114 .594/.598 and I'm going bigger next weekend.

No plans on Irwindale. I'm south county, to far.

If I didn't mess around with all the mild crap I'd have a stroker in this thing now. Don't want to see you down the line in the same predicament as I am now. Wasted a bunch of money on **** I changed out and still not satisfied 100%. Their is no one right way, but I'm just saying you'll want more the route your headed. Converter and cam changes are not cheap. Buy right once and leave it. You need to get a ride in a few trucks and decide then. Hell my truck still feels slow, well in reality it is still, but you get the picture.

 

I hear what you're sayin' and I thank you for it. I always try to do as much research on something before I buy it. Never make a decision on anything til I'm 100%. What cam are they going with now? Was that a custom grind?

 

This is sound advice. As mentioned earlier, what is considered a mild dd for one person may be an annoying PITA for another. When I was younger I had a 71 Camaro with a 350 SBC with a cam/head/carb/intake combo that made power over 7200 RPM. It had a 3k converter and 4.11 gears and was fun as hell, but sucked to have to drive to work every day. It drank fuel like crazy and the loose 3k converter was not fun at all in NJ traffic. I later built an 85 MonteSS with another 350, but put a milder cam, lower rise intake, smaller quadrajet, milder converter (2400), 3.73 gears, and overdrive (200R4), and loved driving that car every day. I drove it everywhere, shore trips, out of state, etc., and it was totally reliable, got "decent" gas mileage, and was totally reliable (did I say that twice lol ). I put about 80K on that engine and never even thought twice about valve springs or other items that may be considered "maintenance" on a wilder setup.

Now, I know that comparing older carbureted small block Chevys to our newer fuel injected GENIII setups is like comparing apples to oranges, but certain things, like reliability and valve spring longevity still apply.

I've been driving my truck daily, with probably the smallest cam on this board, since 2004, almost 7 years now. All four seasons (and we have them all here in Jersey, from 100*, humid summer days to sub-zero snowy winter days). I turn the key and I'm on my way getting 14.5-15mpg mixed spirited driving, never worrying if I should pop my valve covers to check my springs as I'm quite confident that I could probably get over 200k on the yellow LS6 springs, and only have to remove them to replace valve seals as I'm sure that they would go first before the springs do. The truck sounds almost stock, lived with the factory converter for most of it's life (until the trans blew at 59k, 25k behind my mild setup), and my small cam and tuning was worth a .9 tenth and 8mph gain in the 1/4 Not bad gains for something so mild that most folks would say isn't worth the time to swap.

Don't get me wrong, I do want more as I've had a LQ9 shortblock for over 6 years, that was put on hold less than a year after I got it when my now ex-wife told me we were having my daughter Rosie. Originally I planned to keep the LQ9 relatively mild, with a 220/224 type of cam, or the Vinci Trucker which I mentioned that I had already bought, but after I acquired a 96 4.3 Chevy Blazer to be my DD/beater I decided that I could make the truck a little wilder, but still want to keep it fairly mild by today's standards, with planned cam specs in the 224/230 range with about .600 lift.

Even with my truck being as mild as it is, I'm still screwed as it requires 93 octane fuel, which was $4.17 a gallon the last time I put gas in it...all I had was $20 which doesn't even translate into 5 gallons Something else to consider if you plan to drive the truck everywhere you go and it's your only form of transportation.

This is just my experience and opinion, and hopefully helpful advice. I'll say again that Desert1500's advice of driving other trucks with other combos is an excellent idea. I had the pleasure of driving tdrumm's old 03 rcsb, with a Vinci 210/218 .551/.551 112, FLT Level5/TT3000, and 4.10's, many times, and it allowed me the opportunity to realize that I could easily drive a similar combo every day and be perfectly happy. I had his truck for over a week more than once when I was doing some work to it while he was away, and drove it daily as I did with my own...nice test drive for sure. (honestly, I wish that someone would donate their old used TR220 to me to slap in my 5.3 and hold me over until I figure out a way to pay my bills and start dumping cash into my LQ9 again )

 

Yeah Billy that's just about the only way for me to be satisfied with a combo. I am going to continue to do my research and eventually make a decision. I'm not looking for the fastest most extreme truck out there. It will be my daily driver for a while until I can eventually pick up somthing else. I need to check out some other trucks to see what I would be happy with.

 

To answer the question u asked 1sloz71 yes its his first cam on that engine... his 3200 is really tight that u can't really feel it.. his truck has crazy torque.. on ur single cab u would sure be more then happy with a bigger cam..

 

What cam are you running in your truck? I didn't get to hear your truck run when I saw you at Irwindale.

 

Next time at irwindale steve you can drive my xcab 3600/410s

 

i have the lunati vodoo 217/223 549/549 113 lsa which was set up for my 3200 converter i just got a sst3600 which feels great on my heavy *** truck and going to be switching out my cam for the 222/226 596/598 111lsa.. if u want u can drive my truck also.. same set up as lee.. heres an idle clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yOWFhiykmU

 

Alright, cool.

Sweet that would be cool. I didn't get to chece either of your trucks out that much. The truck sounds pretty nice man. Are you running cats?

 

no sir.. long tubes no cats with a 22'' di/do magnaflow..