My engine (not including bolt ons) is Stock! Stock everything! What benifit will adding some aftermarket rockers provide? HP and Performance Wise? what do you guys reccomend?

 

A good set of Crane or Comp 1.6 ratio self aligning roller rockers will add like 30 thousandths lift to the cam and maybe a tad more duration (not much). Probably good for 10-20 horses. If you're going to add the bigger rockers, you will have to change the valve springs or you may float a few valves or a few may bind. Go ahead and get the poly locks so you can put everything in, run the car a bit, adjust the rockers, and be done with it. Personally, if you're going to go through the trouble of changing valve springs, I would just go ahead and pick a good cam and throw that in while I was at it. Just a thought.

 

How hard is it to do the Cam? Or rather what needs to be taken out the way?

 

My cam is stock, but I'm sure it's a PITA. Just getting to the opti is enough for me, once you're there you've still got a long haul. If you take off the intake elbow and look down, all that stuff's gotta go, not to mention the radiator, etc. But from what I've heard, if you've got the patience, the cam is probably the biggest power gain, not including forced induction. But I'd do the rocker arms first with the springs to prep it for the cam. Getting a big cam with stock springs seems to be a good way to mess things up.

 

I have plans for a pretty agressive cam. What kind of rockers do you guys recommend or a place to get them from?

 

I've got my Xmas present cam already picked out. Can't wait for vacation in Jan/Feb to actually put it in. The easiest way to install a cam into a LT1 is to have someone else do it. But for the rest of us working joes, you're going to have to remove the radiator and fans, alternator, water pump, opti, smog pump, drop the oil pan slightly without tearing the gasket, remove the crank pulley, crank hub, timing cover, timing chain, cam sprocket, the intake manifold, rocker arms, pushrods, oil pump drive, and lifters. Am I forgetting anything? Don't forget to make sure the dowel pin is the right length. Also, the easiest way to change the valve springs is to remove the exhaust manifolds/headers (for room although it isn't really necessary) and hook an air compressor to each cylinder. Lastly, you'll have to have the computer programmed to work with your new cam. It's quite an undertaking, but it's worth it. Check Shoebox's site, he's got a really good cam removal/installation walkthrough as well as one for changing the springs (although I don't advocate doing it by resting the valve on the piston like he did, but that's just me). Here's the link...

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech1.html

As long as you take your time and do it right, don't try to do a swap in a day, or even a single weekend if you don't have to. I don't mean to drag it out and take forever, but don't rush and do a hasty job to get it running, or you will be hunting gremlins for weeks to come.

 

This was neat too...
http://www.streetillusionsracing.com...ll/Cam/cam.htm


"you're going to have to remove the radiator and fans, alternator, water pump, opti, smog pump, drop the oil pan slightly without tearing the gasket, remove the crank pulley, crank hub, timing cover, timing chain, cam sprocket, the intake manifold, rocker arms, pushrods, oil pump drive, and lifters. Am I forgetting anything?"

Not surprised....tell me what don't you have to remove to get to anything on these cars? I've got into the habbit of doing Multimods at once...like Doing the headers and plugs while the Transmissions out.... I guess why not get the heads done..while the cams going on too hungh? No pont in wasting good working room.

 

How about just dropping the front K member, replacing that with a tubular one and tubular control arms and the coil over suspension. Go ahead and build a killer stroker including having the heads done up right. Replace the plugs and wires. Have the tranny rebuild, and build a dual exhaust system for the car. Strap on all the bolt on goodies you want and stuff everything back into the body. That way you're done and never have to touch the car again.

But seriously, you're right, you have to remove a bunch of stuff to do a cam swap. Like I said, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. If you want to have the heads done, that would be the time to do it since everything would be out of the way. I would find a good shop that has a set they will give you on exchange (you give them your heads when you're done). If you pull the heads off your motor and take them to be ported it may be a couple of weeks before you get them back. If you do it on exchange, you pick up the heads, swap em, and give your old heads to the shop and they usually give you back a core charge.

As far as removing stuff to work on things, at least you don't have a supercharger and all the associated plumbing in the way of things. That's one more thing I have to remove to do my cam swap. Although, it's worth it to me.