LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

I have a 98 Camaro Z28 Auto and so far all I've done is ram air intake with hood. I've got lots of stuff sitting in the garage ready to do a major overhaul this winter when it comes off the road.
What I have...
1. Long tube headers and x-pipe kit.
2. Ported LS6 Heads
3. Eibach Pro Kit
4. Rear control arm relocation brackets
5. Adjustable control arms and adjustable panhard bar.

What I know I need...
1. LS6 Intake
2. Valve Covers, crossover kit, and bolt kits.
3. Cam (just don't know what kind)
4. Dyno Tune when it's all done.

What I intend to still do...
1. Port my TB

My goal is to be in the 450hp range. My questions are...
1. What type of cam should I look for to get good streetability but still get me in the power range I want. My wife drives it a lot.
2. The heads are just ported, the shop was waiting for more money to polish them but the guy hasn't been back in over a year which is why they sold them to me. Is it worth polishing .. performance wise or is that just a for looks mod.
3. What else do I need that I'm not thinking of that I need to hunt down for winter.

Thanks in advance for your help. My biggest reason for getting this built the way I want is we live in Canada just across the bridge from Buffalo, NY. I work in Buffalo but live in Canada. We have a lot of little honda's and other imports here that are amazingly fast and some are outperforming our '98 LS1 Auto and my brother-in-laws '99 LS1 M6 and that's just not right. :)

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

polishing the heads refers to the exhaust runners...not the exterior of the heads.

the smoother the surface inside the runner the easier the exhaust will flow out. i beleive you only do the exhaust, since you want a little turbulance to mix the air/fuel in the intake runner...could be wrong.

as for a cam

did you want 450 at the wheels or at the crank??

wheels is gonna take a pretty big cam, somethiing in the high 23x range. but for only 450 crank you should be able to acheive that with any of the cams between 224 and 230

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

I'd like around 450 at the wheels. I don't understand what all the numbers are for a cam but these are the specs for the stock corvette cam...

Camshaft, Hydraulic Roller Tappet, Duration at 0.50 lift 204/ 218, Lift at Valve .550/ .550, Chevy, LS1, Each

I'm guessing when you say 23x you mean the 204/218 should be in the 230 range.

Which of these wuld be a good streetable cam? (These are comp cams just for examples)
Duration at 050 inch Lift: 228 int./232 exh.
Duration at 050 inch Lift: 236 int./240 exh.

I see from looking at this that the Duration differences also have a difference in RPM range. Being that I'm an automatic do I want it to be down low where I sit at idle?

Also .. I've been reading a lot on here about heads and cams and 98's vs later Camaro. I just came across information that the head bolt pattern is different for the 98's than in later year!! Does that mean my LS6 heads with from a '01 won't bolt up to my 98??? I'm going to be sooo pissed if that's true.

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

i think the difference in bolt pattern on the heads is with the valve covers. basicaly the 97/98 ls1 heads have a perimeter bolt pattern, and later ls1/ls6 heads all have center bolt patterns. so your valve covers won't bolt up to the ls6 heads.
i'm not aware that the head bolts are any different.

and you are correct on correlating the numbers on the cam. those numbers relate to the duration...how long...the valves stay open. and there is usually a "lift" measurment given, like my cam is .589" lift. indicates how far the valve will open.

now...for your goal.

you say you want 450rwhp...but for it to be a streetable automatic. that's gonna be hard. to hit those numbers on an auto you'll need a pretty big cam...and the bigger the cam the less street friendly it will be.

those 2 cams you list are decent cams. with heads the first one would probably yield about 425hp give or take. and the second should yield 10-15hp more than that. you're gonna need a BIG torque converter to take advantage of that cam, as well as one hell of a tune.

now remember dyno numbers are for internet bragging rights...track times are what really matter. so a good performing cam that you can drive on the street, combined with a well setup suspension to put the power to the ground is gonna outperform a dyno queen any day.

do some more research as to what you want out of your setup and keep working on your list of parts. but i think if you want a good powerful, street friendly car...something along the lines of a 228-230 cam should do nicely. with the right torque converter and rear gears you should be well into the 11s at the track

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

Thanks for all the info. I'm not real concerned with the actual horsepower number. There is just a place near me that will do dyno tuning. I'm not sure what that involves over regular tuning but it's $275 for up to 10 pulls then $25 a pull after that if needed. Again, whatever that means. :)

I'm more interested in just not being embarrased on the street anymore by these little import cars. A guy who lives just a few houses down has a Honda Civic and he keeps up with me on the highway. Even at 80mph when I punch it and he's right beside me up to 120mph. His friend has a Honda Accord and he blows right past me when we punch it at 80mph. My brother-in-law has the '99 M6 and it's just slightly faster than ours but he got blown away as well. I've only been to the track to race it once and we ran a 9.4 1/8th mile consistently. I weight 200lbs and my wife was in the car with me (100lbs) and our sub box weighs 120lbs and is in the rear well. They told me every 100lbs was .1 of a second off my time. Sort of made sense because my bro-in-laws car runs 8.6. He's also got drag radials though. Once I get the car together I plan on bringing it back out to see how it stacks up. :)

Is there a 228-230 cam that you can recommend given what I already have. I do need it to be street friendly for when my wife drives it. I figure too if I really want more in the end then I can add on a 100 shot or something for just highway fun with the neighbors or at the track.

By the way .. here is our car ..
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ro/Camaro2.jpg

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

9.4 in the 1/8 is really sad. No wonder your getting beat. You should be running 8.7-8.8 You must have 2.73 gears. You could shave a second off of that easily by changing to 3.42 or 3.73 gears and putting a good 35-3600 rpm torque converter in it.

Re: LS1 Engine Upgrade
 

I agree that its sad. mustangs were running 9.4s. I was having problems off the line though. I had good reaction times but I could only hold it up to 1200rpm before it would start to spin and so when I launched it bogged for a second and then took off so usually the car in the other lane pulled ahead but we always caught up and passes. I did three runs all 9.4 exactly and I won all three races. 2 older mustangs easy win and another camaro but .1 seconds.