So i'm planning on doing a comp xe 230/236 .544 .555 112 lsa with 1.6 roller rockers in my 94 z28. I'm needing some help to what i should do with heads, such as three angle valve job, port polish, and or bigger valves. And should i bore the engine to 355. I'm not looking for insane power still wanting to make dd out of it. I've don't have much of a budget. I've got long tube pacestter headers, lowering springs, kyb agx struts and shocks, egr bolck off, k and n cai. Any and all suggestions welcome thanks.

 

Dont forget to add pushrods and guideplates to your budget

 

If you're going to do heads too, doesn't make much sense to pick the cam first. I recommend going with a heads/cam package from AI (or LE) and get a matched valvetrain kit.

And those 5 extra cubes won't give you much in terms of HP...you're looking at an extra $1500+ if you're talking rebuild.

 

The motor has a bunch of sludge so i'm gonna have to do rebuild on it either way i go. With the cam i'm getting pushrods, 1.6 roller rockers, ls7 lifters. I'm just gonna be using my stock heads and just try to make the best of them heads to save some money. I've read in past forums bout this cam a 2400 stall would work well with this cam jsut wondering if the 2400 is the best way to go

 

IMO, no way. Go with at LEAST a 3200 for maximum gains. You will hardly notice a difference with the 2400.

I DD'd a 3600 with the stock cam and picked up .4 in the 1/4 from the converter alone.

 

Ya, a 2400rpm stall isn't going to cut it for a XE230/236, as Ramair said at least a 3200 if not 3400-3600. I made the mistake of not bumping up the stall for my CC306 and ended up having a soggy car under 3600rpm. I left the 3200rpm Vigilante from my bolt on days in there, big mistake, especially at the track. Not sure if you've got gears, but might want to check into that too.

That camshaft works pretty good with stock heads, although to echo Ramair sending your heads out to AI or Lloyd Elliott would give you good gains. Either company could also grind you a custom cam for your needs and setup a valvetrain for you. I will admit I always liked the way those XE230/236 cams.

-Dustin-

 

thanks i appreciate all the help and suggestions. I don't have any gears yet but been planning for 373 gears. I'll be letting ya'll know how it goes cause i'm hoping to do it here in the next couple of months

 

Small thread hijack: Whos converter is it? Your 60' is pretty good. I am looking into a new converter for my old engine combo. Does it give you any of that driving in a swamp feeling at light throttle? What tires gears and suspension do you have?

chrisblanton; what exactly is the budget here? who is going to tune it? is this your only means of transportation? How many miles on the engine/trans and what color is the trans fluid? What do you want the car to do exactly?

As to your other questions, I would stick with a stock bore and just hone it and install new rings on the pistons if things are not too worn. If you need to bore it out get stock replacement lt1 mahle pistons and rings. The ring pack and skirt setup is better than anything else in that price range, and the weights will match close enough you don't need to balance.

Get the heads checked out guides etc, have them milled back flat (they'll need it), and have a cleanup done on the valve job. Use the gm impala head gaskets when you go back together along with arp head bolts.

 

When it was my DD, I had a Midwest 3600 converter, but that's long gone. I'm using a 4000 Performabuilt right now (came with the level 2 transmission I ordered from them, so they custom-built it for me).

It's fantastic to be honest. The car still moves forward in drive and it doesn't take much to get moving. If I didn't have another car I would not hesitate to daily drive this combo whatsoever.

Tires are 295 MT drag radials (28"), and the gears are 3.90s in a Ford 9".

Suspension? Ugh where to start? Pretty much everything is aftermarket. QA1s, UMI k member, a-arms upper and lower, 275# springs, boxed SFCs, mild weight reduction, boxed LCAs, Comp 3-ways in the back, solid Wolfe swaybar, Denny's nitrous-ready DS, etc. etc.

 

I have a 4k rpm stall from a popular converter maker in it now, not going to bash them or open them up to it by providing their name because its a good converter at the track. Honestly though I might as well not make any torque at all under 3800. Below there more throttle only results in increased engine speed/noise up to the stall point where it sort of couples up. It'll roll forward at a light at idle etc, but trying to get up to highway speed feels like driving in a swamp. The only place I can say it shines is when you just mat the gas, then all hell breaks loose. I ran 4.10's behind it which is pretty low and should make it feel tight.

My track perf was 2-3mph behind yours and 3-4 tenths. Going through the traps at 7000rpm which would indicate about 10-12% slip. The power is there, I just think the converter is holding me back. Wanted to know what you were running, to get the nice 60ft, where I could make up quite a bit. If I can improve the feel of it on the street at the same time that would be huge.

 

I also had the converter built with a high STR, so that has something to do with it I'm sure. Then again I have the suspension setup to match so it's tough to determine exactly how much the converter is contributing.

 

I really don't have a budget i'm gonnna use tax money and i got with working two jobs and doing it over time so i don't drain my m \oney. J R tuning in greenville, sc will be dyno tuning the car. I've got a new trans in the car i had mine rebuilt twice last year first time water contamination second time torque converter came apart. The engine i'm not sure how many miles cause i was told when i bought the car it was replaced with an engine that had 80k odometer reads 152k. In october i did opti on car the engine had tons of sludge in top of it. I'm just looking to make good power with good driveability on the street. The trans also has a shift kit in it. Would like to have bout 350-400 horsepower and would be happy