Upgrade Conundrum. Old plans vs. new goals?
 

As some of you know, I've been sitting on 80% of the parts I have to do a heads/cam swap for far too long now.

Problem is, when I started putting this together I had different goals than I do now, so I'm debating changing out the cam.

Original plan: Mildly ported 243 heads with LS6 lightweight valves, 5 angle valve job and Brian Tooley double valve springs, LS6 intake (already on car) and an EPS 222/226 .597/.598 113 LSA cam. Car already equipped with a Yank SS3600 converter and 3.42 rear, full stainless exhaust (Dynatech headers, catted Y pipe, Magnaflow).

Thing is, I don't want to jerk around with swapping out valve springs later on, or a stinky idle, or low RPM driveability issues.

I've been tossing around the idea of selling the existing cam/spring package and moving to a milder setup. Was looking at the Brian Tooley Racing truck stage 2 cam. It's a 212/218 .553/.553 on a 113 LSA. Should be good for a boost in power output, especially with the 243 heads. It's engineered to 'drop into' a stock setup, and can use the yellow stock beehive springs. It should be long-lived and easy on parts, and I also don't want to spin the original '98 short block too high. It should also be a lot easier to tune.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Is the small cam worth the effort required to install it for the potential gains? Full tune needed?

One way or another, with the head swap it'll need a tune. I tuned it myself prior, but I have no desire to be out at 2:30am making full throttle passes on a 'closed, private' road to tune again, so I'll be ponying up for the tune.

I figure with the heads and smaller cam I should be looking at a rough 60-70 HP boost. Upshot of the more streetable setup is I shouldn't need bigger injectors, either, so that'll be more stuff I can sell.

That EPS cam is a small one. With a good tuner it'll drive great.

NJT - I hope so!

Got an e-mail back from BTR, as I posed the question to them.

In a nutshell, 'Tuned right the EPS 222/226 should drive pretty close to a stock cam.'

Ok, then. I'll run with it.

Yeah, I've been out of touch for a while but that 222/226 EPS cam hardly seemed like it was going to give you the kind of issues you were talking about... glad you decided to keep it. Just get to installing it.

I guess I'm getting old, looking to keep the car clean and driveable with no issues. :laugh:

Install will be happening soon, I guess. Need to get the appropriate gaskets, lifters, etc. Then I'll need to find an appropriate tuner.

An unusable car gets old after a while!

Man, you said it!

The one thing we forget is the supporting mods that also hurt drivability. My clutch couldn't handle the power of the heads/cam, now I have a clutch that's more of an on/off switch. I also needed a custom exhaust to quiet it down to my liking, although I still wish it were quieter.

My car isn't a daily and I have quite a large cam (234/238) but your experience will be similar if you have low tolerance like me. Nonetheless, the cam is still worth it to me since I don't daily drive it and when everything is just right and you feel like driving, it's so damn rewarding!

I'm a big believer in having a big picture plan in place before buying parts. Everything I did was according to the same plan. The stuff I have will work well together, I was mostly worried about the durability/reliability of the valvetrain... The springs, in particular. After speaking to both BTR and EPS about my combo, I'm now reassured about the lifespan of the package I have put together.

Thinking same thing

I guess 'soon' means 'in a year or so.'

I finally ordered my lifters and pushrod length checker. Went with Morel drop-ins with new trays. Next paycheck will be gaskets and suchforth. Fully intend to make this happen sometime this winter.

Are you doing the trunion upgrade while your in there?

I have brand new heavy duty rockers I got years ago for this, but I'm also eyeballing the straub bushing setup. I'll see what the original rockers look like when I pull it apart.

So, question:

ARP head bolts or Stock type TTY bolts? I have no plans to repeatedly disassemble this thing, so I'm thinking GM TTY bolts would be fine.

GM will be fine

I have no "plans" to tear mine down either, but i still went with ARP just incase.

I went with TTY but wish I had initially gone ARP. Bought some ARPs after, because I realized I'll be upgrading the heads again in the future.

ARP makes head bolts and head studs. I have the ARP head bolts and since they are not TTY, you can reuse them. Cheaper and easier to install (at least the first time) than studs. I'm happy with them as I've had to take my heads off since their initial install.

If you have some extra bucks, arp a bitch

This is what i did. Figured it be worth it in the long run. Pretty much every piece of hardware that has been replaced on my build is ARP

Hmm. Ok, ARP bolts it is.