mkent

I'm kicking around the idea of emptying my wallet for some ported heads. I searched found no one who has done this but surely someone has ran this combination! I must be around 315-320rwhp/tq now with a pretty good tune. I had dynoed 297/307 before gutting my cats and have not been back to the dyno since but my track times got 2 tenths better consistantly.
Anyone have any ideas what kinda gains would be seen with heads on this cam?

MeanGreen97Z

Any cam will benefit from ported heads. With ported heads I see a 25-30 rwhp gain coming with a good tune.

MeanGreen97Z

Holy crap!!! Put that car on a diet! 3680# race weight!?!?

mkent

yeah, that's a full tank and me inside it...I only weighed about 140 last year so I'm not sure why the car is so heavy! any recommendations that don't make the car appear "junky?" I have removed the spare tire/jack and have about 10# of a small tool bag and a laptop for tuning (which I don't know how to do anyways )

so theoretically, if I'm making 315 now, I may see 340-345 with heads? nice gains--I expected around that range of hp........maybe I'll just spray, and invest the leftover money in some LS1 or C5 brakes. stock brakes could get somebody hurt. OR...I should upgrade to a bigger cam when I do heads.

onebadponcho

Yeah, i'm sure nitrous is great and wonderful, but you have to keep filling the bottle right? Then there's all the safety crap you have to put on to keep nitrous from grenading your engine. So, I say do the heads, you'll be glad you did. Also, unless your car spends more time on the track than on the street, I recommend keeping the cam.

94formulabz

Is it worth it? YES.

Your thinking that you can save the money of a cam and that its easier to install just heads than tearing the front of the motor down again for a cam? Correct?

I’ll be doing the exact same thing sometime this fall. I just had my car down for a full year getting the body repaired and painted. At this point I’d rather drive the car this summer than have it down for a couple weeks to install LT4s. I’m going to install the heads and leave the CC502 in place. When the bottom end goes and I rebuild, then I will obviously swap the cam for one which more perfectly matches to the heads.

Here is the rationalization:
I put down 343 rwhp and 343 rwtq SAE with the CC502. That’s within 10 hp of what anyone does with the larger performance cams customized for stock heads. So how much would I be giving up using an off the shelf grind like the CC502 versus a custom grind in a ported head setup? Maybe 15 or so? With good heads your still looking at ~50 hp gain. There is more power to be had in good heads than with a custom cam.

Of course others will say why not do the cam too since your half way there, and I can see where they are coming from. IMHO since you already have a performance cam in there you’d be saving your self a lot of work, time, and some money and only trading off a relatively small amount of peak power. Your low-end will be better with the 502, your midrange ~same and you peak slightly lower. I went with the 502 in the first place to optimize power in the RPM range I was willing to operate the bottom end in, a bigger cam is just going to push the power band up higher than I am comfortable spinning my bottom end anyways. I’m not obsessed with track times, my emphasis is on a hot street car that is fun as heck to drive.

-Brent

MeanGreen97Z

The 502 is a good cam. I like it. If you are serious about weight loss there are several posts already made about this subject. Do a search in the drag racing tech forum.

hvyss

As said before porting the heads will benefit you. Call Lloyd Elliott 1-972-617-5671. He can port a mean set of heads for you. He is great to deal with and will answer any questions you have no matter how many times you call him. I went from Agistino ported iron heads to a set of LE2 heads and gained .8 tenths at the track in my 96 Impala SS weighing at 4400 lbs {see sig}. And this was leaving the same cam in the car {CC 503}. Good Luck.
LLOYD ROCKS
HVY SS

mkent

is there anyway you could send me your tune file so I could compare with mine? I think my tune is pretty good so I just assumed it was impossible to put down 340hp+ with this cam on stock heads. I must be doing something wrong cause 297hp/307tq on a dynojet is much much lower than your car. The only power mod differences between us is your electric water pump and 52mm TB if your page is updated. There's no way those mods are worth 35-40 HP...
what do you think?

MeanGreen97Z

Considering that 94formulabz has a 6 speed and those extra mods I can see him putting down that much more power over your stalled automatic. Remember horsepower numbers are just a base for tuning. They dont dictate track times. Your car through a 6 speed would make around 310-315 rwhp. Take into account his car might make a little more power and has a few more mods. I dont see a problem with your power compared to his.

MeanGreen97Z

Is that cam usually put out on a 111 lsa?

onebadponcho

Mine is off the shelf with a 112 LSA.

94formulabz

Sorry, I don't have the software to download my tune. PCMforleSS

I think you should be in the 32X range rwhp with the auto. Your 2 tenths gain at the track puts you approx there. You trap speed seems a smidge low to me, but that could be weather or elevation. I don't think anything is drastically wrong with your car, so don't worry about it too much. the electric waterpumps don't usually gain too much peak hp from the dyno's i've seen, the 52 could be making a few more though.

Getting heads would be 1 way to get 340+

-Brent