New member from south GA lots of LS1 questions.

**Jason Collett** · 01-21-2016, 02:20 PM

Hey everyone, I have owned a bone stock 99 camaro ss for years and it's time for that to change. So I have been reading everything I can, witch has lead to some confusion. I am looking for advice on good street setups cam, heads, intake etc. Thought talking to tuners in my area would be a good place to start, not so much got two completely different list of do and don't.
So hopefully real information from people who have run these setups will help.
What would be the best forum to post these questions?

**Naaman** · 01-21-2016, 05:06 PM

Hi Jason. Welcome.

The first thing your going to want to establish is what is your goal for the car? And your budget? A4 or M6? If A4, the popular opinion is to start with a stalled torque converter... 3200-3600 rpm seems to be what a lot of folks go for, but I'm a manual guy, so I'm not the best to answer that particular question.

Also, after owning the car for 5 years now, I have learned that a good set of tires does wonders for how fun it is to drive. I switched from Goodyears to Michelins and have not looked back. The difference was night and day; although, a lot of Michelin's tires are not available in the factory size for our cars. Are you running the stock wheels? If so, some other brands may make an excellent tire. The other tire that I'd be likely to get (based on my research) is the Continental Extreme Contact DW.

For me, the first upgrade I did to my convertible was to get a set of 2-point subframe connectors from UMI. That did a lot for the car's overall feel and response to steering input.

If I could start all over again, I'd still likely do the SFCs first. But I would spend the bulk of my money and time working out the chassis and suspension and brakes before getting serious about any power mods, but I'm sure you will hear different from others around here with different preferences on what makes a car fun to drive.

In any case, my list would look something like this (in the following order):

SFCs (if you can get 3-points, that would be better than 2-points)
Sway Bars
Shocks
LCAs (with roto-joints, preferably, from UMI)
Springs (depending on preference... I like the stock ones a lot with a good set of sway bars and shocks).
Torque Arm (the full length one would be my choice, as I understand it is less noisy than the "drag strip" one).
Air Lid (SLP or whatever... and I'd personally stay away from K&N-type filters)
Ported Throttle Body
LS7 Clutch (lighter weight flywheel might or might not be wroth while for you)
Slotted Rotors/high performance street pads/stainless lines

*This is where I would put a 12-bolt or 9-inch, if the finances allow... otherwise, just use the 10-bolt for all it's worth and hopefully you'll never need to have it replaced. Also, a 3.73 rear end is supposed to do wonders for the liveliness of the car. I use the 3.42s so I can't remark on that.

LS6 Intake (if you can find one... You might also consider BBKs intake, which will be a bit more expensive, a little heavier, but supposedly makes more power than the LS6)
Cat-back (I like Magnaflow and Corsa for the sound, but there are lots to choose from)
Full-Length Headers (Kooks has the best reputation, though I also hear good things about ARH... either of those would be my choice. Many around here run Pacesetters with no complaints which are FAR less expensive).

Beyond that, I'd say it depends upon how financially committed you are to getting any more power. Heads/Cam is a lot of labor to pay for, but if you can do it yourself, so much the better (I'm not that advanced, so, I wouldn't dare try it, since the car is my daily). If you're looking to do heads and cam, be prepared to spend as much as 5 figures once all is said and done, though it shouldn't be quite that expensive if everything else is in good order (engine has no issues, etc). There are a whole lot of little parts that add up quickly on a heads/cam swap: lifters, gaskets, etc, etc...

***Ed Blown Vert*** · 01-21-2016, 05:16 PM

Welcome!

**Naaman** · 01-21-2016, 05:26 PM

Oh, by the way, don't overlook the supporting mods, like an LS6 oil pump (Melling, for example), LS2 timing chain, etc...

**KahanaReef** · 01-21-2016, 05:29 PM

Welcome to the site

**Jason Collett** · 01-22-2016, 08:46 AM

Yea thanks for the great info. So I'll go little more detail. The car has the Bilstein Sport suspension. Came with strut tower brace and subframe connectors. I have bought a set of long tube headers and off-road y pipe but not installed yet.
Thinking of fast 102 or 92 intake, matching throttle body either nick Williams or holly, 100mm maf sensor, set of 243 heads or equivalent, oil pump, timing chain, and either Brian tooley stage2 cam or maybe hawks sinister undecided.
Soon after a clutch and rear end my budget is about $5000
Give or take a little.

**pajeff02** · 01-23-2016, 07:33 AM

Belated welcome!

**Naaman** · 01-23-2016, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by Jason Collett

Yea thanks for the great info. So I'll go little more detail. The car has the Bilstein Sport suspension. Came with strut tower brace and subframe connectors. I have bought a set of long tube headers and off-road y pipe but not installed yet.
Thinking of fast 102 or 92 intake, matching throttle body either nick Williams or holly, 100mm maf sensor, set of 243 heads or equivalent, oil pump, timing chain, and either Brian tooley stage2 cam or maybe hawks sinister undecided.
Soon after a clutch and rear end my budget is about $5000
Give or take a little.

Ah, okay. Well, I have some stage 1 799 heads and a mild cam. I guess if you're willing to shop around, you can get a good deal... mine were $1250 shipped from Brett Land (black Friday special), and a cam that came out of a Silverado. The engine runs really smoothly, though it doesn't "fire up" instantly when I start it (but has no problem starting... it just sputters a tiny bit before it gets going).

Honestly, man, if it were my money, I'd go for the clutch and rear end first... but again: I like to daily my car, so the reliability is priority 1.

Maybe get the headers installed and see if that is enough of a gain to hold you over? As far as I know, the labor on headers does not overlap with the labor on intake/heads/cam, so there should be no loss on that one.

But let it be known: the others who have already responded to this thread have WAY more knowledge than I do on these things. So keep an eye out for their replies.

**0rion** · 01-26-2016, 04:11 AM

Originally Posted by Jason Collett

Yea thanks for the great info. So I'll go little more detail. The car has the Bilstein Sport suspension. Came with strut tower brace and subframe connectors. I have bought a set of long tube headers and off-road y pipe but not installed yet.
Thinking of fast 102 or 92 intake, matching throttle body either nick Williams or holly, 100mm maf sensor, set of 243 heads or equivalent, oil pump, timing chain, and either Brian tooley stage2 cam or maybe hawks sinister undecided.
Soon after a clutch and rear end my budget is about $5000
Give or take a little.

with your budget I would do it a little differently.....that intake, TB, and MAF are going to eat up some budget when they don't have to. The stock MAF will flow fine and if you get to the point where it doesn't a speed density tune makes the most sense anyhow. You can do an LS6 intake and port/polish the stock TB and pick up decent gains while saving $1k. I would put that towards the rear and clutch.....a fast car doesn't do you any good if it's sitting on jackstands with a busted rear.

**Naaman** · 01-26-2016, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by 0rion

with your budget I would do it a little differently.....that intake, TB, and MAF are going to eat up some budget when they don't have to. The stock MAF will flow fine and if you get to the point where it doesn't a speed density tune makes the most sense anyhow. You can do an LS6 intake and port/polish the stock TB and pick up decent gains while saving $1k. I would put that towards the rear and clutch.....a fast car doesn't do you any good if it's sitting on jackstands with a busted rear.

I did notice a tiny gain SOTP when I installed a P&P throttle body, but the throttle response was night and day. It really made it feel like the crankshaft was connected directly to the go pedal. I got an LS6 intake, but... it came along with the engine swap... which also had internals done... so can't remark on that one.

For what its worth, the guy who works on my car says that for 97-00 motors, 450 horsepower is as much as he's comfortable with doing on those due to the LS1 block (as opposed to the 01-02 LS6 blocks). Don't know what others' experiences are, but take that for what its worth.

**35th-ANV-SS** · 01-26-2016, 06:09 PM

Not all, or that many even, 01-02 LS1's have an LS6 block. Only some do. The cars came stock with an LS1 block and due to a shortage, some were equipped with an LS6 block. That's what I've always seen at least.

Whether that block (LS6) is stronger is questionable. The oil valleys are actually larger on the LS6 block as compared to the LS1 block, which makes the wall thickness thinner, so some say it's actually weaker. I think if you're pushing enough power to crack a block the strength difference between the two is probably negligible at that point.

I have 650hp on a stock motor and she takes all I can give her and then some. People pushing more than me with forged internals without an issue. A lot of problems with these motors usually result from abuse (lack of maintenance) and poor tuning.

**0rion** · 01-27-2016, 06:28 AM

I would think rod bolts and the oil port in the rear of the block would be why he prefers the 01+ engines but maybe I'm wrong on that.....that's just what I would assume. Block strength differences, in my opinion, aren't going to be enough worth worrying about between the years.

***SMWS6TA*** · 01-27-2016, 03:14 PM

The weakness in the 97-99 blocks were due to a piss poor oil pump that was replaced with the LS6 pump on 00-02's

**Naaman** · 01-31-2016, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by 0rion

I would think rod bolts and the oil port in the rear of the block would be why he prefers the 01+ engines but maybe I'm wrong on that.....that's just what I would assume. Block strength differences, in my opinion, aren't going to be enough worth worrying about between the years.

This sounds familiar to me, and could actually be what he said. In any case, there seems to be at least a couple of "shortage" issues which have resulted in F-bodies having Corvette stuff installed on them... I think some 98s, for example, had "Corvette cams," no?

I'll assume that the LS6 intake manifold was included on purpose for those years. :P