rio95

Not sure how you took my injectors comments as criticisiam. I was actually looking to learn something from you.

reasonable suspicion

I dont believe its a worthless comparo, but to each his own.

Ill pm you the results Josh.

rio95

So if you dyno 20 HP less than josh what will that tell you?

rio95

Comparison of YOUR new to old will be interesting and more discernable. Hopefully you pick up good power from those headers. I've got stock manifolds myself right now. Not too many of us out there!

blackz97

I'd like to know your results as well.

Josh B.

Sounds good man!

Da Z06

Ill have to agree with you. The only way that it will seriously screw the results would be (for example) a Mustang Dyno vs Dyno Jet, but same type of dyno it will be very close specially if they are SAE to SAE readings.

Ill love to know the results. I'll appreciate a PM with them. Thanks!

AzDave47

My stock 09 Z06 (w/ZR1 air filter element) dyno'd at 469 (SAE smoothing 5) on a Dynojet that typically generates 455 to 475 for stock LS7's. I know that 440 is more typical. I put my numbers down to dyno variations, not that I got an extra strong LS7.

reasonable suspicion

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...stage-2-a.html



Josh. Your Z is 44rwhp stronger! Kudos man.

Josh B.

Awesome gains man I went without cats, I wonder if that makes a difference at all (other than the persistent "rich" smell from my exhaust...)

Thanks for the kind words, I'm happy with the way mine came together. I like the paint on your FAST intake, in hind sight I would have painted the MSD, but I wasn't focused on aesthetics at that point. I drove mine last night and I'm noticing some mild surging around 60mph in sixth. 70mph, no surging, but definitely some surging at highway speed. Interstate speed is fine. How is the driveability with your K501?

reasonable suspicion

driveability is excellent. I cruised at 40,50,60,70,80,90,100 all in 6th gear for a mile or so each and no surging. Only issue that I have is Im used to shifing to 2nd gear in parking lots or low speed subdivisions for slow cruise....thats not possible anymore as it bucks too much. If I leave it in 1st, its fine. Just not used to the higher rpms at low speed, but I will drive around it. This is purely a weekend toy anyway. Im happy with the setup, I wont be changing a thing.

Cant you paint the msd while its on the car, I know I have seen threads where people have painted the fast after install......maybe smooth the logos off the msd and paint it yellow????? That might be just the trick to make it look awesome on your car!!

Enjoy the car, and be safe!

ramairroughneck

I love the way this cam drives. It makes great power with very little compromise. Sure there is some mild surging but it's nothing to extreme. Mine is exactly as you have described. Some mild surging in sixth at 60 but very clean by 70. I can drive mine in sixth at 65 but if I come to a hill I shift to fifth when I feel a mild surge. Some people can't stand any surge at all but to me this cam falls in a very comfortable spot on the give and take spectrum. I would pick it again. It's got a great sound at idle too.

Josh B.

Agreed on every point. I love the sound too, it seems to have a nice, mild lope, idling at 975 or so. Just enough to tell you there's a cam in there, but IMO, it sounds much different than a torque 110, with the T110 having a more intentional lope to it. Maybe this is due to the 113 LSA of the K501. I agree that it's a compromise, some surging, yes, but HOLY F#$K-KNUCKLES does this thing pull up top!!! I kiss the limiter almost ever 2-3 shift....need some practice, but it doesn't even fall off at 7100, so it seems too soon to shift. The before and after (stock - H/C/I) is like I installed a supercharger...but without a weight or crankcase ventilation penalty. I think the mild surging is more than worth it

Nuclear427

Congrats on the build. You are making it very hard for me to wait on getting my car back from Katech! I have the K501 cam as well, and am getting the car back at the end of April.

My car has LG 1/7/8 headers, no cats, and dual QTEC cutouts...
Hopefully it will be loud

Katech #76

AzDave47

Josh, could you go into the details of how this combo drives with the K501 and the MSD/NW102? What clutch do you have? In around town driving what RPM do you use as your minimum. At what speed/RPM can you cruise on the highway in 6th? I know this can vary based on the quality of the tune.

I hope to have my build done in June, similar to your components including DeWitts.

Thanks for all your PM help, too.

Josh B.

How does it drive with the MSD/102 and WCCH/K501? Like no naturally aspirated stock bottom end LS7 has a right to!! After 3500 rpm, torque everywhere, and the party is just getting started at 6000. I saw heads/cam, full bolt ons, pulleyed, E85 ZR1s with weld RTSs, bigs and littles going 167-168 mph at the Florida half mile last weekend. A basic HCI Z would be in the ring with those cars with the same tires, and E85 (I was 163mph, pump gas, no traction, MPSS). So how does it run? It runs as hard as max effort boost only ZR1s, that also have cam surging, hence their big camshafts.

Now that the car has been together for almost a year I can give some better details on the drivability of the K501. Best way to summarize: the car is my daily driver, it's extremely drivable. Now, I'm 34 years old, I have 80's/90's rock/metal in my stereo at the moment, so "driveable" for me might be "unacceptable" for someone listening to Lionel Richie or KC and the Sunshine Band.

I installed almost all the HCI components at once, so I can't really tell you how installing the MSD/102 or WCCH heads/K501 would affect the car independently from each other.

With the K501 and the tuning touch of Mike at www.vengeancepcm.com, I keep rpms at 1500 or so in parking lots, this cam will require you to do about twice as much clutch work to keep things civil, compared to the stock cam, if there's a school zone I stay above 1700 rpm in second gear at about 20 mph. Any less, and it will be a ticket to surgetown. Third gear is settled by about 1400-1500 around 30 mph'ish, Fourth gear will tolerate about 1200-1300 around 40 mph. Once above 45 mph, fifth and sixth will be "ok" with whatever rpm you throw at them, on flat ground. If you are lugging it around in sixth gear around 50 mph you will have to downshift to fifth or fourth edit: on uphills or you will encounter surging from the additional load. At 60 Mph downshifts are no longer needed at all, the cam is now very smooth at 1200, uphills, downhills, flatground. At 70 mph, the cam feels stock again, not a single hiccup, ZERO surging.

At anything below 70 mph, anyone who has driven a cammed LS7 will be able to tell the car has a cam in it, don't believe the "zero surging" claims made by some major people on this forum. The surging is there, hiding in the shadows, and a properly calibrated seat of the pants butt will feel the faint feeling of towing a trailer with a rope sensation that ultra minor surging feels like. It's not full blown head jerking surging, it's just a minor interference of the smooth V8 firing order of the stock cam. The good news...give it a couple months, and you'll be a absolutely acclimated to it. But to avoid any kind of relapse, it's probably better that you go ahead and never drive a stock cammed car ever again, because you will instantly find out just how many "drive arounds" you have created in order to tame your cammed beast. Driving adaptations like "California rolls" through empty four way intersections, slipping the clutch while in parking lot situations, higher rpms around town. With the stock cam, you can pimp slap the pedals like a complete noob and it won't bite you. You just can't do that with a K501.

I cruise between 62 and 70 mph. 62 is smooth, MPG is still high. 70 is stock silky smooth, MPG is still great.

I have the Monster LT1-S with the lightened flywheel option. The monster uses a stingray twin disc, so it is factory smooth when being slipped, pedal effort is same as stock, basically it's as good as stock, except I gained 9 rwhp and 7 rwtq with the lower moment of inertia of the smaller diameter clutch. The lightened flywheel makes driving the LS7 an absolute delight, throttle blips actually make the tach needle move, rev matching for downshifts is now a complete breeze and makes me feel like a pro (im not!). The only downside, I use a minor throttle blip from a dead stop to help give the flywheel some added inertia to get the car rolling. I am sure some additional clutch slip would achieve the same result, but I have not perfected that yet.
Because there will be additional clutch slippage needed when installing the K501, I give this clutch and light flywheel my highest recommendation. It's perfect for the combo, the light pedal effort and organic linings make parking lots very smooth, zero chatter. Do not get a metallic lining, they cannot claim zero chatter, and for me, chatter is annoying, especially when you hit the left pedal 50 times while commuting. Last caveat, the stock LT1 clutch discs are unsprung hubs, so you will hear some gear rattle in neutral, clutch out. But it's a very faint sound while tranny is hot, and extremely faint with tranny cold. My .070" lifter preloaded valvetrain makes almost as much noise, so it's a moot point. Especially if you have headers, you will barely even hear it, and you have to be trying to hear it.

I hope that helps. I look forward to learning more about how your combo turns out!!


Josh

AzDave47

Josh, excellent write-up on your K501 build. I fall in the latter music group as I started racing Datsun (anyone still remember that name?) 510's in SCCA when they were new. My cam'd V8 experience is with a Ford NASCAR 358CI with 9:1 CR which dyno'd at 605HP@7200RPM with 750 CFM carb and a full race torque cam - it was fine by 2500 RPM around the paddock (redline was 8400 if you wanted frequent rebuilds, or 7600 which is what I used).

I've read a lot of write-ups on cam'd street car drivability. The parking lot experience you mentioned agrees with what my prospective builder indicated. I'm going with a McLoed RXT dual disk clutch and SS flywheel, to improve low speed surge. WIth my build (similar to yours) I should easily achieve my performance goals, primarily to top 200 MPH without wind aid in the Mojave Magnum (1 1/2 mile trap speed). With the Mojave events, you get your 1-mile trap speed time as well. I'm hoping to improve that by about 12 MPH over my current stock configuration (stock acceleration drops off once you shift into 5th). I haven't done any 1/2 mile events yet, but we have a few of those out here, so I will get to some.

The Highlander

Josh

Great review.

Mike is the best.

Josh B.

Thanks Dave. Your combo sounds awesome. The Mojave Mile sounds intense!! Have you considered modifying the factory trans with ZR1 5th and 6th ratios? Those might be better suited to events such as the Mojave Mile where WOT shifts between 4th and 5th can make the difference between winning and losing. You're right, the jump from 4th to 5th in our Z06 ratios makes the LS7 fall on its face, then slowly come back to life. The problem though is that the Z06 just lost 1000' of runway trying to regain the momentum it just lost. A ZR1 5th gear would put the LS7 right back into the meat and potatoes of the powerband, not the vegetables...

AzDave47

Mojave has both the mile and mile and a half. I'm looking for 200+ in the 1 1/2. They have non-roll cage cars with the proper safety gear teched to 200 plus a 5 MPH breakout. I anticipate I should be able to do close to the 205 with stock Z06 tranny gears which should have me right in the power peak of my build thru the traps with the stock 5th gear. I was at 6300 in 5th stock with a strong tail wind. I want to do the runs fast without the wind.

I am aware of the two ZR1 6-speed gear sets and they'd definitely be better in the mile. Maybe later!