Ok so imma get straight to it I’m a 17 year old jus got a 1989 firebird with a 5.3 ls swapped into it I wanna throw a comp 54-454-11 cam in it keep the 862 heads and I’ve read about porting and milling them and want to get good rocker arms switch pushrod lengths and better springs everything else I’m sure is stock I was gonna put a better intake on it not sure and throw a trailblazer torque converter in it it’s got the 4l60e in it idk if it’s possible but wanted to to a corvette servo in it and jus saying I’m pretty new to this And it’s gonna be a daily driver but I want good low end torque and good power. What y’all think? Btw gonna run speed density

 

That cam is far from ever being a good low end torque cam for a 5.3.

 

You are changing way too many things at once in my opinion. And why speed density? Unless you live somewhere nearly the same temperature year round, the tune in your PCM will find it very tough to keep up. Which also will then cause drive-ability problems unless you like fiddling with HP Tuners a lot.

You need to eat this elephant one bite at a time.

Rick

 

You dont need ported/milled heads, or new rockers, or different pushrods, etc. for most builds. Get stage 1/2 cam from someone like Cam Motion, get some good valve springs, and spend the money on a good torque converter like Yank. Between the cam and converter it'll wake the car up huge. And get a real tune, not a mail order.

 

I was gonna buy all the parts one at a time and wait until I have the time and throw them on there and I live in Texas it pretty much stays the same until fall/winter I figured it’d be better than MAF sensor and only cause I didn’t want that big air box in my car

 

What do you mean? It’s for high end? What do you recommend? I still want a nice chop to it I jus want that take off power that’ll hold up in a quarter mile maybe half

 

What converter do you recommend for stall?

 

I would look at something from yank or FTI in the 3600 range. Call them and talk to them about goals and they can set you up with the right one for your specific engine combo.

 

Ok, thanks dude

 

my only thought on why I wanted to change everything was cause I’d rather have a big knife to skin a deer than a little bitty pocket knife
or buying the biggest set so it won’t struggle or break in the future it’ll already be able to hold up the power and abuse

 

Remember many people over cam and end up slower than those who went with a more matched setup.

 

Learn to drive it as is. It's probably already too much car for you. Once your driving skill matches the cars ability, focus on suspension and brakes. It's more fun to drive a well handling car than to spin an overpowered car into a tree.

 

im a go big or go home kind of kid I was gonna throw coil overs on it and change the brakes to disc also needed to know what size tires I’ll need for better traction I want some fat tires on them but not too big like drag slicks jus fat enough to still look pretty sexy and idk I get tired of bein slow pretty quick I used to have a 4 stroke 70cc dirt bike and got bored of it

 

Valid point. That’s why I wanted to get new and better everything for it to match the cam but I guess what I picked out didn’t match it or my goals so I’ll do more research and call some people

 

Learn to drive the car first. You already have around 300 hp in a front heavy rear wheel drive car. The first time you drive in the rain or pull onto a main road at a dirty intersection you'll understand quickly that you're dealing with something that will test your limits. In the time it takes for you to understand the car you'll learn all about what you actually want to improve. You'll most likely find that you want to regear the rear and then trade low rpm tourque for more midrange hp, assuming that you can afford to pay for the extra gas.

 

i see what you mean my cousin got an 86 z28 kept it with the tpi 350 and one day spun out in the rain

 

also it seems like you would know what it’s called my dad told me cause I told him about it and he said to prevent the loss of traction to get these things that go on to the leaf springs that lock it up at a certain level so when I’m taking off it only goes so far and keeps it leveled. I’m sure you should know what I’m talking about

 

You're talking about load leveling. That's for towing and doesn't apply to you. Also your car doesn't have leaf springs.

Start slow with basic maintenance and learn how your car is put together. It'll help you make sense of what you hear about. The internet is full of info and it can be almost impossible to sort through all the garbage unless you know exactly what you're looking for. Being an engine swap car means you need to know even more than someone with that same car in stock condition.

Any time I buy a car I assume the last owner didn't do anything to take care of it and I do basic maintenance. I drive it and see how well it shifts, see how the alignment feels, does it pull when braking, are the gauges working, does it act up once it's warm, is there a coolant smell after it gets warm, then I replace the gas cap, fuel filter, oil change with filter and drain plug gasket, air filter, cabin air if equipped, pcv valve, check tires, check belts, check hoses, check vacuum lines, check wipers, check trans fluid, check brake fluid, check bulbs, check fuses then check all the steering and suspension for worn bushings or broken hardware. In my case many of the things I check are done before I buy the car, but it's all stuff that gets a once over before I consider it roadworthy. By the time you go through the entire list you'll know alot about the car and its history.

 

It sounds like you have read some of the "hot words" on modifying an engine and are running with them without really realizing what it is you'd even be doing. That's nothing against you, but do you know why you would need to change your rockers, or pushrod length? What would make speed density better than MAF? I'm with bammax, learn the basics and build up from there. If you don't fully understand what you're working on, you won't be able to make it run right.

 

​​​​​Pretty Shure this is what you were talking about when you mentioned leaf springs. YOU don't have em, it's a third gen. It's very similar to a 4th gen you have a torq arm set up. You want to build rear suspension call umi or bmr and talk to em thell set you straight. Engine/ stall set up go with a tried and true combo (research for many hours) but my quick,fast,off the top ove my head would be tsp kit pushrods/springs/cam kit. In something like a 228/232 on 111+3 or a good ole 228/228 and a yank SS 3600,a real Dyno tune by some one that knows there ****, and do your self a favor research alot more so you can make better decisions on parts purchases. Or break down your questions into smaller groups, and post them in threads here like, suspension/trans/gen 3 internal/etc...... Good luck and post a pic of it we'd like to see it .