Hey guys so i recently bought a trans am all stock but a magnaflow catback which is very quiet but i like it. Anyway ever since i got the car it seems to lack low end power at full throttle but starts pulling at about 4k rpm and seems to pull really hard at 6500 almost like hitting nitrous, you can see it in the speedometer as well. Anyway car idles normal and i can make it lope a little with a tune.

 

When you took it out, what numbers and other markings did you find on it?

 

Well this is the most informative post I've ever seen on here.
Best I can tell you is the Cam you have has 16 Lobes on it, from the sounds of it since the Engine is running and seems to not be missing any.

Sounds like a stock LS1 doing stock LS1 things. You can make anything "lope" when you mess with the timing and idle RPM. It's not loping like an aftermarket Cam tho. Google the Cam specs for that year and you'll find the info you're looking for.

If he took it out we'd see pictures. Again, the most informative post ever...

 

thanks for getting you panties up in a bunch. Where am i supposed to get the information from if i didnt open the engine up? And show me a stock ls1 doing stock ls1 things lacking low end torque and pulling hard after 4k rpm, and pulling extremely hard at 6500r please show me einstein. Maybe ask some questions unless you want me to write a paragraph. Why the hell did you even bother commenting. Like ****.

 

i never took it out, like i said i got the car and noticed that it lacks low end torque, everything is the same as when my camaro was stock but my camaro would not get traction on the street even with drag radials on the stock cam. This one has trouble spinning tires from dead stop but pulls hard at 4k rpm then pulls REALLY hard when its reaching 6500rpm. The thing is it doesnt seem to have any fancy aftermarket springs.
anyway my question is (and i lnow how to tune a cam to sound stock no messing with TIMING) does anybody have any knowledge of a cam that would do that from back in the day? This car was old man owned super clean and stock other than what i mentioned. Like i said one it hits 6500rpm it reva faster, pulls harder and you see the speedometer climb also when it shifts it accelerates more as the rpm drop. Its auto with some transmission work.

 

Clearly I've driven more cars than you. Especially LS cars. I'm not asking you ****, you want answers then give more information instead of looking like you're here eating crayons and glue.

However here's this bit..
Soooo it's a stock Convertor car most likely given the slow take off and it's I'd say a 2.73 Gear car, they made them. It shifts at the tuned WOT shift point back in to the torque band of the Engine, since it's in that torque range of powerband it gains speed because again, torque band pushing the car and Engine going up in RPM's..eventually it'll hit the next WOT shift point and repeat process until you hit the speed limiter or let out.

Didn't think I'd have to explain how cars work but clearly I'm dealing with the less experienced.

How about looking to see what the RPO Codes are in the car on the Rear Gear and get back to us, or atleast know the whole specs on the damn car. Damn rookies.

 

Its a 98 trans am ws6, with transmission work and magnaflow catback. Everything else stock. But its just odd that i can punch it off the line and itll peel out a little bit and doesnt pull hard until higher rpms then really hard about 63-6500 it almost feels like a 100shot of nitrous. And i do want to mod this thing but if its already got a cam might as well save money and buy supporting mods instead. Like i can manually shift it do a 30roll in first at about 4krpm and it spins the tires.

 

And I thought my night was going to be boring...

It's a stock Cam LS1 with a tall Gear and stock Convertor. That's why it's a slug off the line and pulls when the Engine starts making power.

You think that's a fast sumbitchin racecar now you'd **** yourself when someone knows how to tune the PE to come in and some timing. Blow your panties right off...

 

Sounds pretty standard for a relatively stock LS1. The TA is a little heavier than the camaro, so that will add to the sluggish feeling. If you’re spinning off the line and traction control is pulling timing, that will add to the sluggishness. Probably a stock cam. It would be unusual for someone to get into the engine without having supporting bolt-ons. As previously mentioned, a LS1 doing LS1 things.

 

He said it had stock Valve Springs so clearly pulled the Valve Covers. No decent Cam with stock Valve Springs. I don't think it has TCS from what he said then again that's the whole lack of details in the first post of what the car actually is. RPO Codes.. all that stuff.

How vague can we get...

 

i understand that and i respect you marv ive been listening to you since i joined here when i first got into ls1, but its got the same gears and everything as my same year 98 camaro (when it was stock) did 3:22 gears, but my camaro would roast tires and would feel like a flat pull to about 6000 rpm because thats were my tuner set the shift points at, but this car pulls hard at high rpm and at 63-6500 rpm it pulls really hard like put your head into the seat hard and you see the rpm climb faster and the speedo also climbs faster, like i said it feels like running nitrous. I built an ls3 for my camaro from the ground up and put a damn good cam that i shifted at 7k rpm and it didnt feel like it had extra power at the very top. Anyone that has put an ls6 cam in their auto camaro have any say? Anyway once i start messing with this thing im upgrading the oil pump so we’ll know for sure. When i first got this xar i was afraid to race it now i think it can take some scat packs. Stock ofcourse.

 

its tuned and i upgraded the ecu to 00+ on my camaro the traction control stopped working because i swapped in leds in all my interior and it never worked after that. That car with 275 wide drag radials would not hook off the line on the street. I have 245 performance street tires on the trans am and it will barely spin. Again if i manually hold gears and do a 30 roll itll spin the tires when i floor it. Idk its just odd how this car reacts, makes me think is going to be pretty freaking fast with LTs, y pipe, and ls6 intake. I have a dyno shop near i should hit them up before i come to conclussions. Sorr guys ive owned a lot of ls cars and trucks and have mixed heads on them back and forth and no stock LS IVE touched has acted like this trans am. Sorry if my spelling is off, ive been drinking.

 

Man, just figure out what is in the car and save some face...

 

yea man i just dont want to open up the motor just for that, ill take it to the dyno in my town in the next week or 2 and ill get back to yall, sorry to bother, this car is too stock too clean but it pulls weird like that, the dyno will tell me.

 

Ignore the *******. His knowledge is superior to everyone else's, and to him, all the rest of us here are just worms in the mud that should bow down and worship His Excellency. Not that he doesn't know what he's talking about or whatever; just, he COMPLETELY lacks any form of courtesy, understanding of the point of view of others, or ANY kind of "people skills". He treats everyone here like that, and no doubt will start spewing invective at me for warning you, as he frequently does to me and to everybody else. He's an equal opportunity *******.

That said, THIMK about what you're asking, and realize that NO ONE can tell you what cam some yutz put into it. The ONLY WAY you'll ever know that is to LOOK AT IT, which is why I asked if you had done so. And even then, the markings aren't always real straightforward or easy to interpret, or to find catalog listings if it's old (as it might be in a 25-yr-old car), and so on.

If all you're doing is trying to satisfy your curiosity then you're largely wasting your time. Meanwhile, if it runs the way you like, and you don't intend to change it, then don't worry about it. It Just Is What It Is. A dyno won't tell you anything different, only thing it will do, is tell you how much HP and torque the car makes, which is a long way from identifying the parts it's built out of.

 

You asked and you shall receive.

So if you did this thing called reading, and actually read this whole thread line by line you'd see where what you just said above stirs back up the bullshit where it was dead. No one likes a whiner.

You need a hug?

 

I do think Merv has a point on more info, though. Yeah, he and I locked horns once in the distant past. But we do have some mutual respect. Yes, he can be blunt. I guess we all can be from time to time. But he can be helpful. Anyway....I once saw a sign in an independent, small town, auto parts store. The owner was TOTALLY frustrated with customers giving him bad information, and returning parts that wouldn't work. So he put up a sign. I'll never forget what it said: "Wrong information will get you the wrong parts 100% of the time." That little store is still there, btw. This is probably why so many of my posts are so long (like this one!). Because I try to give every bit of information I can, and it sometimes includes non essential info. But the more info people can provide, the more likely it will be that we can help. My opinion......

 

I guess I have a different angle of approach for things. I buy a car first off I want to make sure it's what I want and supposed to be what it is. The drivetrain is correct and I look at the RPO codes to see what is in the car. This case here knowing the Rear Gears which eventually we got to is some needed to know information up front.

Next, the guy says the car starts pulling really good from 4,000 up I would get on the car with my laptop and check the timing tables and see how it's tuned and see if any of the PE is turned on. Maybe someone messed with the tune. Those little handheld flash tuners will do a basic adjustment of that nature. Not saying that's what's done to the car I'm not looking at it but I've ran into it before. Bone stock car even with timing adjustment and fueling adjustment with some transmission programming will get a little frisky. Also, some cars just run better than others stock to stock side by side. That's just how it is. No two Engines run the same.

Just some friendly advice from the resident" *******" because feelings and **** we have here..

 

Looks like somebody's mommy failed to put him in time-out when the other mommies complained about him bullying their children. "Awwwww, my Merv is such a good little boy, he'd NEVER do anything like that. All those other bad children must have been acting mean to him." So I guess he never learned that lesson. The only way he knows how to deal with any kind of disagreement situation is to start acting a bully.

He not only PROVED it, he told us he's proud of it, and freely makes up lame excuses for why it's not only OK, butt also beyond other people's judgment to call him out on it. Typical thin-skinned bully behavior. The more he does it, the more clearly he demonstrates what he is.

OP, ignore his assholeitude. Obviously he doesn't know any better. Maybe when he grows up somebody will "help" him understand why behaving like that isn't A Good Idea. Especially if he does it in person, in public, and not just when hiding behind Interwebz anonimity.

Meanwhile, back to the topic.

Nobody can tell you what cam is in it just because it "peels out" or any of that. You can however tell ALOT about whether it's LIKELY – though not "for certain" – to have had a cam swap by looking at other externally visible things that people typically modify on these cars; air intake, exhaust system, etc. A tune, while not "visible", is another possible mod to look for. Whenever you get it on the dyno, tell us not only the peak numbers, but also what RPMs they occurred at; in fact if you can post the whole graph of the run, that would be best.

And incidentally, there's no such thing as 3.22 gears. Gears are always a ratio of 2 whole numbers, which are, the count of the teeth on the ring and on the pinion. At least one of the 2 is virtually always a prime number (11, 13, 37, 41, etc.) The # of teeth on the pinion is pretty much always between 9 and 15, with #s around 11 to 13 being typical in stock performance-oriented cars. Pretty eeeeeeezzzzy to see you can't combine #s like those and come up with 3.22. There IS however a 3.23 option which is 13 on the pinion and 42 on the ring, which is VERY common in these cars.

 

Maybe someone installed the GM "Hot Cam". That cam would work with what appear to be stock springs, but maybe they aren't. I believe the hot cam will work fine with LS6 springs, or LS6 type springs. Until you actually tear into the motor, you won't know for sure what you have.....