn't be at all shocked if Brian Tooley couldn't spec up a great camshaft if he'd be willing to work with you on an LTX engine. I'd bet good money that a camshaft from any of the three would make you a very happy customer.
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Hey guys I decided to stick with the hotcam and ported heads. I heard from a buddy that using a thinner gasket I could end up with a higher compression ratio. 10.4:1 to 11.1:1? What do you guys think? How would my combo react? Should I mill the heads and shoot for 11.5:1? I don't know much about compression or quench. But for the price of the gaskets if I could gain 10-15 HP it would be worth it.
Thinner head gasket will bump you up a bit, but you won’t have any real noticeable gains with whatever thickness you decide. I was running LPE heads with 60cc chambers (decided on that combustion chamber because was planning a stroker) on a stock engine and my CR was in the low 9:1 ratio I want to say. Still dynoed 370rwhp and went low 12’s in the 114-115 range.