Jachin99

i want to put a cam, upgraded pushrods, springs, and lifters in my ls1 for a little more power, and my buddy keeps bugging me to get a tsp magic stick 3. I dont want to lose too much streetability, and i dont want to worry about my car burning out and going sideways everytime i need to hop into traffic quickly or pay a fortune for gas all the time. Id like to be able to keep 20 something mpg on the highway and decent city mileage. I drive the car every year to illinois so it has to be road trip friendly as well. Is this a good cam for me. My mods so far are: airbox lid, ls6 intake, granetelli motorsports maf sensor, slp LM2 catback exhaust, pace setter headers and an offroad Ypipe. ill probably also add a 3-3600 stall in the future. What do you think. I would like to see 400 plus on a dyno and under 12s at the track.

Kraest

At 237/242 duration @ .050", it's much too big for a stock 346ci IMO. It's a track cam or something with more displacement. Daily driving is going to be ridiculous and it won't make good power until high up in the RPM range.

If you're into the Texas-Speed cams, I'd suggest the Torquer cams over the MS cams.

I had great luck in the past with the Futral Motorsports Cams.

With an LS1, any cam in the low 230s @ .600 lift is going to make tons of power and be very driveable.

Kraest

BTW, you'll also want to upgrade the oil pump and timing chain set if you're upgrading the camshaft -- also a converter and gears immediately.

Jachin99

which lsa should i get if i wanted to stay on the economic side. what kind of gas mileage should i expect out of this setup?

greenmachinedriver

you are going to need a converter and gears before or at the same time unless you go with a much smaller cam. a freind of mine used to have an ms3 cam and it was deffinatley alot of cam and his was a 6 speed. if you are concerned with driveability al mpg look at much smaller cams

8cylinders>4

a buddy of mine has TSP's 233/239 and a 6 speed on a stock displacement motor and in my opinion it's about the largest i would want to go on something that you want to drive on the street on a regular basis.

Jachin99

http://www.texas-speed.com/shop/item...d=168&catid=44

so this one with a torque converter that stalls in the 2000-3500s somewhere would still be a good combo? I want the stall to take place as close to the lower end of the cams powerband as possible, right?

Kraest

That cam will get the job done.

Torque converter set at around 200-300 rpm below peak torque.

That's around 3800 RPM on a STOCK LS1, so....... a little more than that with a cam setup... remember... LS1s are detuned race motors --- not your run-of-the-mill iron block Gen II 350.

I wouldn't go any lower than a 3600 stall on ANY LS1 car or you'll be leaving lots on the table.......

Marc 85Z28

For the torque converter you should be going with a bare minimum of 3600 with a 3.23 gearset. It will work but you'll likely regret it in the future. 4000rpm with 3.73 gears will probably work best, and is what I recommend. Forget about about city fuel milage, it will be horrible. Highway milage should still be decent though, just keep that converter locked.

That cam will work great with a good converter. Big cams don't behave well in many 6 speed cars. They're soft down low, 6th gear can be useless, they buck hard at low rpm, and they're hard to launch. The superior automatic transmission addresses all those issues, and makes most of that bad behavior disappear.

If you want to keep the stock gears and run a smaller converter, go with a smaller cam.

If you're worried about fuel milage and tire spin, you've got the wrong car. Buy a Prius.

Kraest

That's just it. You can't go with a smaller converter. The way the LS1 makes power, you need a 3600 on a factory car.

Jachin99

how does this look
oil pump
http://www.texas-speed.com/shop/item...d=151&catid=55
timing chain
http://www.texas-speed.com/shop/item...d=159&catid=53
converter
http://www.texas-speed.com/shop/item...=1115&catid=60
still considering which gearset i would want.
There is no way im going to pay for this all at once. Maybe ill order the oil pump timing chain and possibly cam at once, then wait and get the converter later. but how does all of this look? is it good or is there better

Marc 85Z28

You should NEVER put in a cam of that size on the stock torque converter. Do the converter FIRST, then the cam. You may want to consider Yank's PT4000 as opposed to that SS4000. It's much more efficient at higher rpm in a naturally aspirated combo.

I have that oil pump on my car. Lots of people do. It's a very worthwhile investment. The timing chain? Overkill IMO, and it often requires grinding the timing cover, shimming the oil pump, clearancing the balancer etc. Stick with an LS2 chain upgrade - no need for the LS2 set, you can reuse the stock sprockets. The money you save on the chain should be put towards some hardened pushrods.

WhiteHawk

Torque Converter = Biggest performance bang for the buck on an A4 LS1.

-Geoff

Jachin99

wouldnt the SS be more streetable than the pt4000

Chrome383Z

The PT will be a little looser, but will pull harder on the big end. I originally ran the SS3600 before I put a cam in the car. Then restalled it to a PT4000 after I put the cam in.

Believe me, knowing what I know now I would have saved myself dropping the transmission again and paying for a $200 ish restall plus shipping. I'd go with the PT4000 right out of the gate.

Unless you plan on spraying just go with the PT series, hell i'm spraying on mine; although I haven't gave it a full 150 yet... about 1/3 of that.