anyone know how "far" i can go, or how much i can do to my heads and still be completely emissions legal?? living in california, i dont have too much options when it comes to performance, and i was wondering if i had some real good head work done, if it will make me fail the smog test. any help would be appreciated.

 

Check with Nighttrain66 on the board, he should be able to help out. His name is Lloyd.

 

Not sure on that one either. I would like to know also though. Let me know after you ask Lloyd. Also what part of Cali do you live in?

 

I have Lloyds fully ported heads, however I just got them and my smog is not due for another year so I will find out then. I don't think the heads will have much effect on smog as compared to a cam. The cam choice will make the real difference as to whether or not you pass smog. There have been numerous posts on this and no one really knows what the biggest cam you can run is. I know my CC305 will pass but I just bought a new nitrous cam CC XE 224/236 on a 114 LSA so I will be testing that in a year here as well. So far the biggest that passes for sure is the CC 305, but other people will be testing the XE 224/230 as well. It will be interesting to see as time progresses what setups pass and what don't. Tuning comes into play a lot as well as many other factors, so its really hard to say what will pass. Time will tell.

 

that was what i was thinking myself, that the heads wouldnt effect smog as much as a cam or headers or something like that.

im origionally from the east bay, hayward. but right now im stationed in camp pendleton... for the time being.

im not sure how to look up members but nighttrain if youre reading this, please chime in.

 

the XE224/230 should pass much easier then even an LT4 hotcam, you can't compare XE grinds to regular soft ramp cams, a soft ramp cam will produce lots of reversion & lots of compression/gasses to escape past the valves due to their slow ramp up/ramp down rates, when you compare cams its best to compare them in advertised duration for smog since at .006 lift is what counts mostly not .050 duration. An XE224/230 is prolly similar to a 210/215 regular cam when it comes to drivability/gas milage/emissions, but thats why the XE grinds fall to their face at 6k rpm because in reality they are a small cam.

PS. Head porting has a small effect on emissions, the biggest factor for emissions when it comes down to heads is compression ratio, the higher the compression the harder on emissions, the NOX levels go up real fast.

 

sorry, I have not been on the boards lately. I have been at the hospital with my mom most of the week.

the porting will not effeft emmisions very much as long as you do not get crazy.

Since most of the cams that pass emissions are gonna pull to about 6000 RPM or so, I would do some porting that compliments that as well.

Narrow the guides and make the bowls large. Raise the roof in the bowl area and a lil through out the port. I would leave the push rod walls stock and the shortsides as tall as possible with out having a sharp edge. Get the best valve job that you can afford and have the valves back cut. Mill them a little and use the Impala gasket if you are using stock pistons and that is about it.

You could do more work and get a lil more cfm from them but with the amount of work that is mentioned, the runner volume will be pretty small and work great with the emissions cam.

NightTrain66

 

Wow you got Lloyd and bunker to respond to your thread! Two smart guys with some damn good info. Hey bunker did you sell that XE 236/242 cam yet? Can't wait to see your numbers with that monster 847, I wish I could run that cam here in crappy California. I'm thinkin your buddy Roys cam might even be too much, lol, hopefully not.

Also Lloyd hope you mom is doing well and keep up the great work on those heads man. You have been getting lots of praise on here lately from me and many other people.

 

Thanx Yeah Lloyd hope everything works out great for you. As far as passing with Roy's cam, I'm sure you'll be fine

If you're going with a Cloyes True Dual timing chain I'd go 2* advance on the chain for Roy's cam bud if you want to do a bit better on areas other then horsepower I belive that cam has 0 degrees of advance ground into it.

BTW Thanx for the compliment

 

like i said earlier though, i have very limited options when it comes to moding my car due to cali smog. even the lt4 hotcam will fail emissions. that said, i was wondering if the head work would have a big effect or not. i didnt really think it would but i wasnt sure. if its not, then i want to get the most head work done i possibly can because that might be all i can do to improve performance.

 

lt1hatesme what are you talkin about man? Do some research, there is lots of stuff you can do to make power and still be smog legal. I am right here with you in California and I have ported heads, cam, headers plus tons more mods than I can count and I plan on passing smog. Also who told you the hotcam will not pass smog? There are plenty of people that have passed with that cam. Anyways in answer to your question headwork is definately not the only thing you can do to improve your performance. There are hundreds of other things you can do, show your LT1 some love and maybe your LT1 will love you instead of hating you.

 

BTW Bunker I am glad to hear you are sure this cam will pass. Also I am running the Cloyes True Dual timing chain, so I might give up some power to pass smog, but only if I have to

 

Is it together already? If so how is the power? Hit the dyno soon

 

No the new cam is not in yet, trust me I will be on the dyno right away and I will let you and Roy know the results. I know he really wants to know as well what kind of power it will make.