Camshaft, Forged Pistons, Bore & Stroke, Lightweight Flywheel

[Jimothy]

Havin' problems findin' answers to the following questions:

Performance Cam Shaft: Pros/Cons? Does it do anything to emmissions? Does it hurt the engine? What other upgrades should accompany it? Cost?

Bore & Strokin', Forged Pistons: How would getting forged pistons have to work in combination with getting an increase in bore and stroke? Pros/Cons (bore and stroke)? Cost?

Where can I find a lightweight flywheel for the 2001 3.8? Cost?

Should this all be done pre or post supercharger?

[Ironman24]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jimothy:
Where can I find a lightweight flywheel for the 2001 3.8? Cost?[/QB]<hr></blockquote>

I can answer this one. SPEC is making a lightweight flywheel for www.supersixmotorsports.com I spoke with them yesterday, they just got a new CNC machine and I'm supposed to call back in 2 weeks for an update. Cost should be around $400 They have had my flywheel for months, hopefully it will be worth the weight and hopefully they will be done soon, my stock clutch is shot so I can't romp on the car at all.

I would do the flywheel whenever your stock clutch dies. It wasn't long after I put the blower on that the clutch started slipping.

[Arctc Wolf]

cams give u more power almost everywhere in th powerband. the more hp it makes, most likely emissions will go up. depending on how big u wanna get, other parts of the valvetrain will have to be upgraded, such as valvesprings, retainers, pushrods, lifters, ect. most performance cams require at least new retainers and springs.

can't stroke our engines, not enough deck height to do it. bore can be done .010, .020, and .030 w/o much hassle. stock displacement is 231. .010 overbore will get u 232.46, .020 will get u 233.68, and .030 will get u 234.9. figure on a stock car, each cubic inch u gain will get u 1 rwhp and 1-2 rwtq. this figure will go up if other mods have been done. www.intense-racing.com, www.3800performance.com, and I think www.ZZPerformance.com all sell pistons.

[Dominic]

Performance Cam Shaft: There are so many to choose from it is blinding if you don't know how to properly spec a cam. Pick something someone has used if this is the case, then you will know what you will gain and where. It is generally a pro all across the board, just don't go too large. You need to get a camshaft for your engine's intended purpose and configuration (blown, n/a, ported heads, the like). This is probably one of the thigs people fail to research enough about before purchasing one. There is no generic PERFORMANCE CAM. Zillions and Zillions of combinations exist, and some are better than others for your particular setup. Be careful here.

Bore & Strokin', Forged Pistons: You cannot easily bore or stroke the 3.8L without a serious amount of custom work. This isnt an LS1, we don't have stroker kits on the market, I would simply avoid this... its not worth it. If you need more displacement, drop in an LS1 or LS6. As far as pistons go, Ross makes a nice set of pistons for our cars and you can have any compression ratio you want. I recommend sticking in the 8.5 to 10:1 range depending on what you'll be using your engine for and how it will be setup (again, forced induction, nitrous, normally aspirated, etc). You will only need to touch the bottom end of the engine IF you are rebuilding it or need it for forced induction, otherwise I wouldn't really worry myself here. The stock pistons are relatively strong, and they are in fact lightweight.


Flywheel: See above post.

The supercharger is something I would keep in mind throughout the entire modification of the engine. If you intend to supercharge the engine lightly now, that will work fine. If you intend to install a supercharger intended cam with a forged bottom end and run low compression pistons and some insane 20psi boost intercooled forced induction setup... Do it all at once. Rebuild the engine as needed, install the supercharger, tune it, enjoy it.

The crazier you get, the more of a plan you need, so I recommend deciding EXACTLY what you want out of the Fbody you own now and how much you are willing to spend in time and money on it. Remember that other people's time tends to cost $$ so you might want to do a self-evaluation on mechanical ability before jumping head first into this.

Do searches, research as much as you can, spend years doing it and become absorbed into it until when someone says "Hey I want a 200/240 0.650"/0.650" 104LS 110IC cam, will it work for me?!?! you can boldly say NO and know all the reasons why that cam is entirely wrong for the engine [img]smile.gif[/img] .

:cool:

[ June 03, 2003: Message edited by: Dominic ]</p>

[Jimothy]

Cool. Thanks for all the advice. And yeah, I'm actually not going to jump into anything. I'm just, as you said Dominic, planning. I'm still a youngun' so I figure that in the time it'll take me to get the money to do whatever upgrades I want, I'll be able to research them accordingly.