A week of upgrades... ...March 26, 2007
So here's an earful. I entered in PINKS All Out on April 6-7 at the rock. It's not like the typical Pinks where you lose your car if you lose the race. This was 300 cars doing time trials, and then they selected a small bracket of 16 cars that ran exceptionally close to one another. I knew they wouldn't be picking a slow bracket like mine, but signed up anyway as it was a good excuse to get my butt to the quarter mile for something different. Plus, all of my friends were racing - I knew it'd be a chance to have a great time with a bunch of good pals.
Anyway, I decided that I wanted to have a set of headers before PINKS, because I planned to run in the 12.00-12.49 bracket. I wanted a set of non-emissions, coated Pacesetters. I had wanted to delete AIR because my pump makes a funny noise anyway, and EGR had been gone since I installed the LS6 intake manifold. AIR just kind of clutters up the engine bay and it's just more trash to take off when you need to work on something. I ordered a set of headers in early March...waited two weeks and nothing came. Ticked, I called up the place, who then told me the headers were on a 5 week backorder. I was pissed that I hadn't been notified sooner, I was basically just wasting time.
Around this time, a friend of mine listed his 224/224 .563/.563 cam for sale. Alvin had tuned the car and I thought it made impressive power throughout the curve. Since I knew the guy, I had no qualms about buying a used cam like I normally might have. I also picked up his hardened pushrods, for a total of $350 (~$500 new for both). I had planned on installing the cam sometime in April.
I then canceled the order for the headers and called around like mad, and magically found a speed shop in California that had them. Since I took the week off, I decided to tear down my car so it'd be ready when the headers came. I then figured what the heck, if it's on jack stands anyway why not do it all in one shot. So I tore down the front of the car also and swapped cams one evening. Instead of putting the stock balancer back on, I replaced it with a Powerbond underdrive pulley. I was pleased with the fit and finish of the pulley.
stock vs. Powerbond
Also, I decided not to be a dummy this time around with the valve springs. I ponied up the cash for a Crane cams valve spring tool...worth every penny. It does two springs at one time and made my life so much easier. The last time I did this, I tried reinstalling springs with one of those overhead compressors that hugs the spring from both sides. Besides shooting a couple across the garage, that tool was very difficult to use on the back cylinders. The crane cams tool made it a breeze.
Attacking cylinder 1 with the new tool
By the time I finished the cam install, my UPS guy rolled up with the headers. That's my second set of Pacesetters - I am really impressed with the quality. They fit great, the finish lasts, and for $370 you cannot beat it. I bought a catted y-pipe from Texas Speed also. I wanted to stick with cats because I dislike the smell of an off-road y-pipe car, especially after a cam. I drive it every day and would prefer to not smell like a tailpipe every time I get out. I also took this opportunity to bolt on a magnaflow catback that'd been sitting in my room for two months. My car had some kind of shitty exhaust shop type muffler that sounded like a truck. And it was held together with JB Weld....do I need to say more?
Where the magic happens...
It took about a week to do everything, just because I had to wait on parts to come in, and take numerous trips to the parts store to get small items I forgot. I also changed all of my antifreeze to water, per the rules for PINKS. I was pissed later when I got there and they didn't even check! Oh well at least it got a good flush. I also replaced my plugs. They looked like they'd been changed one before...well, seven of them anyway. One was still a stock AC Delco - I'll let you guess which one. I had some taylor spark plug wires stowed away in my desk from my last LS1, so I put those to good use as well. And heck, since I got the pulley, I had to get new belts too...which I needed anyway since mine were so cracked. It was like a makeover for my car!
We took care of the tuning on the street. I like the cam a lot because you can barely tell its there. In fact I believe that if you weren't actively listening for it that you might not notice at all. It has good street manners and feels wonderful throughout the RPM's, not just at wide open. With the cats and the magnaflow, the sound is very tame, which is what I was looking for. I plan to put it on the dyno sooner or later, although it is not very high on the priority list.