LT1 Project Car

epp.john: I think we could have squeezed more power out of it by hand-porting (or at least port-matching) the heads and cutting them to bring compression up to 11:1, but for now we'll have to settle for 459hp. The motor is in and partially tuned, we had some driveline issues that are currently being sorted out. The initial idea was to run 11s in daily driver style, 3.42s/reasonable sized cam, etc and on a reasonable budget. So far it looks like that should be no problem. After that, we'll see.

hflores3: I had originally planned to pass NJ emissions, but had a change of heart once I moved to Florida. I doubt the custom cam would pass, but something comparable to the Edelbrock cam we tested might.

95ramairTA: I would love to do turbos, and I have a buddy that is just crazy enough to help. But after many automotive-related headaches, I've found the K.I.S.S. method works best for me.

JAKEJR2661320: My personal opinion is that the idle is fine, that's actually why we stuck with the 113LSA (and not a 111). Only complaint is that I may have some vacuum loss (with the brakes), but its too early to tell as we are still working the bugs out. The following issues have the full series of dyno tests: Nov '08, Jan '09, Feb, and March.  

Hey Scott, just wanted you to know that I purchased the exact same cam from Comp Cams (through Racekrafters) for my 355 ci 1995 Impala SS!   I already had a nice set of ported iron LT1 heads that flowed 255 cfm @ .500 lift so it was comparable to the Darts (all the other lift points were similar as well).

(comparison: 355, 52mm tb, ported intake by Racekrafters, tri-y headers, forged rods/pistons, cold air intake, MSD 6, Jacobs Coil, Borla full exhaust)

I just got it back and I absolutely love the slight lope in the idle!    I'm now breaking her in for 500 miles then back on the dyno for additional tuning.  

I'm leaving some hp on the table as I'm runninga a 52mm tb instead of the 58 you tested.  

Thanks for the article and data!!!!!