bigsapper

iTrader: (2)

Was just re-reading this. I think I was tuning my shocks completely backwards when I was doing this. I had them set at 0c/12r. From my reading for tuning truck suspension, I probably should have started at 10c/5r.

Russellm454

Cam, springs, titanium retainers, DOD delete have been ordered. He went with the Stage 3 cam kit for the L83 from Texas Speed and Performance. He's going to put a high volume oil pump in also.

We're still going to ge a bit before we can dedicate time to install the goodies.

thewrx

i would think enough compression for tires to bite, and just enough rebound so it comes up progressively until you get past the 60ft mark.

I know its asking a lot from a truck, i would get a converter honestly and until then put go pro on back underneath bed on se whats going on.

i really want to do shock relocate and caltracs on my newer style gmc, im getting 2.2s with a blower lol. Axle is flopping around like fish out of water on a launch.

go ahead and save for some axles and ds, already tweaked mine lol and dont have drs or anything either.

Russellm454

It's a done deal. First off, what a pain in the rear installing a cam in Gen V small block is. What use to take 2 -3 hours on an old school drag engine now takes over 24 hours. I'm sure having done this once now we could shave off 4-5 hours. I fully understand now why folks charge $1500 - $2000 to do a cam swap on these engines. One would think a Ford design engineer sabotaged how these engines were put together. Who ever heard of having to drop the oil pan to be able to pull the cam gear. You can remove the cam bolt but you're not getting the timing chain off that gear without dropping the oil pan and removing the oil pump so you can get the timing chain off. Getting torque angles on a couple rear head bolts is a challenge too. #1 suggestion is just pull the engine and make it much easier on yourself. OKAY, enough of the difficulties in the install. It is worth it. Here is what was ordered from Texas Speed and performance.
TSP L83 Stage 3 Camshaft: Duration @.050 222/230, Lift .635"/.635", 112 LSA, 107 ICL
Factory Fuel Lobe
No Fuel Lobe Lash Cap
Cam bolt
.660 dual valve springs, valve seals, spring seats and titanium retainers.
7.850" Pushrods (Standard)
DOD Delete Kit w/ 16 New Lifters, 4 lifter trays, GM Head Bolts, GM head and exhaust gaskets, new balancer bolt, (25-LT1DODDEL-KIT)
Valley Cover Gasket #28-12623104
Rocker Arm Trunion Upgrade Kit (#4-13702-KIT)
C5R Timing Chain (#236-9-303)
VVT Cam Phaser kit (limits VVT to 20 degrees of advance)


Beware you'll either have to send your ECM to a tuner or trailer your pickup to them. With the DOD delete and cam the engine started and did idle very well for 20 minutes. HOWEVER after driving it very easily for 1/4 mile the ECM realized the changes and wouldn't even go into limp mode.
Today we had it towed to Whitehorse Tuning and Calibrating in Terrell Texas. Mike McKnight worked his magic and got it running enough to get it backed onto the dyno. The pickup has a factory ZL1 torque converter but the cam would benefit greatly by installing a converter with a bit higher stall speed. A looser converter and traction are next on the list of upgrades. Since the pickup will see the 1/4 mile only occasionally we followed Mikes advice and allowed him to tune for max torque not hp. We ended up at 351 rwhp and 384 rwtq. A max hp tune would have been 371 rwhp, 364 rwtq. Texas speed advertises the engine dyno hp at 483 hp @6300 rpm. On the rear wheel dyno we noticed the hp and tq start to fall off around 6000 rpm.



Whitehorse Tuning and Calibration can be found on Facebook. After seeing Mike work meticulously for 4 hours on this true custom dyno tune I highly recommend him. There is absolutely no way a mail order tune can match his work and expertise. Check out his Facebook page.

SO now the search for a looser but street worthy torque converter and cal-tracks are at the top of the hit list If / when we make some 1/4 mile passes I'll update this thread.

bigsapper

iTrader: (2)

Nice! BTW, Circle D has said they can tune that converter.

Everyone I spoke with about doing H/C said they would pull the engine.

Russellm454

This is how far you have to go to swap the cam.

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

Horsepower seems awful low to me for some reason. My thoughts being that it's a 355hp engine to the crank from the factory and with drivetrain loss you are at 300ish. Only gaining ~50whp from a cam/headers/tune seems way low on a DI motor. I would have figured 70-80whp gain on a non max hp type tune, people gain a good amount even stock sometimes.

Those DI motors are a pretty difficult torque model to tune, getting the VVE dialed in along with the MAF is not easy pickins. Too many tuners just do MAF only nowadays and leave power on the table.

Russellm454

Didn't you have a Circle D in it for a while?


Supposedly Performance Torque Converters in Kennedale can build a good converter. A lot of the diesel performance folks making over 1000hp are using their converters.

Russellm454

I'm no expert on dyno's. In fact in 25 years of old school drag racing I never saw one.Today was my first exposure to one. I've read enough though to know that different manufacturer dyno's will give you different numbers with the same vehicle. This was a DynoCom. I didn't get the model number. I'm sure a Mustang, Superflow or Dynajet would give a different output for hp and tq.


The only measure of true gain can only be had by comparing before and after mod dyno runs on the same dyno. We don't have that luxury.


Me personally, I won't get hung up on a number it's being first at the end of the 1/4 mile that matters :-)

GMCtrk

iTrader: (27)

Absolutely correct. The track is the "real" dyno.