New Cam / Exhaust and Dyno Results

"Sweet Trav" (thespunbearing)
07/31/2018 at 09:01 • Filed to: LS SWAP, dyno results, camshaft, summit racing

This past week was a busy one for me.

I had ordered a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sometime in April, and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I also bought some !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

So on M onday night I decided to install the valve springs.

Pretty straight forward thanks to a friend letting me borrow his trick flow valve spring compressor.

Then on Tuesday, a friend stopped over and helped me with the camshaft install.

During disassembly we had found a peculiar self clearancing situation between the single bolt LS3 cam and the factory LQ4 front cover.

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Nothing major, and that cam was coming out anyways. We installed the new cam and fired it up no problem... well except for the exhaust.

You see, when I had swapped the car I pretty much ran out of money and had to cobble the horrible 2.25 inch exhaust that was on the car originally. my friend cobbled the new engine to the old exhaust, creating “the worlds jankiest exhaust” as seen here:

That’s a 3 inch header collector, to a 2.5 inch reducer, booger welded to 2.25 inch pipe.

So with the new exhaust kit we got to work.

The finished product came out awesome, if a little loud...

Then it was time to drive the car, and tune it on the dyno.

You see when it comes to dyno pulls, you can let the car cool down, ice the intake to “cheat” and get the highest number possible (see: Hot Rod Magazine) or you can r un the car in the dyno cell hot and see what it will run in real world conditions. That’s exactly what we did.

412 horsepower and 408 ft/lbs at the rear wheels on a Dynapack dyno with a full exhaust with 185 degree coolant . I’m not going to speculate at crank numbers, but this motor is happy and healthy. Considering I have less than $2000 in the whole motor/intake/exhaust , I am extremely happy too.

DISCUSSION (19)

Zaxbys > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 09:40

I f you run the exhaust to the very back of the car (or out the sides) , it will make things quieter.

Sweet Trav > Zaxbys
07/31/2018 at 09:45

Yep, I’m aware. I might be doing some non-conventional things with the rear suspension soon so I didn’t want to put tailpipes on, only to cut them off later.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 09:49

Kinja'd!!!

I see your friend wore his safety shorts.

Cool pics!

vondon302 > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 09:49

That’s real healthy for 2 grand.

Nice !

Zaxbys > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 09:50

Gotcha, I was just poking through your older posts (to figure out what was LS-swapped) and see that you might be doing some upgrades to keep the rear tires behind the fronts. That might be a good plan :D

Sweet Trav > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/31/2018 at 09:50

Safety 3rd HP 1st

Urambo Tauro > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:06

Very cool!

Why do I see both blue and silver valve springs tho ug h ? Oh wait, that’s the compressor tool sitting on #6, isn’t it. So th at pic was just taken part- way through the swap.

Sweet Trav > Urambo Tauro
07/31/2018 at 10:14

Yep, you got it, the Blue springs were the LS3 springs. the silver springs were the Comp Beehives.

crowmolly > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:26

Looks great!

Driveline next on the menu?

Sweet Trav > crowmolly
07/31/2018 at 10:30

Yeah, I think this is about all that my 200-4r will suffer. I’m not so worried about the 10 bolt, as i just rebuilt it with 28 spline axles and a good gearset.

M ain decision items - T-56 Magnum or TKO600 and Ford 9 with the factory triangulated 4 link for ease of install, or S197 Style 8.8 cut down with a custom 3 link and panhard bar to really make it handle.

So about 5-6K worth of drive line components to put into it.

crowmolly > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:37

Do G-bodies need a lot of tunnel work for the T56? I’m partial to those myself over the TKOs.

So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/31/2018 at 10:39

It’s the only way engineers get a tan on their legs.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:40

Awesome! God I want to LS something. Right now my most likely candidate is my 1997 K1500. Start with something easy and go from there.

Sweet Trav > crowmolly
07/31/2018 at 10:42

N ot really. T here’s a pretty big tunnel in these from the factory. The big hurdle is paying for one...

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:45

Why not an Explorer rear end? I am not sure what the overall length ends up being but what you have to do is cut down the one end and get another axle because the diff isn't centered. What you end up with is 3:73 gears and LSD for junkyard money.

crowmolly > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 10:49

LOL. Yeah, there’s that.

Sweet Trav > Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
07/31/2018 at 11:01

The rear end issue in these cars is two fold. First 10 bolts are made of glass and break like crazy. Second the triangulated 4 link in the rear, is designed for comfort and cost. It sucks for handling, essentially under compression the rear end will bind and lift the inside rear tire around the corner. E ither a 9 inch, or an explorer rear would have the same issue. There are ways to get around this, but most are only bandaids.

The better option is to run a three link like in an S197 mustang.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Sweet Trav
07/31/2018 at 12:02

Oh, so it's just easier to start with the S197 rear because it already has the 3 link mounting points instead of fabbing mounts onto a 9 inch or Explorer rear?

briannutter1 > Sweet Trav
11/16/2018 at 09:12

Nice work. What’s your driving impressions with t hat cam?