Well Ive been slowly getting parts to get my car the way i want it, and for the past few weeks have been looking at diff heads and cam combo's. So far each company/person has its ups and downs, but all offer a good amount of power. Now though i have been thinking of getting a STS turbo setup. Its only 2995 and for a bit more u get a boost controller, exhuast tip. Basically 2995 should get me started. Then i would get my computer reprogrammed. So i figure 3300 is the most it will go. Now with the heads and cam it can range from 2500 to 3grand.

Now the heads and cam would be the cheaper but harder install. The turbo would be a bit more expensive but from what i have read the install isnt too complicated. Each mod seems to give me around the same hp rating. With everything running right i should get close to 400hp.

So what im getting at what does everyone here think i should go with. What would be the easiest to maintain and what would be more reliable for a 103kmotor. My motor is in pretty good condtion and runs great. So any suggestions welcomed.
Peace
Omar

 

I'm sort of in the same boat you are...I have a cam sitting in my storage waiting to be installed, but now I'm having turbo envy

IMO if your willing to put some time into tuning and monitoring knock, the turbo would be the way to go. I don't think a turbo is for your average install-then-never-think-about-it-again hot rodder though. At the same time, theres WAY more potential for big power with the turbo...hell throw some C16 in the tank, run the alky injection and start pushing 15psi...as long as your not detonating your fine even with stock pistons. If your not willing to keep an eye on knock though your gonna break a stock motor.

damn...anyone want to buy a brand new 230/236 cam?

 

for a 103,000 mile motor, id stay away from the boost. heads/cam is reliable, a turbo setup is going to get you little support and youre going to have to get some good sized injectors and a heavy-duty fuel pump along with having to fit a turbo somewhere under the hood of a 4th gen. build it then boost it. in my opinion youre askin to pop your motor just slappin a kit on w/o heavy tuning.

just my $.02 though

 

Reuter, may want to check out the STS turbo kit some more, most of those problems are non issues with this kit. As far as boost being harder on a bottom end than heads/cam, thats actually incorrect. The stress put on by forced induction is considerably less than the stress put on by the RPM necessary to make a heads/cam setup perform even close to the FI setup. Thats why you see a lot of 200,000 mile Buick GN's still on the road running 12's or less

 

an LT1 at 103k miles is nothing. mine at 94k miles does not even waste a drop of oil and still has all the cross hairs in the walls. i'd say get the turbo. then if you want more power do the cam and heads later on.

 

Is the STS turbo setup the one that mounts in the rear of the car?

If it is, you might want to consider PTK's kits. They run a little more than that STS setup, but they are a "standard" up front mounted turbo. A member of my car club is getting one (just waiting to receive it) for his car and is expecting 600-700 RWHP

I think they start around $3500 or so... It's another one to consider.

But either way you go, you're going to want a set of ported heads and a good cam for the turbo anyway. So, my advice would be to start with the head/cam combo, with a plan for a turbo setup later.

 

I would do the heads/cam before i would turbo you car. The turbo would be a lot nicer, but Lwillman said you are gonna want some good ported heads before then. Besides if you get the turbo you aren't gonna be able to turn the boost up much on the stock bottom end. You know you will be tempted to do it also. The heads/cam will be alot safer with the stock bottom end. With the turbo you would have to keep it tuned really well not to hurt your engine. Also with the turbo you can get boost creep and with the stock bottom end not prepared to handle much boost it woudn't be good. Just do the heads/cam for now then later on. Build you block up for it so you can take full advantage of your turbo.

 

I'm in the same boat you are FireHawk. I've been deciding if I wanna go forced induction (blower most likely) or heads/cam. After giving it a bunch of thought, I decided I'd go heads/cam first because if I were to lose a race with a turbo/blower people would say "What?! You run boost and still lost?!" as ignorant as they are. I'd rather go heads/cam, win a bunch of races and be able to say "No boost here"

 

I just ordered the STS turbo also. Gonna do a few more things before the install.

 

If you have the $ set aside to rebuild your shortblock, or at least replace it with another stocker, then forced induction is pretty fun .

If not & you still want to make power, only more reliably with the limitations of the stock hypereutectic stuff, then I'd stay NA. Nice thing about NA is that a decent topend can see more gains in a FI app than it did NA if you choose to swap shortblocks & turbo it down the road .

 

Forced induction devices,e.g.,turbos, SCs are always a good way to go,in my opinion, because they can always be sold when you don't need them anymore.

 

Ask the turbo guys in the FI section about the sts kit. They don't like the idea that you can just unbolt and take out the tubro. Also running the piping back and forth is kinda dumb. The car sts tested had forged pistions, ls1 rods and bearings studs etc. The bottom end was decent. Your 103k isn't ideal for boost. The gain from 5psi which is what you could run safe, isn't worth the whole tubro thing. Plus the 3300 you figured is short quite a bit. Heads/cam and a 150 shot is what I would do with 3300. You go way faster and your motor will live longer.

 

without a doubt, heads/cam

 

Heads and cam. I am not too keen on that turbo setup.

 

not originally it didn't..it does now because they wanted to start testing with higher boost. Who's to say this idea is any dumber than anything else thats been tried? When Rooster(?) wanted to put a roots style blower on his car he got all kinds of crap over it, now everyone sees it and wants to get it done too!

The PTK turbo kit is nice, but you have to relocate a lot of stuff, and its $3500 without the turbo which is another $850 or so. THe STS kit is $2995 with the turbo.