Cam swapping- how involved in LS1

[02Vortech]

how much do you guys usually pay for a cam installation? or is it pretty simple to do on your own if your not changing out the valve train.

[BIG D's SS]

Not too hard to do, but unless your staying small or have a very low mileage car then I would highly recommend news springs and hardened push rods.

[02Vortech]

well im getting an LS1 hopefully w/ low miles.... im trying to get good gas mileage and has a mild lope. (also i will be running nitrous) should i just go w/ the GM hot cam and valvetrain assembly? Do i have to machine the heads to fit the new springs?

[Z06-Dave]

Abslutely not, go bigger, there is no reason to take apart a perfectly good motor for that baby cam. Go bigger or skip it altogether and just do the nitrous. But if I were you, I'd skip the nitrous and do H/C. More expensive, yes, but no buttons to press, no bottles to refill and and easy 75 HP ALL the time. Nitrous is what you add when you can't make the car any faster. Pay now or pay later :)
That cam will have no lope anyway.
You can save tons of cash by doing it yourself, its more gratifying too. It will take a full weekend the first time you do it. I have a H/C swap down to 6 hours. My first time it took 13 hours. If you can get the correct tools you can do the work.
No machining necessary to your stock heads.

[arctic00z28]

Man that sounds great but I have no tools and no buddies here. What will a shop charge me?

[ninobrn99]

i went out and bought a craftsman 151 piece set and it has gotten me through alot of my installs! If you can also afford a torque wrench, find a piece of pipe to fit over the ratchets and a pulley puller, thats all you'll need. almost everything you need as far as tools.