Mudge

Doggon John, that is a heck of a story I really want some big wheels too, but just dont have the money. I also believe you commented on the stock that they are using for making wheels being somewhat dried up? I am HOPING this is not the case because I was going to go with CCW, if it is, then doggonit

Wow, 14.5:1 is very lean for WOT especially on a turbo car. Are you running a rising rate FPR? I'm not an expert on turbo/blower stuff at all, but thoughts of a turbo are nagging me in my sleep.

Robello has put out at least one 287 crank HP, big SU car, but your clarification is helpfull because hardly anyone puts out these numbers, they are definately wishing for the best. I dont know many people running 13.5:1 or whatever on the street though There is a guru (pro race engine builder), who insists things like this can be done with Evans NPG. Alot of people debate it, and I for one was pretty much right along with them. He put his case forth though without arguing, he's done the testing not most of us who disagreed. Evans is used as de-icer I believe in the airline industry, and supposedly is much cheaper.

Isky is great, I also got a little bit of techie talk with them.

No contest the first set of wheels look CHEAP, no style at all, they look like they were designed by a talented 6 year old. JMHO

No contest the first set of wheels look CHEAP, no style at all, they look like they were designed by a talented 6 year old. JMHO

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=bicardigurl&itemid=338538

True, somewhat, most of that comes in the form of a paint job and no dents This car strays from the stock body more than most race cars I'd say.

Road racing with an automagic? I think you should be fine, an auto is easier on the rear when it shifts, but it wont matter much because your not launching anyway.

I saw the setup ....... no linkage though. Sometimes eBay is a sellers market, sometimes it isn't I guess you like the 4 barrel setup then? I wondered how accurately AF was distributed to each cyl, otherwise only tuning 1 carb, dreamland!

Wow, I think I blew a load

Yep, it depends on an array of things, but generally with a well thought out setup and a semi-large cam, you could probaly expect a peak of 275-300 HP on street gas, thats pretty much a top dog motor too. 250ish HP should be alot easier to achieve. For the money though, and I'd argue ease because I'm a V8 guy, you'd get more torque and driveability with a V8 and a T56. I am still debating on using my F54 flattop or not.

BTW, some stations claim to have 92 octane (BP here does), and some (76) dont use MTBE.

Yessir, I use Tunercat. I know some guys in the southern area that might be available as well. What I started out with was street tuning, basically you try to smooth out the low RPM tables so that you dont have too much timing changes from cell to cell (there is interpolation however), especially since a rough idle will bounce it around the MAP range. Low end tuning is definately the toughest, although I ran a plenty larger cam. Low end is definately an area of fine tuning, not sweeping massive changes. So fine tuning cell by cell is not unheard of, although generally I'd be playing with 2 or 3 cells at a time. If I could have had better gas to work with, I would have one mother f'er of a stump puller, I was making AWESOME off idle torque but was getting pinging and could not get rid of it while retaining my TQ, I ended up making 385 peak RWTQ, I think 325 @ 2500 RPM but I can't connect to my webspace to look at my dyno sheet... Do you have any Hotcam base files to look at? AF is easy, timing is where the work and fine tuning comes into play...

The PCM can compensate yes, but retard is BAD. Retard takes time to go away, a fairly long time, and once it starts it just gets worse, in other words a retard situation resulting in 2º too much timing could result in 8º or so of retard, and last several long seconds to go away. If someone needs programming help I can try to lend a hand, something as mild as the Hotcam should be piss simple to setup. BTW, with a Hotcam if the heads are decent, you should hit 400 crank HP or better, I've seen as much as 365/370 RWHP with a decent set of LT1 heads and Hotcam. This is with about a 13% drivetrain loss with a T56.

I have Desktop Dyno 2k and Engine Analyzer as well, however even the stock cam peaks at 5200, not a measly 4500 RPM, it is not a flat tappet setup which sounds like what your brother set it up as.

Its not too high, but there is no reason at all with such a whimpy cam. I ran 11.4:1 on 91 MTBE craptane. The LT4 springs are marginal at .525", they were for the LT4 originally NOT the Hotcam, some people find that they are too close to coil bind and dont use them even with the "Hotcam."

Is that the 4 barrel setup? I was almost tempted to bid on such a thing, although I dont know that I like the look of the manifold.

Are you talking about the 4 cyl turbo Stang?

I know the feeling! When I did heads/cam I didn't have my Y pipe on before I had to fire it up, 2 days of long, grumpy work in a tight engine compartment. After that it was all worth it, sounded like a freaking dragster I love nasty cams and open exaust

You could give Autolite 104 or 105 a shot, those are pretty short. The LT1s use a 106/107 stock, which is probably close to the L98 setup. I spent about $65 for some 1500º boot protectors, they are around 6" long or so each, I was frying wires with headers as well, good MSD wires too

When you get one, you will FEEL the difference. Strut towers flex, that is truth, even on the freeway a strut tower brace on the front of my Camaro was VERY noticeable improvement, maybe less so for a Z but the body flexes. Look at the very fron of the car, what is there to avoid flex, NOTHING. You have a crossmember at the bottom but you have nothing at the top for fully BOXED support. Otherwise a cage would be nothing but a safety device, however we all know that there is flex EVERYWHERE in the car, and that a cage will instantly stiffen up the chassis, helping to protect the body from squeaks, rattles, and cracks. Even a 4 point roll bar in a heavy car is like a whole different car.

http://www.go-fast.org/z28/damper.html I say again, go Hyper! Forged is not needed, I made around 480 crank HP with an ignition miss on stock pistons and that is not yet the limit. The rods will go before the pistons will and your not close to the limits yet. You have more compression than you need by far with that WARMCAM, so you'll never touch any kind of dangerous timing with the setup. I'm biased though heavily towards hypers, I dont like forged. Get the oil pump! False economy to avoid it As for the chain, you could have gotten a CSI electric pump and only spent $65 or so on a Cloyes double roller for SBC, instead of a $$$ single roller LT4 chain. I haven't seen the setup for under $299 that I can recall, major ream job. You can re-use the stock pump though if you want, watch the weep hole for drips, if it starts drippin' replace it.

I know a guy with a 434, making right around 700 HP on pump gas, he's a Mopar guy but this is a Chevy in a 4th gen Camaro. He runs Progressive Race Engines, he knows his stuff, its not a big cam either

I have heard of 2 or 3 people breaking the scat stuff on NA cars, but alot have good success with em. Maybe just a bad run.