[NA18CamaroSS]

This thread is about the gains achieved by installing Pray Performance ported cylinder heads on a 6th gen Camaro. The dyno plots are on a Dynapack hub dyno, which reads higher than a Dynojet by a significant amount. For reference, when this car made 501 HP on this Dynapack, it made 479 WHP on Superior's Dynojet. This is not about peak numbers, per se; just the power picked up by removing the stock heads and bolting on ported heads.
The vehicle is a 2018 Camaro SS 1LE, six speed manual transmission. Mods are as follows: Lethal Garage flex fuel kit, RotoFab dry intake, Nick Williams 103mm throttle body, Pray Performance ported MSD intake manifold, stock exhaust manifolds, New Era Performance cat delete pipes through a stock NPP exhaust (with Holley crush delete pipes). Absolutely stock, untouched bottom end and a stock camshaft. The car also has an ATI 10% underdrive pulley. Tuned by Brett at Pray Performance with minor tweaks by me.
We took the car to the dyno on March 4, 2023 to get a solid baseline with the stock, unported cylinder heads. Made a few passes and made some minor air fuel corrections. We then cooled the car down and made a final pass. The car made 505.29 torque and 506.43 HP, again-on the Dynapack dyno.
Two weeks ago we installed the Pray Performance ported cylinder heads. These heads were purchased brand new from a GM dealer and sent directly to Brett for porting and a valve job (to minimize down time). This was his standard "Stage 1" port job. We do not plan on running a high ram intake manifold or a huge cam, so we felt that a stage 1 would be adequate for our application. Please keep in mind that NO OTHER CHANGES were made to the car. This is an apples to apples comparison-same car, same dyno.
Today the car went back on the Dynapack dyno. Performed two passes to see where the car was with the ported heads. The air fuel started to trend lean after 4,500 RPM, and kept getting leaner all the way to 6,700 RPM-a good indication that the engine was flowing more air. We made three more passes to get the air fuel dialed. Then we cooled the car down and made a final pass with the ported cylinder heads. The car made 515.58 torque and 534.07 hub horsepower. The gains were about 10 foot-pounds of torque and 27 horsepower. From 5,000 RPM to redline the ported heads crushed the stock cylinder heads. The graph is smooth.(see attachment)

[Eric10905]

Seems like really nice gain. Thanks for sharing. I’ve thought of doing the same. Curious what did you do for valve train? And redline still at 6700?

[s346k]

i saw where he was doing big things with stock heads. still using factory valves?

you ever take this car to the drag strip?

[laynlo15]

Very nice gains. Brett has done a good job in his porting skills.

[NA18CamaroSS]

Stock valves and springs. Daily driver has not been tracked. No point in revving much past 6,500 with this setup, looking at the graph.

[s346k]

he has definitely found the sweet spot for those cyl heads. big gain for small parts. think if the car already had a camshaft & headers...?

really makes me wonder if a cid cyl head is worth it at this point.

[NA18CamaroSS]

Pics:

[6spdhyperblue]

Any loss down low off idle?

[17camaroSS]

Originally Posted by s346k

he has definitely found the sweet spot for those cyl heads. big gain for small parts. think if the car already had a camshaft & headers...?

really makes me wonder if a cid cyl head is worth it at this point.

They are imo, when you’ve got a head with a smaller port and valve flowing(CID head) as much as a big port and valve factory ported head, that’s good.

Brett does do good work though, without a doubt.

[NA18CamaroSS]

Originally Posted by 6spdhyperblue

Any loss down low off idle?

I can't honestly say, one way or the other. It's very subjective. The car "feels" faster at medium throttle openings with the ported heads. We started the dyno pulls at 2,200, and HP/TQ is almost identical down low. There is a very slight loss at ~3,700, but it's certainly not noticeable. You can definitely feel the car pulling harder up top. With the power the car is currently making, going full throttle in first and second gear is ridiculous. It's very easy to get sideways in a hurry.


Little side note about intake manifolds (the discussion about low end brought this to mind):
The MSD gives up some low end torque, compared with the OEM intake manifold at 4,000 RPM, but pulls much harder above 5,000 RPM. The MSD picked up about 15 peak WHP, when compared with the OEM manifold, and was 33 WHP better at 6,500 RPM.

[Sillysspeed]

Great comparison thx!

[s346k]

Originally Posted by 17camaroSS

They are imo, when you’ve got a head with a smaller port and valve flowing(CID head) as much as a big port and valve factory ported head, that’s good.

Brett does do good work though, without a doubt.

the only thing i could see is longevity. the cid heads will cost $1k+ more for arguably the same power output.

[NA18CamaroSS]

Baselined at a local European shop with a Dynojet. Just missed 500 WHP

[Sillysspeed]

Are the stock lt1 valves hollow stem or standard stainless steel valves. Good gains btw