After I make up my mind on what I want for exhaust, I'm going to get in to the moter. I think superchargers and turbos are great but I want mine Onatural. So with that said what Are your guys thoughts on heads and cams? You know sizes, specs, brands all that good stuff. I want the car to go high 11s and be fun to drive on a day to day basis.

 

My recommendation would be either a G5x2 from LG or a Futral cam (somewhere in the mid 230's with around .6 lift on either a 112 or 114 should be driveable and make great power). Heads I'd go with TEA or Absolute Speed. Their 5.3's or 6.0's have been making great numbers and both companies have a great track record. That should put you at least 420rwhp and probably over 440rwhp. This is assuming you get some long tubes. As for the stock catback, unless its proven to be a restriction, I'd leave it alone. Adding LT's and ditching the cats on my car made my relatively sedate Corsas into monsters.

 

I'd say it's time for you to check out the internal engine threads...

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-internal-engine-5/

 

I think the best way is 6 liter LQ4 iron block, eagle 4" crank, lunati pro mod rods some JE or diamond pistons lets say 9-1 to 10-1. A cam thats about .600 lift and 220 or so duration. And heads AFR heads would be a killer but some ported or even stock LS6 heads would do well. yella terra 1.7 rockers. Don't waste your money on a LSX intake either, havn't heard anything good. The GTO has a LS6 intake as is that will flow plenty of HP as is.

i've gone back and fourth what I wanna do and I think just building a motor from scratch is the best way. Putting heads and cam on a stock short block makes worry about a rod bolt breaking etc. Plus at the same time switching motors I can put on a spec clutch and lightend flywheel.

 

I think that is a little extreme for his goals. And I'd pass on an iron block in a GTO. The car is already somewhat heavy and the extra 100lbs won't help anything. And why would you build a motor for 9-10:1 compression? There are several people running 11:1 + on pump gas with no adverse effects. I'm running 10.8:1 with my new heads on 92 just fine. Unless you want to go FI I see no reason to lower compression. The LSX has had some good and some bad things said about it (its not all bad). Still I would stick with the LS6 and see how things develop with the LSX (and see what the LS2 intake brings to the table). As far as heads, AFR's are looking promising, but I would not recommend them until we see an independent test on them. For now TEA and AS would be my pick. As for longevity of the stock shortblock with heads and cam, just look at this forum. There are a LOT of people running radical cams and heads on stock shortblocks and they live just fine. The consensus seems to be to keep it around or under 6500 rpm. A good heads/cam package will let him hit high 11's and be relatively affordable. The clutch might need replaced with that much power, but probably not right away.

 

Thanks for the info!