1995 trans am daily driver

[HellTeeOne]

Running on stock rockers, the cam lift is supposed to be 503 and 510.

The first thing I'd do is a set of good 1.6 rockers, that could account for ~20 or more numbers right there. Make sure your springs are good to the additional lift of the new rockers as well.

Also used stock style head gaskets.

It's really not that big of a deal, but if you ever take down the top end again, I'd go with .026 head gaskets. Stock c/r on these motors is 10.5, the gasket can get you to around 10.8 or 11. Not a huge bump, but that would help some nonetheless, with zero loss in durability or reliability. Folks regularly run these motors with up to 12.5 or so compression on pump fuel, and 11.5-12.0 is pretty much the standard for a hot street motor. But I would not go tearing into the top end just to swap head gaskets, the small gain it would produce wouldn't be worth the many hours of labor unless you want to port the heads as well.

the reason for the gearing thought was because somoeone has actually installed a rear end with 273 gears in this car. I did some readong at it doesnt look like it should have came with that. It is at least a positrack with disk brakes and working well.

I'd put it on the list to swap that 2.73 gearset for a 3.42 or 3.73. That will wake it up very noticeably too. I'd guess you're finishing the 1/4 mile in third gear right now with the M6 tranny.

I agree though in feeling the car should have made more power and went faster, and just like with everyone ill always be searching for that hidden, free 50 horsepower ive missed somewhere lol

1.6 rockers, gear swap and perhaps nailing down the tune where the car will pull cleanly to ~6200 could probably account for most of it and put you in the 320-340 range and 110-ish mph. You've put together a solid setup, just likely needs some tuning/tinkering and refining. Keep us posted....

Also yes we are in the charlotte area and those pictures were on the blue ridge parkway. We love to go hiking up there, and go play on the curves ha
Im using the dyno at the shop i work at in kannapolis.
Also i went to the rockingham dragway.

Don't see too many NC guys on here. Used to race at the Rock 10+ years ago, haven't stared down a dragstrip in quite some time now. Nice to have a dyno where you work, what sort of tuning software are you using?

[HellTeeOne]

Oh yea, and post a screenshot of the whole Dynojet screen, let us see the a/f and power curves, max engine speed, etc. That might lend a few clues as well.

[zoomo]

I'm not bashing at all just clarifying I went to the track before headers it was making 278 horse and 305 torque or so
So in all a gain of 20 and 15 not bad and they were pace setter midlengths with single 2.5 exhaust I guess that's factory cat back ? No cat on here. It looks like it may have came with one though.

[SSlowBoat]

I'm not bashing at all just clarifying I went to the track before headers it was making 278 horse and 305 torque or so
So in all a gain of 20 and 15 not bad and they were pace setter midlengths with single 2.5 exhaust I guess that's factory cat back ? No cat on here. It looks like it may have came with one though.

Factory is 3". You should be making more power IMHO, I made that full bolt ons thru an auto. Best of luck

[zoomo]

Thanks guys.

I was looking at the 1.6 magnum steel rockers over christmas debating between those and the headers but decided on the headers. maybe soon ill get those and rebuild this rear end with some different gears.
but i think i may work on this interior a bit first ha. my girlfriend got me some factory style mats from thirdgens in sc for christmas, im very impressed, with her and the product ha. i notice he has seat kits as well, but i only really need the drivers and part of the rear. i may try my hand at upholstery, it would be a first.ha

i love having the dyno at work , i cant wait to do more upgrades and see how it really improves.

I'm using tuner pro software and win flash

I cant imagine why anyone would have installed a smaller aftermarket exhaust but mines 2.5 inch. chance of me ever changing the full exhaust are slim although i guess i could gain some from adding a cut out at the y pipe eventually


I'm still running a little rich in wot, and i didnt rev as high as i could have. ive blown my fair share of motors so youll notice i seem to lean to the safe side of everything haha... my wideband is coming up with 11.8 -12.0 through the entire rpm range at wot. our dyno wideband is funky i feel the pump needs rebuilt, it scared me the first time i used to cause it kept showing extremely lean, until i finally figured out the little filter was clogged. so the numbers are often different by a solid point or so but this time they came up pretty close.

Edit: i didn't realie how much it starts to richen at the high rpm, to be honest im not logging my wideband and obviously not looking at it at that point ha. so i guess i could lean it out a little throughout and a little more at top end. Im getting kind of confused on the adjustment in tuner pro though, is anyone aware of another table besides pe correction vs rpm , it confused me because the numbers are so all over the place, but i lowered them all by 10% and it brought me from 11 to where i am now. Now im confused because they are in the negatives in some places, but im sure i can just adjjust them all individually and equally. im just wondering if im overcomplicating it somehow

[mikey4play]

If it is truly a 2.5 exhaust your car cant be breathing good. I would look for a used system and get some 4.10s in the rear. With traction (good 60 FT) you could be into the high 12s with that combo. I do agree with some seems like your missing about 30 or so HP.

[SSlowBoat]

go with a full roller rocker, scorpions, ultra pro mags, etc. ditch that restrictive exhaust. also, change the maf tables. you can richen or lean them out by a percentage. there is a fine line with going too far. or you could just have @sweet-94z28 or Moe do a tune for you email style since you have the capability to flash your own stuff

[HellTeeOne]

The Pro Mag Rockers are a solid choice. Non-self-aligning with guideplates for better stability at high RPM.

That, and rev the motor higher. As you mentioned there's obviously more tuning needed in terms of the a/f ratio, but that cam usually peaks at or just above 6000 rpm.

Also, if your catback is stock it's choking you. You can add a cutout at the rear of the y-pipe for a few bucks, or search the classifieds on either here, CZ28.com or LS1tech for a used aftermarket 3" catback. Usually not too hard to find one for a very reasonable sum.

Just for a point of reference, when I was 'cam only', I ran the following setup:

-stock untouched 100k mile long block
-MAC midlength headers and off-road y-pipe, Borla catback
-EGR and AIR delete
-OBD1 pcm (my car is a 1997 model so it originally came with OBD2, I swapped it out for ease of tuning).
-KN CAI, throttle body airfoil
-Comp XE camshaft, 224/236 @.050, .536/.555 lift, 112 lsa. This is grind is somewhat similar to your cam.
-Pro Mag 1.6 rockers, beehive springs, hardened pushrods, re-used factory lifters
-Full dyno tune using LT1edit (this was back in 2004 when LT1edit was sort of the only game in town, as was this particular dyno shop).

Here's the SAE dyno graph. The numbers in red are from when the engine was stock, with bolt-on mods only. (sorry for the poor quality image):

Attachment 31360
Heh, I'm still running the stock 111k mile bottom end on my current setup with ported heads and a bigger cam turning it to 6600rpm...

[zoomo]

I didn't think about looking for a used exhaust system, could defibwtly be an option, I'll sure be keeping me eye out for one. Though Im cheap and will probably end up doing a cut out. I'm not really a fan of running a cut out but I completely agree 2.5 is too small, it really needs 2 1/4 or so per side, of course exhaust flow is an ongoing debate. Ive noticed the newer vettes and some Vws and I'm sure others are running electric throttle plates on the exhaust pipe to change flow with rpm. Fancy stuff

I'll look into those pro mag rockers the only reason I leaned away from full roller aluminum rockers is because of longevity and pricing of course.

I would be happy to let someone give me advice or help me on tuning it.though I do feel I have a pretty good understanding of it. A second opinion is always great. I'm definetly new to flashing cars software and still learning though. I feel there Is so little info on tuning these cars.

I did find a few of the starting tuning threads on here and elsewhere but its still just a small portion.

By the way off subject but something that took me hours to realize. Couldn't get winflash to read my tune. Ended up being something to do with my wideband. Figured it was ground or power but I switched it up and it still fails with it attached. Disconnect gauge and it works. Some sort of interference clearly, i couldnt tell you what ha. Just some good info.

I can't see your attachment helltee?

[SSlowBoat]

The Pro Mag Rockers are a solid choice. Non-self-aligning with guideplates for better stability at high RPM.

That, and rev the motor higher. As you mentioned there's obviously more tuning needed in terms of the a/f ratio, but that cam usually peaks at or just above 6000 rpm.

Also, if your catback is stock it's choking you. You can add a cutout at the rear of the y-pipe for a few bucks, or search the classifieds on either here, CZ28.com or LS1tech for a used aftermarket 3" catback. Usually not too hard to find one for a very reasonable sum.

Just for a point of reference, when I was 'cam only', I ran the following setup:

-stock untouched 100k mile long block
-MAC midlength headers and off-road y-pipe, Borla catback
-EGR and AIR delete
-OBD1 pcm (my car is a 1997 model so it originally came with OBD2, I swapped it out for ease of tuning).
-KN CAI, throttle body airfoil
-Comp XE camshaft, 224/236 @.050, .536/.555 lift, 112 lsa. This is grind is somewhat similar to your cam.
-Pro Mag 1.6 rockers, beehive springs, hardened pushrods, re-used factory lifters
-Full dyno tune using LT1edit (this was back in 2004 when LT1edit was sort of the only game in town, as was this particular dyno shop).

Here's the SAE dyno graph. The numbers in red are from when the engine was stock, with bolt-on mods only. (sorry for the poor quality image):

Attachment 31360
Heh, I'm still running the stock 111k mile bottom end on my current setup with ported heads and a bigger cam turning it to 6600rpm...

I had a similar build

Stock 236k mile bottom end
Stock 236k mile aluminum heads
pacesetter longtubes, ory
Hotcam kit
Meizure HD water pump
Tb air foil, pvc Cai
!all emissions deleted
Thru a stock stall/auto with 2.73 gears

Pulls limited due to mph on dyno to about 5400rpm, had some lt4 spring valve float too



I upgraded the valve springs to crane duals and the rockers to ultra pro mag sa and ran that thing up to 6400rpm, sold the car, the new owner is still beating on it.