Need4Camaro

Well to be honest, $4,000 is a bit skinny for that budget and ALOT of the mods you mentioned here are unnecessary to get 500rwhp.

#1 Dump the 408 and the Twin Turbo Kit - This isn't a civic...you won't need either of those to fathom 500 rwhp...

#2 Decide what you want. If you want a F.I. Twin Turbo Car, it's not going to be cheap, be prepared to spend $$$ - If you want it still though, do not go for the stage 2 cam. N/A Cams and Forced Induction do not work well together. I personally think you will be happy with the car without the twins though... unless you want 800 HP or more, twin turbo is NOT necessary.

#3 3.73 gearing does not add HP, infact it will slightly decrease it, but that asside whats more important is what you're trying to build. If you're going for a Forced Induction Car, 3.73's will split your time in boost and actually slow you down. 3.42's is as high as you should go.

#4 Don't assume that just because something is a "performance item" that it's automatically going to make your car faster unless you want to donate your wallet away. Car's have to be configured to be synchronized with their parts to put out the most output and the only way you're going to learn what works best with what is by research.

#5 Don't get a computer chip, get a tune. A tune is flexible and adaptable. A chip very well might be dangerous for these power levels as they are strict and cannot be programmed to meet your needs.

Now on to your build

If you want a N/A car and 500RWHP... Get the LQ9 6.0L. It has a high compression and makes more power than the LQ4. L92 heads Ported and Polished and a moderate cam, minimum of LS6 intake and you're at 500RWHP for the most part...Maybe just a little less, but it wouldn't be by much. You won't have very much potential left though, unless you 408 stroker it down the road or you get critical with valve-train components for a higher revving engine.

If you want a F.I. car - you will have much more potential but 500RWHP would be child's play. There's so many ways to achieve this you have your pick at the candy store at Turbo or Supercharging. Either way though you will want to buy the LQ4. Once again not necessary to go 408, 500 RWHP will easily be attainable without it. You will need a cam setup for whichever system you go. N/A cams like the stage 2 cam you spoke of earlier will probably be okay for a Super Charger, but definitely not a Turbo. Speak to a vendor regarding your application and desired boost along with the specs of your turbo and they will be able to get you the right cam. You still won't need a twin system to hit 500RWHP. 8 PSI with a stock LQ4, L92 heads, turbo grind cam will probably put you close to 600RWHP. If you want to save alittle money in fabrication you can go with a rear mount setup but they're not QUITE as efficient and it deletes the muffler too.

Either choice is going to cost more than $4,000 though so in my opinion I would start by getting the LQX motor and L92 heads.

raulz28

What is this stage 2 camshaft that you guys speak of?

dzltek

For the record, I don't have an ls1 car or a dog in this hunt, but a coworker had a c5 with a 383, big Trick Flow heads, a huge solid roller cam, top of the line valve train, and around 11.5 compression with kooks 1 7/8 headers and won the N/A dyno challenge last year at the LS Fest in Bowling Green KY. He was putting down 502 at the wheels. Now the reason I used past tense is because has since sold the engine and is putting a ls3 in his car and gonna spray it. He did have the heads done again and raised compression to 12 and it dynoed at 530. After seeing how much money he put into that engine alone I would say to keep your hopes down unless you have ten grand to throw down an engine. So 4000 will be just a drop in a hat.

MachinistOne

He won an n/a dyno challenge with only 500 to the wheels? We can do that with a hydraulic cam and keep it smog legal.

96capricemgr

I was thinking the same thing. I mean we have a fairly recent example of a NA hydraulic LT1 making over 490rwhp.

Sometimes things look good just because they haven't been compared to something that is good.

Pretty sure there is stock shortblock LS hydraulic stuff past 500rwhp.

WhiteHawk

I have never seen a 382 pan out. I don't know what the big difference is from the 3.90 to 4.0 bore, but it seems to be huge in terms of performance. Maybe there just hasn't been enough R&D for the combo's to max them out. If he put that kind of money into a 403, I have seen setups make 600 with the high dollar heads (like he had).

-Geoff

dzltek

most everything there was stock to cam/head only stuff. It was covered in vette magazine, not sure of which month. But like I said, he sold all the ls1 stuff and doing a bigger and better engine. The cam was so big you could hear it and feel it in 6th gear at 65-70 mph. But it was very unreliable, and breaking parts everytime he ran it hard.