How long was your car out of commission when you decided to do a new H/C set up. I'm decent at putting stuff together, etc, and have a buddy who is really good at it who will help. I'm wondering if it is worth starting it now and missing a month or two of summer without it....input?

 

why miss stuff?

if you wait until you have all the parts it shouldn't take more than a day or weekend tops

 

Sending off heads will take at least 2 weeks, am I wrong? I will then need to set aside time to get it tuned too, and since I live in Fargo, ND I will have to either go to Souix Falls, SD, or DRM, or similar in Minnesota, which means loading up the car for 600 miles of driving. So I would estimate a month

 

You could always buy a spare set of heads and send them out for porting. Then once you install those, you can sell your stock castings. As for the tune, a mail-order tuner should be able to dial in your combo pretty close. That can at least buy you time until you decide you want to make the drive to get a dyno tune in.

 

I don't know If I trust a mail order tune on a 400rwhp H/C LT1 w/N20.

That may be an option to buy a set of heads to send off. I like my stock 28K mile heads though

 

What kind of nitrous setup do you have? I wouldn't count out a mail-order tuner too quickly, the two on this board have done many H/C combos and can nail the tune pretty dead on.

 

NX w/mallory 685

 

If you have a simple nozzle or MAF setup in which the Mallory box is pulling the timing, I wouldn't worry about the tune in that regard then.

 

Well Sean, I did mine working 3-4 hours a night over the course of a week. That was taking my time ( 2 of them days were trying to get the hub off ). Im sure you and Josh could do this in 3-4 nights. I have a set of heads for ya too.
What setup you thinking about doing?

 

LE2 heads and cam.

Honestly, how bad is it? One of my mechanic buddies says it's not even worth doing heads and cam and wait till I do a stroker, but I'm not not ready to go that route, and I don't think it's as hard as he makes it out to be.

Plus, I have the regal to drive now for my speed fix, lol.

 

For someone like me that isnt too mechanically inclined, I thought it was pretty straight forward and easy. It did take time, but every thing went smooth besides the crank hub.
I say do it.

Just thought I would throw this in there too. Once I made up my mind that I was going to do the H/C swap, I went into it with a budget in mind. Bought most of the stuff used from board members, and only ended up costing me 1,150 total. That is before the tune which I havent done yet. So figure in a couple hundred more for that.

 

You are a thrifty son of a bitch!

I put my budget at $3000 with a tune, gaskets, EVERYTHING! and brand new as well. Maybe I'll search for parts to keep the cost down. That also includes $500 for timing chain, opti, and E-water pump (which I have to do because I have a stupid *** non vented opti!)

 

I ended up at about $3500 for my h/c swap. I did it over the course of 2 months right before driving season began but it can easily be done in about 3 days if you have the tools and/or an extra set of hands. Try and find used parts to keep costs down. Brand new everything is nice but not necessary. I ran out of time and had to pick up some new parts where I couldnt find what I needed here or on LS1tech.

You could always swap to a vented opti. Make sure the cam dowel is the right length along with a 95 timing cover and vac hoses. That should be about it I think.

 

Thats what my plan is, vented opti.