Hey guys I'm posting this for a friend of mine. He is putting an LT1 in his 3rd gen firebird. He has the WC T-5 that will be going behind it and 3.45 gears. The motor will be an iron head LT1 but he would like to run TPI harness and PCM if possible. He has ported the stock LT1 heads and intake himself.

Also while he has the motor out, he is wanting to do a cam swap... He would like to know which would be the best cam for his setup. He would like a operating range of up to 6200 but not more with decent low end & mid range torque. He was thinking about the 227/233 cam with about 550/560 lift and 112 LSA but is not sure on this and it's not a cam that ppl run very often so he wanted to get some opinions on it.

Thanks in advance.

 

For the first question I have no idea but thirdgen.org has lots of good information for swapping an LT1 into a third gen car.

For the cam question, i have a 224/230 on a 112 that I like and it revs to ~6200 with good low end and mid range torque. I think that the 227/233 cam could be good, but I do not have any experience with it.

-Greg

 

It is possible to run the TPI ECM with an LT1. You will need to have the intake drilled for a distributor and a custom chip/PROM programmed for it. EGR will have to be deleted since it will interfere with the distributor.

 

Thanks for the info! He has all that covered so I guess he is good to go.


For the cam I recommended the 224/230 actually he is worried it might be too small but I told him many ppl have had success with it. Also Greg what valvetrain do you recommend running with that cam? I see in your sig you have the comp beehive springs? Aren't they having some problems with those?

 

There have been some recent posts about people having problems with them. I haven't had any problems, but I havent been turning up to 6200 rpms very much either. I thought that the springs with problems had similar batch numbers, but I don't remember, would have to re-read the posts.
I also have their roller rockers and i am happy with them. I had to re-do the valve lash after a couple hundred miles and they have been fine since.
Like I said, I am happy with the cam. I didn't touch my heads but I know that would make a huge difference too.
For the valvetrain, I did go all comp. There are a lot of people with the same setup, so there is going to be some problems.
I am not familiar with other setups, so others will have to chime in and give other opinions.

-Greg

 

Alright well finally he has decided to go with the comp 503, but he would like to know the grind # for that cam with a 110 lsa if anyone knows that would help! Thanks.

He is going to go with comp beehive springs as well.

 

if i remember right the cast iron heads have pressed in studs in stock form, and i seem to remember after a certain ammount of valve lift the pressed in studs pulling out? also the pressed in studs means no guide plates no guide plates means no beehives without buying longer valves and if you're doing that you can just pick up a set of aluminum heads for 200 bucks and bypass all that BS.

then again i have been wrong before.

 

tell him to shop for some alum. heads hes shooting him shelf in the foot with them paper weights . a good set can be found for 150 -300

 

I'd also go to screw in studs with a big cam. Yes, the IRON heads are push-in studs.
I am sure Compl can confirm what the studs will take without risk.

It would just be easier/cheaper to swap out to aluminum heads right off the bat...

 

Thanks guys I'll let him know.