[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by adamjwilson

Well.. in relativity they are 'close' in cost
The Johnson ones are about $380 more, but when you have so much $$$ tied into a build, it is a small cost at this point
I know nothing about lifters, as the speed shop is installing the cam amongst other items, but the Johnson race style lifters I bought (2110R) from TSP noted that they were .005" shorter than the LS7 lifter, so I assume that is ok?

Yes. You’ll probably have custom cut pushrods made up to work with the new lifters.

[Redlinez]

Adam, where are you from in VA and what shop is it? Just curious

[adamjwilson]

I am in Fredericksburg, VA (currently) and Elite Speed and Performance is doing most of the work. They are moving their shop this week to a larger location down the street, but they did not want to start my build until they finish moving in. Mike and Landon are great to deal with, but like any small business, coinage is a premium, so I have no problem purchasing the items for my build which is a growing list, so no out of pocket expense to them. I run most of my ideas past them for my build, as some of the advice you get on these forums can be 'interesting', but for the most part on this one, it has been helpful. The hardest choice was either the Maggie or Whipple. I am an old boat and bike guy, so we ran whipples with superchillers all the time on the water, so I went with what I know. Never seen a Maggie on the water, and a few prochargers here and there. As for my bikes, I will never hang a growth (SC) off the side of my bikes...never. There is no substitute for cubic inches...period
Mike and Landon did some work on my Camaro before when it was brand new (now it has a whopping 700 miles on it- garage queen)
I talked to a few shops south of me in Richmond, VA but did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling from them. Ya gotta go with your gut sometimes

[KingLT1]

Originally Posted by adamjwilson

"Afm/dod gets deleted when installing a aftermarket cam."- well... some guys do not do this when installing an aftermarket cam (either non-DoD or DoD cam pending their current set up), and it much more involved than swapping out a cam for sure. Such as (for DoD Delete):
Replacing the existing camshaft with a non-AFM/DoD camshaft. Swap out the AFM lifters for standard lifters-GM LS7. Replace the valley cover with a flat, non-AFM valley cover. Multitude of other gaskets, replacing head bolts, and in some cases DoD plugs. All can be done when installing other forged internals/or cam swap.

And for "big boost shooting for 1000+ whp", I would be looking at much more than aftermarket heads...such as tranny, driveshaft, rear end, suspension, and that list goes on. Things are going to break for sure.

Who is some? All builds I see have AFM/DOD deleted if the cam comes out. Companies like BTR even offer stock profile DOD delete cams for those that want to get the failure prone AFM lifters out of their engines but remain stock. Are you confusing DOD with VVT because there are cams out there that still utilize VVT but it's not the same thing.

You are preaching to the choir bud...hence why my car sits in its current state. It's not a money issue...it's knowing where to limit yourself before the build snowballs.

[Edward Paul]

Does anybody have the flow numbers on the stock heads?

[Katech_Mike]

Originally Posted by Edward Paul

Does anybody have the flow numbers on the stock heads?

These are the numbers on our Superflow bench.

[adamjwilson]

OEM LT1 heads flow pretty good stock as you can see
I just elected to replace mine on my build, so they will be up for sale when I start

[6spdhyperblue]

Originally Posted by Katech_Mike

These are the numbers on our Superflow bench.

Will these provide any gains on a stock cam, seeing the chart, seems unlikely?

[KingLT1]

Originally Posted by 6spdhyperblue

Will these provide any gains on a stock cam, seeing the chart, seems unlikely?

Pray has shown 20whp gains across the board with ported stock castings and a stock cam.

[6spdhyperblue]

Originally Posted by KingLT1

Pray has shown 20whp gains across the board with ported stock castings and a stock cam.

I keep flip flopping on just doing heads. It’s a hell of a lot less work but It kills me to clamp the heads back down with afm lifters still in there tho.

[KingLT1]

Originally Posted by 6spdhyperblue

I keep flip flopping on just doing heads. It’s a hell of a lot less work but It kills me to clamp the heads back down with afm lifters still in there tho.

BTR has a stock profile DOD/AFM delete cam with or without a bigger fuel lobe. So you could delete AFM lifters while at it. It's a lot of time, money, and effort for 20whp but honestly, I say it's worth it just to get rid of the crappy AFM lifters.

[Baddawg53]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Agreed! We’ve seen ported LT1 heads leak coolant after porting, believe it was PRC/Texas Speed ones that were the most common offenders.

I had a set from gwatney that leaked into the port, what a nightmare that turned into. I regret not going with aftermarket heads

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Baddawg53

I had a set from gwatney that leaked into the port, what a nightmare that turned into. I regret not going with aftermarket heads

Yeah after seeing a few different people experiencing that same thing, I bit the bullet and bought the Mast heads. Nothing like the smell of overkill first thing in the morning.

[95 imp]

I have looking at the NA route lately. The SC thing sounds like it will be more trouble than it's worth on these motors to get it bulletproof (for what I want to accomplish).
That rabbit hole is long and deep for mainly a street car....

I don't want to rebuild the motor because corners were cut or have to run 110 octane all the time.

That being said, I got a hold of GMPP for flow numbers on their heads and they are quite impressive for being factory. They beat out Frankenstein's heads for example across the board intake side and murder them on the exhaust. Still scouting it out, but for $945 a head, it will be tough to justify another 5-6 cfm @ $3,000+ on a street car.

Granted, you'll still have to put some money into them for springs etc, if you're going to a higher lift cam. But, you'd probably do that with any head to match your cam.

The specs I have do not show deck thickness. BTR said they took .43 off though to get the compression up in one of their vids, so I'm guessing there is some meat there. They have stock 59cc chambers.