Tick doesn't grind cams unless something has changed in their product development in the last year or so. They hire out their "proprietary" grinds to companies like Comp and TSP who actually do the grinding, then Tick sells the cam

I don't mean to sound like a broken record or repeat parrot; but I really think Tick told you what you wanted to hear, or the salesman told you the first cam he remembered from the catalog. The almost exact same thing happened to me when TSP suggested a 220/224 .600/.600 112 for a square port head 408ci motor. I was dumb enough to buy the cam, but some members here talked me out of installing that and I was able to resell it. I had PatG custom spec a cam for me that is 236/240 .600/.600 114+4

Huge difference in a salesman selling me a cam he *thought* was ok and getting a real cam optimized for the setup

Get your flame suit on about the LS7 lifters. We do not like them around here; tons of documented failures. And we all cant be doing our lifters wrong. Lots of fails documented around the web too

 

No need to speak for everyone. I've never had an issue with real LS7 lifters, even at up to 450lbs open spring load.

Your calibration is untouched in almost all areas that deal with idle. The VE surface is also untouched, which gen 3 is particularly sensitive to at low speed. I hope you didn't pay much for this.

 

I think your key point is "real" and real lifters aren't what I would call "easy" to find and buy with the market being flooded with so many knock-offs/copies/QE fails branded as "LS7"

 

These are real OEM LS7 lifters. My installer recommended them, he sourced them, and he’s very particular. He runs a reputable shop and doesn’t want to take a job back for failed lifters.

smokeshow thanks very much for the info. “Your calibration is untouched in almost all areas that deal with idle. The VE surface is also untouched, which gen 3 is particularly sensitive to at low speed.” What is VE surface and what does it do? (Forgive me, my tuning knowledge deals with brass…analog)




Thanks

 

You also had a "reputable and respected" tuner tune the truck and he, well.... didn't

So I personally am putting 0 merit on this installers accolades, but I don't know him or his work

VE is volumetric efficiency and adjustments made in the VE table change the fueling of the engine based on load/rpm/airflow. I do not know what the VE surface is, but it might be in relation to the 3D histogram that HPT generates to visualize the VE table

I am no tuner, I hire out my tunes. But I've read some things and seen some videos and dabbled in it enough to have blown up a motor. So you could say I know how to not tune

 

My failed LS7s came straight from GM.

 

I don't know what part of the world you are in, but the Thorley headers I have on my Express van have held up better than the OEM manifolds which both cracked at ~60K miles. Added alot of torque in the low-midrange right where the engine spends 95% of its time. I put Thorley tri-ys on my old G20 van too when it had a 305. Gave that engine alot more torque as well. Cruising at 70 mph, went from downshifting to 3rd on many uphill pulls to holding overdrive up the same hills. The ones on the Express are CARB approved and I believe the ones they make for the 99-06 trucks are as well. They come with pipes that connect directly to the OEM cats. Tri-ys really help scavenge the cylinders in the low-midrange.

 

He did bump the idle speed up.

 

The commanded AFR is kinda fat for a NA engine too. It's asking for 11.84 AFR, I'd want that around 12.2-12.4 and I'd be watching my injector duty cycle being that it's stock injectors still. He left the cat over temp protection on too, that should be turned off.

 

The most respected tuner