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Head swap on the LS1 Z


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Hey Ya'll, I just picked up a new set of heads for the Datsun. Since I'm a bum with a camera I thought I would take pics of everything along the swapping process and post up. So the heads I got are from a 2002 ZO6 Corvette, Which has the LS6 engine. These heads are known as the "243" casting heads. They have a few better things about 'em over the stock LS1 heads, which are "241" casting heads. First off they have a slightly smaller combustion chamber for a slight bump in compression, and improved combustion chamber design. Both intake and exhaust runners flow a little more CFM over the stock LS1 heads also. And exhaust runners have an improved design to 'em. This all should be good for roughly 20hp increase, maybe slightly more on an already moded motor, who knows.

 

Heres what they look like off the car, I have Comp918 valve springs in my LS1 heads that I will be swapping over when the old heads come off. -

 

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This Saturday is the big day that I'll be swapping them over. I will be taking a bunch of pics along the way, hopefully it'll be useful to anyone else looking to do the same thing in the future. I just felt like sharing my new purchase for the Z.

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how much did you get them for? What head gasket will you be using? Are you upgrading the head bolts? I am going to do the ls6 upgrade soon. Thanks

 

I paid 525 shipped. I got a set of GM metal head gaskets from summitracing for 30 bucks!!! And I purchased a new set of stock head bolts.

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There are TONS of aftermarket head available for these cars.

AFR

TrickFlow

and then a lot of aftermarket LS1 companies do P&P on the 5.3L heads, LS6 etc

www.ls1tech.com for a lifetimes reading supply on it.

 

I personally am looking at either a ported set of LS6's or a the 5.3L as they both give a compression bump and will flow better.

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There are also places who do CNC porting on brand new factory castings, at a decent price. These heads just happen to fit the budget for me right now. I've got a Torquer V.2 in my car at the moment. Specs - 232/234, .595"/.598", and a 112LSA. It rumbles pretty good and makes some good noise. Untuned it made 362hp and 369tq. letting off at 5700rpm. With these heads, my tuning, and reving it out to 6500 my goal is to break 400hp.

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No I haven't yet. I just put on some 235/45/17s a couple weeks ago and broke a halfshaft/u-joint within a week on the street. :( I know I will need something a bit beefier for tires any stickier than these. (cant afford the Q45/cv swap as of now) But I have another axle lying around JIC.

The track in my vids is Fontana. I'll be throwing some ET streets and hooking up the nitrous on the Datsun just as soon as I put in that Q45 diff and stuff. LOL should get me booted out pretty quick :P

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Awesome man. I've got two extra axles here at the house if you get desperate. When I raced at the track, I broke an axle with my street tires. I threw on some dinky 22 x 8 slicks and didn't break anything surprisingly enough. It was the wheel hop on the street tires that did it.

 

So I ended up finishing the head swap. Most annoying part was swapping the comp valve springs over from my ls1 heads over to the new ones. Also, torquing the most outer head bolts is a pain with the exhaust manifolds in there. But other then that it went smooth! And the car sound a bit more healthy running at idle. I have not taken it out and given it the butt dyno test.

 

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dont push too hard untuned...if I recall correctly mine was pretty lean at WOT.

 

 

I probably have ran the car leaner then any car should ever run, period. The guy I got my mail order tune from didn't do something right. When I put the car on the dyno, the AFR showed 14:1 at WOT, by 5500rpm it creped up to 15.5:1. At that point I immediately purchased HP tuners and a wideband. Never looked back. :mrgreen: I run it at 12.7 - 12.8:1 at WOT now. Feels very strong.

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Awesome...what brand wideband are you using and where and how much did you purchase it for?...I really want to get one.

 

I got me a Zt-2 + ZR-2 Red Digits Multi Gauge Combo, from zeitronix.com, and I really couldn't ask for me. I spent around 400$ bucks shipped. well worth the money. And I purchased the standard HP tuners program for 500$ Alot of money to Tune the car, but I can tune it as many times as I want, and make any kind of other adjustments that I want to. Its pretty awesome!

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