My project started as a simple cam swap until the rear journal on the factory cam had a nick in it and it tore up every bearing on the way out. So that quickly turned into a budget rebuild. Once everything was back together something went terribly wrong. I didnt know what it was til yesterday when i pulled the heads and there was something in cylinder #3. I have no idea what it used to be but it is steel and it caused a lot of damage. It destroyed my passenger side head and my piston. Thankfully the cylinder is alright. This project keeps reaching new levels of ridiculousness. At this point im looking at either getting new gaskets, piston and a d/s head. However, after all this heartache and work i want more power. Im at the point to where this car can either give me what i want or burn to the ground. I see Trick Flow has released a new head on the market. I dont know much about all this because im still learning as i go. What power gains would i see with these heads and a hot cam over the stock heads and hot cam?

 

The problem with the Trick Flow GenX LT1 heads is that they have 62cc combustion chambers, which will lower your static compression ratio about 1 point. They advertise them as "Designed for supercharged, nitrous, and stroker applications"... which makes sens for blower aps, where you want lower CR, but makes not sense at all with regard to nitrous, where high CR and nitrous play well together. They also flow about 253CFM on the intake (out of the box), but you could do better than that with your LT1 heads.

Are you possibly thinking about the GenX 21-degree LT1 heads (54cc chambers)? They announced them as a new product several months ago, but I don't see them on their website yet.

It is possible to have the TF heads milled to reduce combustion chamber size, and they do repond very well to expert porting. But.... you can get pretty much the same results, up to a point, by simply having a set of stock LT1 heads ported. Yes, one of yours may be damaged, but a used replacement will cost you a lot less than a set of TF's + machine work.

Check out the LT1 stock head porting results from Lloyd Elliott, Advanced Induction or TEA.

 

Yes im talking about the 21 degree heads. I guess now that you mention it they arent for sale yet. I am just looking for the most affordable way to get some more hp out of my heads. I dont think buying a new head and then sending them off to be ported would be very economical i may be wrong. What kind of numbers would i gain off the heads? Would it be worth the money to do on this cam?

 

Look at the websites I mentioned. Elliott Portworks, for example, offers head and cam packages that will support 370-420rwHP on an M6 setup.

http://www.elliottsportworks.com/lt1.html

You don't need to buy a new LT1 head to send off for porting. Buy one used head... should not cost that much. Make sure it matches your one good existing stock head - there are two different part #'s with significantly different appearance. If you want more HP than mentioned above, you will need to buy aftermarket heads, and you will end up having additionall porting work done. The more power you want, the more its going to cost you. And remember, you need a lot more that just heads and cam to make those kind of HP numbers.

Could I also suggest that you add a "signature" with basic info about your car - year, model, engine, trans and any major mods. That will help people to provide you with more accurate answers.

 

you can also look into the new(er) dart heads. they flow great and scoggin dickey (last i knew) has a deal for heads and an edelbrock intake for 1500ish

 

By far the most affordable would be to get an LT1 stock head off of someone here on the board and get that and your good LT1 stock head ported. You would have a set of effective heads for the price of new ones aftermarket that have not been ported yet.

In your question on gain, remember it would mainly be up top where you would feel it. I estimate I gained around 30-40 HP when I had a basic job done on my LT1's. As for the cam, I would match a cam with the heads. You are this far along and a custom cam is only a few dollars more.

 

AI/LE all day. No need for aftermarket castings. le2 heads and smaller cam will still make 410-390rw depending on trans/rearend.

 

Lloyds stage 1's are nice if money is tight. If you don't have the cam already, talk it over with Lloyd and the two of you can come up with what best fits your application. Good luck and I hope the bad luck stops.

 

If he decides to go that route, a couple of weeks ago I pulled the LT1 heads off my son's 96 Vette and installed a pair of Dart's. The stock heads - undamaged - are for sale on this Forum.

Jake

West Point ROCKS!