2006 LS2 GTO - What to get for up to $5K?

[Kadarin]

Ordered everything I mentioned before and will be bringing them the car this week. Heads and intake manifold will have to wait for later. Hope everything goes good and this doesn't happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHI0-9-Y-0k

Love the dog.. Oh shit GTFO!

 

[overst33r]

Gonna need sound clips before/after. mmkay?

 

[joutlaw]

Honestly, if the budget allows for it I'd do cylinder heads at the same time as the cam. This because the engine is apart anyway, and cam + heads + intake + exhaust all work together as a team, so ideally the cam grind will take the head airflow into account.

Heads aren't required to be pulled for a cam swap in LS engines.

 

[AdamK47]

I dropped the car off at the shop. They pulled it right in and put it on the Dynojet.
Max Power = 351.06
Max Torque = 345.74

Now I know that the functional shaker and the 3" SpinTech + X-pipe did squat for performance. These are the same numbers as a bone stock LS2 GTO. I did a Google image search for stock LS2 GTO dyno graphs and my graph looks exactly the same. Can't wait to see what kind of numbers I get with these mods!

 

[AdamK47]

Video of the dyno posted.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3681065099465

Some commenters think I'm currently supercharged since I'm getting the boost cam. Which obviously is not the case. I'd correct them if I had a Facebook account.

 

[Kadarin]

Heads aren't required to be pulled for a cam swap in LS engines.

No, but it's not that much farther to go when you have the engine apart already.

 

[Kadarin]

I dropped the car off at the shop. They pulled it right in and put it on the Dynojet.
Max Power = 351.06
Max Torque = 345.74

Now I know that the functional shaker and the 3" SpinTech + X-pipe did squat for performance. These are the same numbers as a bone stock LS2 GTO. I did a Google image search for stock LS2 GTO dyno graphs and my graph looks exactly the same. Can't wait to see what kind of numbers I get with these mods!

Looking forward to hearing how it does!

 

[arcenite]

I hope you ordered the right size pushrods.

 

[AdamK47]

7.400" pushrods, which is also the stock length.

 

[thomsbrain]

Why the catch can? Do you have blow-by issues?

The S2000 has blow-by on the track when paired with super-sticky tires, but it is far better cured by modifying the valve cover baffle than with catch-cans.

 

[AdamK47]

Quite a bit of oil on LSx engine gets in the intake from blow-by. You don't even need to drive it hard for it to build up. It's an easy mod to do. I just don't drive the car much, so I've held off on getting it.

 

[KentState]

I love the Kooks headers on my V. I need to figure out how to record an audio clip of the car. I scare the shit out of people all the time since they don't expect the car to scream like it does.

 

[mwmorph]

I dropped the car off at the shop. They pulled it right in and put it on the Dynojet.
Max Power = 351.06
Max Torque = 345.74

Now I know that the functional shaker and the 3" SpinTech + X-pipe did squat for performance. These are the same numbers as a bone stock LS2 GTO. I did a Google image search for stock LS2 GTO dyno graphs and my graph looks exactly the same. Can't wait to see what kind of numbers I get with these mods!

More or less expected. Intakes and cat-backs are for the most part more for the sound and looks than for performance, especially if you don't have a tune. Have you thought of spending the other 2.8k on some heads? I'd personally have gone oil system upgrade, heads/valvetrain, longtubes and forged internals with 4032 pistons for about $5k. There's nothing better than an american V8 that can hit 7.5k+ redline and still have that american crossplane burble on decel.

Also as a plus, once those mods are done, you can do supporting power adders without worrying about engine durability.

 

[AdamK47]

Installation, tune, and the dynos are $1700 according to the shop. Does that sound right?

 

[KentState]

Installation, tune, and the dynos are $1700 according to the shop. Does that sound right?

Install of what pieces? I paid 600 for the initial tune/dyno pulls and then another 600 for the header install and retune/dyno pulls. The shop I go to doesn't charge for any tuning for one year from the initial work so basically the second time was purely labor.

 

[AdamK47]

Install of what pieces? I paid 600 for the initial tune/dyno pulls and then another 600 for the header install and retune/dyno pulls. The shop I go to doesn't charge for any tuning for one year from the initial work so basically the second time was purely labor.

Install the headers, mid pipes, cam, retainers/springs, pully, thermostat, push rods, and catch can. Basically everything I mentioned before. Then comes the tune and the after dyno. They already did the before dyno, which is also factored into the price.

 

[Zargon]

sounds not far off, header installs on those cars is a PITA I hear

 

[96Firebird]

That price sounds about right, difficulty of the headers depends on which set of headers. Kooks shouldn't be hard to install, I know AR headers are a breeze on F-bodies. The price usually tells how easy they are to install, that is why a lot of shops hate installing Pacesetter headers.

I am paying $300 for a dynotune, I think $600 for just a dynotune is expensive...

 

[KentState]

Install the headers, mid pipes, cam, retainers/springs, pully, thermostat, push rods, and catch can. Basically everything I mentioned before. Then comes the tune and the after dyno. They already did the before dyno, which is also factored into the price.

The install of the headers and mid pipe was about 6 hours on my car. They headers are nearly identical and I'm sure the space is very similar as well. Installing a new harmonic balancer and S/C pulley along with thermostat was another 6 hours of time. The biggest difference for you is the cam, pushrods and catch can. IMO 1700 is a fair price for that amount of work, though I would ask for 1500 if you are going to be giving them more business down the road. Usually places are more lenient on pricey if they are going to get more business.

 

[AdamK47]

The driver side header requires the steering rack to be disassembled.

 

[Zivic]

thermostat is a waste of money...
once the stat is open it's open. your operating temps will exceed the stock and lower temp stat temperatures. it makes no difference if the stat opens at 160 or 180 degrees if your car runs at 185-190 degrees. simply means the stat opens sooner, and doesn't do anything for peak operating temps

 

[KentState]

thermostat is a waste of money...
once the stat is open it's open. your operating temps will exceed the stock and lower temp stat temperatures. it makes no difference if the stat opens at 160 or 180 degrees if your car runs at 185-190 degrees. simply means the stat opens sooner, and doesn't do anything for peak operating temps

Mine does not exceed 160 degrees in normal driving. Sitting in traffic will, but that's not when you care about top performance anyways.

 

[AdamK47]

The build has started.

http://www.facebook.com/Cincyspeedracing#!/media/set/?set=a.10150920367644114.441541.147282994113

I stopped by when they were taking the valve covers off. Told them that I had some knocking sounds before that seemed to come and go for no apparent reason. I asked them if they could flash a light down the holes for the push rods. Sure enough, the top of one of the lifters was caked in gunk. I could try to clean off the gunked up lifter, but decided to go ahead and replace the LS2 lifters with LS7 lifters.

 

[AdamK47]

It's done. 421 HP and 386 ft-lbs TQ are the final numbers. I was kinda hoping for more, but there's always something I can do to it.

 

[T2urtle]

Nice. Didn't see if u stated this was a auto or manual trans and if you planned on doing work to it.