Head Swap Input Needed

[93formulalt1]

I'm looking for some advice. . . I need to pull the heads on my Formula, and I'm trying to find a decent replacement. I'm going to hold off on doing the cam swap, I can't afford it just yet, but new heads and roller rockers should add some decent power.

I've been looking at Lloyd Elliot's work, I've read a lot of great things about his work, but I was wondering if anyone here had any suggestions. . .

I'm trying to keep the price under $1500 total, including everything (heads, gaskets, head studs, roller rockers, pushrods, etc)

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I'd look around. AI and LE seem to be the most widely known for most applications.

[ThreeHonks]

if you're going to keep the stock cam, dont waste your time or money on running ported heads. you will see minimal gains at best

[JoeliusZ28]

if you're going to keep the stock cam, dont waste your time or money on running ported heads. you will see minimal gains at best

this. i made 373 rwhp with heads that are barely modified. I also wouldnt want to deal with the pain of setting valve lash on a stock cam.

[Fbomb]

that and having to have it tuned twice. Just save up and do it all at once unless you can tune it yourself, so save money.

[white97z28]

Yea man if your gonna spend the money on some heads and valvetrain...might as well spend a little more on a cam...i mean even if you find a used cam...i only spent $100 on my cam

[ThreeHonks]

just to give you a power aspect - i have seen people make less than 25rwhp more with a set of nicely ported heads and keeping the stock cam

[OVRKILL]

Pretty much on board with everyone else here. Don't waste your time or money in doing just heads.

[93formulalt1]

What else would I be looking at for a cam? I know pushrods, but as far as everything else goes, can heads/cam be done for less than $1500? I've been looking around, and I think I'm going to go with LE, and if I can get just a set of heads from him and a decent used LT4 hotcam or CC306 or something, I think I'd be in good shape.

As far as tuning, I have already tuned the car once (mail order tune, $150), so I'm going to have to pay that again anyway. Who should I go through for the cam/heads tune? What cam should I be looking into?

I don't know a whole lot about this kind of stuff, when the time comes to do the work, I'll be stocking up on beer and getting some pizza ordered for some of you guys to come out and give me a hand. Help me figure out everything I'm going to need, and if I can swing it, I'll get the parts ordered.

[93formulalt1]

Yea man if your gonna spend the money on some heads and valvetrain...might as well spend a little more on a cam...i mean even if you find a used cam...i only spent $100 on my cam

I was looking at an LT4 hotcam, if it's still available when I get paid Tuesday, I'm going to pick it up. I've also seen a few others on LTXtech and some other sites, I really want to do a cam swap, my main concern is my budget right now. If you guys can help me gather everything I need for heads & cam for less than $1500, I'll gather everything, and we can have a cam swap party at my place. My main concern is getting all the "nickel and dime" parts. Tune is going to run about $150, pushrods about $100, gaskets around $150. Anything more than that, and I'm coming close to my budget.

[Darren]

if your going with a mail order tune (which could be both good and bad...) you might be able to sneak under $1500 but I still doubt it. Most guys will tell you to do it right once and leave it, rather then doing it in pieces. I would say heads/cams and misc parts could be had for around $1500 or if you got your stock heads worked over... But a good tune will run ya a lot more then $150 more like the $350-600 range for the tune alone.

[white97z28]

id get a set of ls7 lifters to...and i seen a cc503 on tech last week for $145

[93formulalt1]

if your going with a mail order tune (which could be both good and bad...) you might be able to sneak under $1500 but I still doubt it. Most guys will tell you to do it right once and leave it, rather then doing it in pieces. I would say heads/cams and misc parts could be had for around $1500 or if you got your stock heads worked over... But a good tune will run ya a lot more then $150 more like the $350-600 range for the tune alone.

I've heard of a few different places that can work wonders on a car with a mail-order tune. I won't be using PCM4Less again though, I wasn't terribly impressed with them last time, and I've heard of people getting better results from other places.

I could do a CC503, but I won't be able to swing a new torque convertor for a few months, so drivability would be a concern, I've heard that the CC503 on a stock convertor likes to surge a lot at stoplights.

I was planning on getting whatever I can get a deal on in the way of lifters, hardened pushrods, larger injectors, and roller rockers. If I can find most of these parts cheaper than retail (i.e. "I bought these, but didn't need them, so $100 takes them"), I'll be in better shape for getting a tune. I know the tune is not where you want to be cheap, but there are no places around here that do tuning on '93 LT1 cars. I'll look around, if anyone here has done a cam/heads swap and got good results with a mail-order tune, or got a good deal on a dyno tune, let me know.

[Fbomb]

Doesn't your car have a chip computer?

[ThreeHonks]

IMO its not gonna be done for $1500 unless you find a deal on tech that comes with everything you need. Not even going to be close. Just to swap a cam cost about $1000 when all said and done.

for a cam (decent cam that you wont waste your time on) you will need:

1.6 roller rockers
new springs and hardware
7/16" rocker studs
moly pushrods
gaskets
lifters
guideplates
cam
tune
etc.


I think if you want to do a performance upgrade and spend a little money, I would definately, hands down do a cam only setup. The newer cams make these cars run pretty strong and you are definately not going to go overbudget with a cam swap.

cam only stock head LT1 > ported heads with stock cam/hot cam LT1