And also:

NEVER EVER EVER AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON believe even as much as ONE SINGLE WORD a used car seller says about the car, unless you can verify it with your own eyes.

"Must be a 350, runs too good to be a 305."
"It's got a Vette motor in it."
And so on...

Q: How can you tell a used car seller is lying?
A: His lips are moving.

Q: How can you tell he's stabbing you in the back?
A: He's smiling.

Having those highway gears in it, with a stock converter, will make it feel like a COMPLETE SLUG off the line, if you're accustomed to something better. That all by itself can account for why it doesn't seem to have any power until 4k RPM. I deriously doubt a stock LS6 cam would make the difference you describe otherwise, and I doubt anybody would be foolish enough to open up a motor and take out one stock cam and put in another stock cam, in any case. It may well have been swapped to some aftermarket thing or other. Only way to KNOW FOR SURE though, is to LOOK.

Did I call it, or what?

 

I talk the talk and walk the walk, come try and "help" me...see how that works out for you.
It's called calling things as they are. You're here thinking you're doing it like you're someone, I'm actually doing it. I promise you my skin is far thicker than you think, I'm not the one here whining like I need group therapy because some words on the internet. You wanted to stir this **** up and keep it going, you got it bud.

There's no "disagreement" here, it's someone wanting help with someone and giving us the vaguest **** possible to work with. I'm not the only one who saw that. I called it out and we progressed forward. If you would actually read the thread instead of spewing hurt feelings on here you'd see that. Can't help someone when they don't give you the info you need to help them. That's common sense, how about comprehend that instead of soap boxing it here and keeping bullshit going.
Um you literally asked for it. Come in the next day when things are settled and wanted to be a bitch. Stop acting like one and you won't be called out for it. Find something else better to do.
Good, stick with cars, not psychology. Some of us know that too.
GM LS1 Fbodies had three Rear Gear options:
2.73:1 (Auto Highway Gear)
3.23:1 (Performance option in the Auto Cars)
3.42:1 (T56 6spd Cars only)

Hence why I've been saying get into the car find the RPO Codes and start there.

Na it's not the Hot Cam, he'd hear that one. I put one in my Truck for fun.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-l...-cam-swap.html

 

What is it the older women tell their daughters; something like "big ego equals small where it matters"?

This bully just won't give it a rest, will he. Gotta be The Big Man and run his mouth. Oh well, another thing they say is: it's better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Seems to apply here.

 

As you sit here and literally keep this **** going the next day after things were fine. You're THAT person and proud of it. A **** stirrer is worse than a bully, atleast one comes at you directly the other one is shady and sly.

Now, are you done or is there more menstruating you need to do here?

I'm here trying to talk about cars, been my whole objective. Clearly not yours.

 

You're GREAT!!! I couldn't ask for better proof than what you so freely offer.

Yeah, that's all about cars. Uh-huh.
​​​​​​​
Have a nice day! I certainly am.

 

And I quote:

 

i got the car from a friend of mine in another town who got it from an old man, idk the history behind it and my friend is an air head, like he doesnt know anything. Car was painted so i dont have the rpo codes. Gears were done so i know its got 3:23s, i was disappointed when i first got the car but i now like it, spinning aint winning, i know with some LTs and y pipe itll wake up even more. When i do the oil pump ill know of the cam. I was under the impression it had an ls6 cam.

 

That's the problem with getting used cars and not so good information that you can't count on. Even with an LS6 Cam the tune would need to be properly adjusted for that Cam because it's bigger than the stock LS1 Cam.

The car being painted has nothing to do with the RPO Codes they are either in the Glove Box or under the Center Console Lid. White sticker with a bunch of three figure letter and number combinations.

Stuff like what you said above helps in the very first post. What I've been saying the whole damn time.

When you pull it apart look for numbers on the Camshaft if you go that far to take it out and see what you find from there.

At this point the Rear Gears I would go in there and pull the cover just to see what they actually are. That whole variable information thing..

 

That doesn't help much does it.

The shape of the torque curve vs RPM on the dyno, more so than just the raw numbers, will help you figure out what the cam is, since that's what a cam does the most, is move the RPMs of those peaks around (usually upward). I don't think there'd be enough difference between a stock LS1 cam and a stock LS6 cam to be more than just barely noticeable though, I think you can safely dispense with that idea. Not to say that that's not what it is, just, not likely. If it's been swapped it's MUCH more likely to have been to something aftermarket.

If it still has the stock manifolds on it then the likelihood of it having been internally modded is even less. Most people, serious ones anyway, that's the first thing they do; even before a cam. Not always or necessarily of course, just, again, more likely. Exhaust and a CAI are usually the first 2 go-to items.

In the meantime, trying to guess about a cam inside a motor, is a fool's errand. Pretty much a waste of mental effort that could be put to better use some other way. Until you can look at it, just enjoy it for what it is, and bide your time.

 

You won't see **** on a Dyno if the TUNE is not dialed in properly. Literally be a waste of time.

Get the car apart, put eyes on everything you have a question or wonder about. That is the way at this point.

 

Yeah, there are a LOT of unknowns here. Merv, I stated the hot cam because, as most here know, it's really not too hot. I'm sure you'd hear the old ASA cam, because it had a lot more duration and a 110° LSA. IIRC, they both lift .525", but the hc is 219°/228° duration on a 112° LSA, and the ASA is 226°/236° on the 110°. You're probably right. But a good tuner can hide a milder cam pretty good. But still, I don't think he'd lose that much low end, especially with a mild cam. The only thing that makes me think it COULD have some sorta perf cam in there is how it seems to really pick up at 4k. Again, there's a LOT of info missing. OP-If you're still here, have you found any sort of info, like diff tag, RPO code, or any evidence that you actually have a 3.23 diff? If you haven't, mark the driveshaft with a white line, trans in neutral, front wheels chocked, and see if you can turn the drive shaft while counting the turns on the rear wheels. 3.23 gears should equal 3-1/4 turns of the shaft to 1 turn of the rear wheels. 2.73 should be 2-3/4 turns of the shaft to 1 turn of the wheels. Hope this helps. And I hope you get it squared away. FWIW, My C5 has an A4. I got lucky because it came with the optional G92 3.15 gear. I say lucky because it's hardly a perf diff, but it beats Hell outta the 2.73. I had nothing but nice, linear power as the revs increased. If your car has the 3.23, and sucks on low end, either it has an internal issue, or someone has changed the cam, or timed the stock cam wrong. The 4L60E has a very low first gear, and mine never felt sluggish. How tall are the rear tires....

 

I have no idea why this thread was posted in the internal engine section...this clearly looks like newbie tech/generic LS1 type conversation to me. Moving to more appropriate section...

Not trying to stir any pot or get involved in any of the arguments here, but I do want to clarify why being painted might matter: For 4th gen F-bodies, the SPID sticker is located on the driver's door jamb (door side). It's true that the glove box or center console is a typical spot (actually my 3rd gen had the SPID in the center console), but it wasn't placed there on 4th gens. So if the door jambs were painted with the car and this sticker was not masked, then it would've likely been removed.

Good news for the OP is that the GM VIS system is pretty accurate for data on cars of this era, so you can likely go to any GM dealership parts counter and get a printout of the original RPOs for a given VIN. Not that it matters for gear ratio since it sounds like you have already determined that, but it might be helpful for other data if the SPID has been lost.

Just another FYI; regarding the LS1 4th gens specifically, if the car came stock with an aluminum driveshaft and is an automatic trans then it would have also come with 3.23s stock. The 2.73 cars still had a steel shaft all the way through 2002. And if it's an original WS6 car, as was stated earlier in the thread, 3.23s were a mandatory option with MX0/M30 (auto trans).

 

thank you for your information yea i spent a few days looking for the rpo codes and couldnt find them. I did a base tune in the car and its really strong but again it just pulls very strong at like 63-6500 rpm but thats when i shift it. Thats what made me come up with this question as my camaro would pull the same trhu the rpm and actually lose power at about 6k rpm. Anyway i was curious. I will be upgrading the oil pump to a melling since when the car is hot the pil pressure drops too low and thats how my camaro ended up gettin an ls3. When im there ill open it up and if its an aftermarket cam ill leave it and just do supporting mods.

 

This raises another point; you mentioned doing a "base tune"...was that before or after you were able to rev the engine to 6500rpm? I ask this because the factory rev limiter is set to 6200rpm for all stock LS1 4th gens, and the only way to overcome that limiter would be with a mechanical overrev (like a 3-1 missed shift with a manual; not going to happen with an auto) or with custom tuning changes. So if you were able to reach 6500rpm before ever touching the tune yourself, then someone obviously has tuned the car previously - in which case, there's no telling what else might have been messed with in the tune (unless you compare the entire tune to a stock file).

Digging deeper, and sorry if I missed this earlier in the thread, have you verified that the heads are still the stock 806 (perimeter bolt) castings? These are the only heads that would have come stock on any 1998 LS1, regardless of trim level. That's an easy check even before you inspect valve springs or go deeper into cam inspection. Honestly, it's really not a good idea to be revving the stock LS1 valve springs to anything over the stock rev limit, so if you were the one to raise the rev limiter I would recommend putting it back to stock until you know what's inside the engine. Or, if the limiter was already raised when you bought it, hopefully that was only done because someone knew that the upgraded components they installed could handle it.

If the car was tuned prior to your ownership and also has upgraded springs, it's likely got some sort of cam as well.

Another question: As seen by a scanner (NOT the stock tach, which isn't 100% accurate), what is your idle speed? Every stock auto trans LS1 F-body was set from the factory to 550rpm in gear and 650rpm in P/N. If the commanded idle speed is higher than that, it was likely tuned for a cam.

Also, have you verified with a scanner that you are in fact actually reaching 6500rpm? Or is that just the number you're seeing on the stock tach? Just wondering if there might be a gauge discrepancy causing some false interpretations here.

 

the car reved to 6500 when i got it before it shifted, and it will squeal the tires when it shifts from 1 to 2nd

 

my tune was base for stock cars, i know a good bit about tuning i can make a cammed car sound stock. Given it has a quiet exhaust like mine. Anyway, let me do a pull tommorrow and ill let you know what it reads on my ho tuners bexause whatever it is, it likes high rpms and let me throw this idea outthere the original owner had lifters fail so he got nee lifters and cam and decided for an ls6 cam. Because i just saw in the rear panel it has markings where they pulled a dent very professionally no bondo involved. So that kind of tells me if he had to swap cams maybe he threw an ls6 in there. I mean the original owner.
i mean the way the dent is marked on the inside and pulled making it look like it never happened tells me this guy really loved this car.

 

Well, I can tell you that if the engine is actually revving to 6500rpm with no limiter contact, it was 100% certainly tuned at some point after it left the factory. Now, that could have been a simple HPP3 handheld tuner (which allows for rev limit changes up to 6600rpm, if I remember correctly), or it could have been a custom tune with LS1 Edit (if done long ago) or HPT.

If the lifters were replaced then it's certainly possible that the cam may have been swapped. Again, it wouldn't really be a good idea to rev the stock valve springs beyond the stock 6200rpm limit, so when someone raised the limiter I hope that was because they had also upgraded the springs - and the most common reason to upgrade the springs would be for a cam swap.

If commanded idle speed has been raised beyond the stock 550rpm in gear/650rpm in P/N factory settings, then it would be further indication of a cam upgrade as there aren't too many other reasons to raise idle speed.

 

yea its at like 850 in park about 700 in gear. Need to hook up my hp tuners to it, havent paid much attention to it, i barely started driving it since i owned it.

 

The tach on my '98 reads about ~150rpm too high at idle, it's been that way for as long as I've owned it (since almost new). Let us know the numbers when you get the HPT hooked up.

 

Didn't 93-97 have the option codes in the glovebox?