[AZIROC]

So ive been going back and forth on doing a cam as im pretty much "stuck" when it comes to mods on my 18 zl1. Currently have 2" kooks, no cats into a borla s-type. 2.3 upper, stock lower, and roto.

Not going to get into a cam debate but more curious on what results will be around. But would be something in the "stage 2" cam spec range.. aka 230s/240s with 620+ lift,aloneg with lifters/oil pump, ect. While the blower is off ill get it x-ported with a 103tb. Probably to an ATI balancer with a smaller lower pulley (not sure on size) and upgrade to a big gulp. I know cooling will be an issue but ill be taking care of that with the griffen stage 3 kit.


I dont want to add meth/alcohol. Prefer to not go e85 but ill prob add flex and do a e40-e50 tune. Reason for not wanting to go e85 is its just not as easily acceptable. In fact I can get 100 oct easier than e85, and would be easier to run in the 93-95 oct.


Personally id be good around the low-mid 700s and kinda figure thats where this would put me

Anywho, just curious on what power levels (ish) this will be at as well as any helpful tips or other mod suggestions.

[ZLRob]

Well... You got the breathing mods present for bigger power.


I think the most important thing is setting the HP/ TQ goals first and then constructing your build from there. Do you want to be at low to mid 700's or is that what you're thinking all the mods you're talking about will make you? The cam specs you are talking about are bit on the large side and may not get you the output you are thinking it will. These engines perform incredibly well with smaller cams and that's been proven several times over. The type of cams that work very well with LS engines do not with our LT's so the philosophy of what works well has changed with the shift into LT engines. Especially when you are talking about positive displacement blowers on them.


Tailoring the fuel system to work with flex fuel is a tall ask, because what you ideally want to do is build the system based on the amount of ethanol you want to run and then from there you can add an extra 30% to total power output from there for standard octane. Not the other way around. Example, you see all the mods in my signature, yet with all that, my high side fuel pump is almost out despite being allowing an extra 10% to the high side additional running pump E85. My injector PW's and overall IDC's are getting up there as well on total allowable output before I'm out as well.


One corrective thing to mention is that if you go with a lower pulley, you need to go larger (more overdrive) on it to create more boost, not the other way around. Be careful running an upper. 2.3 and lower size pulleys cause slippage and it doesn't matter what you do to the general set up to try and circumvent it (even going LT5 01 rib tensioner set up) most of the time the slippage will remain.


I (and others here I'm sure) will be happy to help you out further in mapping your goals out, but I think the first thing that would definitely help is mapping things out with better concision and then moving forward from there.


One thing of a sidenote worth considering, Gabe is going to be doing a camshaft shootout event here pretty soon, like within the next month soon, which will get pretty darn good data on which one makes the most power, is the most efficient, etc... if you are torn on which one to choose, it may be worth the wait before you start investing in spending coin for your soon- to- be build.

[AZIROC]

Thanks for the reply and info. To start alittle backwards, I did see Gabes post and im going to wait to till those results are in just to see what's what.


As far as hp numbers, im more just wondering where that will get me. I learned long ago to not try and chase a number because sometimes its not realistic to the mods. As far where would I like to be... again, low/mid 700s, if thats a realistic number on 91. I may be way off too.

[SOCAL.M6.ZLE]

Originally Posted by AZIROC

So ive been going back and forth on doing a cam as im pretty much "stuck" when it comes to mods on my 18 zl1. Currently have 2" kooks, no cats into a borla s-type. 2.3 upper, stock lower, and roto.

Not going to get into a cam debate but more curious on what results will be around. But would be something in the "stage 2" cam spec range.. aka 230s/240s with 620+ lift,aloneg with lifters/oil pump, ect. While the blower is off ill get it x-ported with a 103tb. Probably to an ATI balancer with a smaller lower pulley (not sure on size) and upgrade to a big gulp. I know cooling will be an issue but ill be taking care of that with the griffen stage 3 kit.


I dont want to add meth/alcohol. Prefer to not go e85 but ill prob add flex and do a e40-e50 tune. Reason for not wanting to go e85 is its just not as easily acceptable. In fact I can get 100 oct easier than e85, and would be easier to run in the 93-95 oct.


Personally id be good around the low-mid 700s and kinda figure thats where this would put me

Anywho, just curious on what power levels (ish) this will be at as well as any helpful tips or other mod suggestions.

Hey buddy, sounds like your path may end up being similar to mine, and many others on here... Here are a few of my milestones that may help you... happy to jump on a call to discuss in more detail. (lots of nuance within this) things I would have done different the first time, etc...

725rwhp = H/C + Bolt Ons + Stock Fuel System (E50)
777rwhp = Added FIC 30's (E60) 15psi
835rwhp = Added XPORT + Katech Dual Lowside + XDI 50's (E60) 14.5psi
915rwhp = Cam Swap + Valve Job + Goliath (E60) 15psi

[AZIROC]

Part of me keeps going back and forth on heads really its 1 of those (while im in there) kind of things I know down the line, having after market heads will pay dividends with other mods. Ive been eyeing the xdi injectors as well, but again, e85 is a small pain to get and I really dont want to be ordering it by the barrel. So for the most part im going to plan on 91 Oct and go from there. Getting 100 oct and mixing it to be in the 93-95 range is easier then getting e85.


That all being said, I know the fuel system plays a big part in all this as well, so some part.... wethere it be injectors, pump or whatever... will have to be upgraded.


Im looking forward to your cam shootout though.

[Evansa22]

Just for reference, with full bolts ons including 103 throttle body and big gulp, head/cam package [roughly stage 2], 8.8 or 8.6 lower [can't remember], ported blower, and jms lowside voltage booster, i was right at 700whp on 91 and 760 on e50.

[SOCAL.M6.ZLE]

Originally Posted by AZIROC

Part of me keeps going back and forth on heads really its 1 of those (while im in there) kind of things I know down the line, having after market heads will pay dividends with other mods. Ive been eyeing the xdi injectors as well, but again, e85 is a small pain to get and I really dont want to be ordering it by the barrel. So for the most part im going to plan on 91 Oct and go from there. Getting 100 oct and mixing it to be in the 93-95 range is easier then getting e85.


That all being said, I know the fuel system plays a big part in all this as well, so some part.... wethere it be injectors, pump or whatever... will have to be upgraded.


Im looking forward to your cam shootout though.

That makes sense... totally sucks you don't have access to E85.
When tuning my car recently, I lost my E85 signal, and ended up doing a pull on 91... car made around 820rwhp +/-

Made 915rwhp on E60 the same day... I think we could have made more on 91 had we been tuning for it exclusively, but thats damn near close to a 100rwhp bump from E60 alone!

[ZLRob]

Originally Posted by SOCAL.M6.ZLE

That makes sense... totally sucks you don't have access to E85.
When tuning my car recently, I lost my E85 signal, and ended up doing a pull on 91... car made around 820rwhp +/-

Made 915rwhp on E60 the same day... I think we could have made more on 91 had we been tuning for it exclusively, but thats damn near close to a 100rwhp bump from E60 alone!

Agreed. Totally sucks. My car is capped around 585 RWHP with 91 despite the mods due to crap quality octane fuel. It's up a full 150/150 on E85 once I switch over to it which is wild. These cars absolutely love ethanol so it always sucks when I hear that someone doesn't have quick access to it.


I think it may be safe to say that I live in the most garbage part of the state and maybe even country for getting a quality fuel that is actually stable at its octane rating.

[Smokin19]

Sounds like you are thinking along the lines of my build. I built my engine based on running 93 not wanting to worry where to get e85. My numbers are off a Mustang dyno you can decide from there. For the street it is plenty. Good luck going forward.

[AZIROC]

Originally Posted by Evansa22

Just for reference, with full bolts ons including 103 throttle body and big gulp, head/cam package [roughly stage 2], 8.8 or 8.6 lower [can't remember], ported blower, and jms lowside voltage booster, i was right at 700whp on 91 and 760 on e50.

Ok.. that's kinda where I was thinking it would be around. I know e85 does make a decent amount of added HP and I wish it was closer.

[AZIROC]

Originally Posted by SOCAL.M6.ZLE

That makes sense... totally sucks you don't have access to E85.
When tuning my car recently, I lost my E85 signal, and ended up doing a pull on 91... car made around 820rwhp +/-

Made 915rwhp on E60 the same day... I think we could have made more on 91 had we been tuning for it exclusively, but thats damn near close to a 100rwhp bump from E60 alone!

Exactly, and its one of those things where ill tune for 91 but still run 93-94 and when I get the bug again for more hp, ill go the e85 route and mods that go with it.

[AZIROC]

Originally Posted by Smokin19

Sounds like you are thinking along the lines of my build. I built my engine based on running 93 not wanting to worry where to get e85. My numbers are off a Mustang dyno you can decide from there. For the street it is plenty. Good luck going forward.

Checked out your sig and yeah, thats pretty close to where I want to be mod wise the 91 oct here in is trash too

[KingLT1]

Order E by the drum and blend it to E50. Blower cars on E run so much better and more consistent than pump gas it's not even funny. Stock blower stuff is consistently on the IAT threshold of where you need to pull timing with pump gas. Ethanol allows that threshold to be raised into a range that will seldom ever be reached.

So if you are limiting yourself to 91/93 octane, you would be better off to go 2650 vs cam/stock blower for the added cooling unless you mainly just want to hear the cam chop.

[ZLRob]

Originally Posted by KingLT1

Order E by the drum and blend it to E50. Blower cars on E run so much better and more consistent than pump gas it's not even funny. Stock blower stuff is consistently on the IAT threshold of where you need to pull timing with pump gas. Ethanol allows that threshold to be raised into a range that will seldom ever be reached.

So if you are limiting yourself to 91/93 octane, you would be better off to go 2650 vs cam/stock blower for the added cooling unless you mainly just want to hear the cam chop.

GM fooled around by making the blower threshold to timing pull so low.


True story, I ran the car without the blower once because the bolt to one of the pulleys snapped off, so I had to run it without a belt for a while. Effectively I was running an LT1 by all accounts, but everything else was obviously hooked up still. There was no check engine light so everything was still functioning as designed. I kid you not as I was sitting at a light for less than a minute and I looked at the MATs just to see if things were any better since the blower was not sapping the engine of any power and not producing any external heat since the rotors were not engaging.


Dude, 150- 151* MAT's.


The fact that the blower nominally rests at 127-144 MAT's while it's functional and you're driving from light to light or cruising on the highway goes to show how well the air to water cooling system works (with an external LTR reservoir of course) at cooling down the supercharger loop and not causing the rest of the engine to heat up unnecessarily.