Yea it is out of the car. I will be doing the cam swap and removing VVT while it is out.

No this engine is for a DD. I picked up a saab 9-7x with a blown 5.3 for really cheap and the L96 is going into it.

 

I can't remember which ones had it but some had the afm lifters with the too cover too. On the more aggressive ramps the covers need replaced with a ls3 top and lifters changed to gmpp ls7 lifters. Ls6 isn't too crazy a cam but I had problems running the dod lifters. They collapse around 3k rpm or sooner with aftermarket valve springs. Simply shutting off the afm wasn't enough. Just my .02

 

Yea the L96 doesnt have AFM thankfully... but it does have VVT which is exactly why its getting the LS6 cam.

 

Good! I have much dod hate! Lol

 

since we're talking lifters now, i dont trust LS7 lifters anymore. anyone else in the same boat?

 

Yea they arent my first choice... its worth it to step up to at least tooley's.

 

Take some pics Rob , I haven't got to tare down any VVT stuff yet either .

Since we're talking lifters I haven't had any issues with my LS7 lifters running over .600 lift for the last 3 years or so . At that time it was what everyone was using .

 

Will do Tim!

I'm pretty excited to tear into it.

 

Alright so I slid in the LS6 cam last night... one thing I noticed is that I think the timing gears for the single bolt VVT is a different size than the 3 bolt 4x. Just for ***** I tossed the cam gear in place with the new chain but left on the crank timing gear. There was a ton of play in the chain.

So for those of you who didn't know, or who care for that matter, the VVT timing gears are smaller by a little bit. If you swap out VVT make sure you swap EVERYTHING. If not it would lead to the cam spinning slightly slower than it should... it wouldn't take long before you crunch literally every exhaust valve.

I had always assumed they used a longer chain to accomplish the ability to advance or retard the cam, but it looks like it is a combo effort.