SpinMonster

A friend put in a LG exectutive cam whose specs are very small. (Less than 220 intake duration) The cam made 450rwhp without touching heads. The car also had a callaway air intake and LG headers. The owner like so many other corvette owners was concerned about the warranty so he decided that a small cam would be needed.

A call to LG got him in touch with Louis (jr.) who said the drivabilty, idle, and ease of tuning were so close to stock that a dealership wouldnt know it had a cam in it. The cam actually runs on the stock tune pretty good. Most of the tune was adding some timing in some places, usually 4 degrees or so. Low end TQ is near 360 at 3000 rpms. If the car went in for warranty work and they flashed the car's PCM it would still run fine.

Louis said he got these same results on several cars so perhaps he will chime in with a dyno sheet for one of them.

25rwhp from such a small cam is likely what most weekend gettaway drivers need. Its an option many would want. Its funny; in 2001 a max effort head/cam car was 420rwhp now a baby cam only install does 30HP more. Kewl.

BLU-BY-U

excellent results. I've been waiting for someone to do a little cam and let the chips fall where they may....low end tq sounds great for a primary city driver that isn't so concerned with dyno queen championships and enjoys driving the darn thing

SpinMonster

The specs look to me to be great for superchared applications.

k0bun

Damn LS3s

need-for-speed

Now THAT's a compliment (and I'm being sincere)

SpinMonster

If you put LS3 heads on an LS2 you will dyno 420/420 with headers, CAI, tune, and stock cam. LS3's come with modded heads from an LS2 point of view. Even though SLP did it and posted the results, I will be doing it to Craigster05's car. Heads only..

If you take a bone stock LS2 and only swap the heads, you get 385/385 to the wheels with just a tune. The heads are so good that attempts at porting the LS3 heads on an LS3 adds 6hp. The difference is about 10hp at best. SLP put the LS3 heads on an LS2 and got 425 with bolt-ons and the stock cam. See their site.

LS2's with LS3 heads and the same LG cam (that makes 500rwhp on an LS3) are at 490rwhp on the LS2. Cam for cam its a 10rwhp difference. The heads are 175 bucks each.

knkali

cant find the E specs on their cam selection. Anyone?

SpinMonster

LG doesnt post cam specs. Although I know them, I have to respect their policy. Its under 220 intake duration and works well with stock DCR.

k0bun

I'm H/C/I anyway so it really doesn't matter to me. It just amazes me how little it takes to get fully built LS2 power out of an LS3.

Ragtop 99

Nice to see LG experimenting on the small end.
Did it pick it about 20 ft-lbs accross a pretty wide range?

Seems like 216/224 114 would probably sneak by on a stock tune. Crank it down to a 112 LSA & ICL using an LSK intake and Xer exhaust and you have a pretty mean little cam that wouldn't need a lot of tuning to idle and run smooth.

Craigster05

Maybe we will sneak a cam in there with the new LS3 FAST anyway.....

Silverspeed

Interesting imfo...

welcome2try

vetracer

I can't not comment on this...

LG did a H/C package on my LS2 (06 A6) with the LS3 heads and intake and "executive" cam. I disagree with the statement that the cam is so mild that you wouldn't even know it had one. If that is the case then I do not have the same cam that I asked for. The cam isn't extreme but it isn't so close to stock that you wouldn't notice it. I've ordered a higher stall converter for mine because it cannot be made to idle well enough to keep it from pushing when it is in drive. The car also shakes more than with the stock cam. Once the converter is in it should be acceptable as a street car.

The horsepower gains were impressive, though it made 458 RWHP and 436 RWTQ with LG headers, UD pulley, and a Vararam in addition to the H/C and intake.

No bashing intended here, I was and still am happy with the work I had done on the car but thought I should share my opinion for those considering this cam.

Mike V.

Will a LSX FAST 90 (LS1/2) intake work on an LS2 w/ LS3 heads. Spin, I think you know where I'm going here.

knkali

no I dont think it will

0Louis @ LG Motorsports

Vetracer (Shannon), this is a different cam You had the G5x1, which is a little more than 10* duration bigger than this cam! I have idle clips of both, and we should have them up soon, as we did another car similar to yours.

The LS3 executive cam literally idles and drives like stock. You can hear a hint of lope with the flaps open, but thats about it. Flaps closed, you would never know there was anything done, until you put your foot in it

Ill post the graph later tonight, but we picked up power everywhere, and you can feel it. Final numbers with the G6xExecutive cam, mildly ported intake manifold, LG longtubes with cats(!) and a callaway intake were 460/441 Its very linear, very predictable

375 rwtq @3k, and 352 rwtq @ 2400

Louis

SpinMonster

The only real difference is the heads. All the parts needed to get an LS2 to the same level in power is actually only 1250 in parts.

Or you can look at it that for 1800 (heads complete with springs and bigger fuel injectors on the intake manifold), an LS2 comes within 10rwhp of the LS3. The LS3 does have to change the valve springs which actually makes the difference in parts only 1250 bucks.

A fully built LS3 is 1250 cheaper. How else do I minimize the difference. Everytime someone posts that they got 425 rwhp and rwtq and is amazed that it is only bolt-ons is truly missing the point. If you put those heads on an LS2 and have the exact same other parts you would be near 420/420. The heads actually make more TQ which is the biggest difference. If you get a big cam, the heads have to come off to fly-cut and mill for proper compression. That said an LS3 with my cam as a cam only install wont make make the same power because I bumped the compression. A 3/4 point difference in compression by not milling the LS3's heads making it a cam only install is where the difference goes to zero. The power difference is 10rwhp at peak and 15rwtq at peak. A cam only LS3 and an LS2 with the same heads milled for the higher compression will likely match the power output.

While Im impressed with all these 490-505 rwhp LS3's my cam is 6 degrees smaller on intake duration and is effectlvely producing 485rwhp (471 through 4.10's). I dont see the difference being as stellar as most think it is. My cam is 228 intake diration on a 114 LSA which means I have awesome drivability and a very wide power range. I have seen many cammed LS3's, and my TQ is very close. I havent seen a 228 cam in an LS3 yet but I'm sure of my guess.

The difference between the LS6 and the LS2 was a bore increase 70% more than the LS2 to LS3 jump. Tony Mamo's head cam combo produces a 5rwhp difference from the LS6 to LS2. The bore isnt what made the real difference to the LS3. It is the heads.

When I do Craigster's car, it will have LG headers, vararam, LS3 heads, stock cam and a good tune....he has 4.10 gears so adjuting for the 12rwhp you lose at the 400rwhp level, I expect his car to make 405/405 to the wheels. C6DVL's car with 4.10's and the exact other mods did 415 through 4.10's. Same headers, same intake, same heads. The cam difference isnt even worth mentioning.

LG (louis) has done the same cam in both an LS3 and a LS2 with LS3 heads. He saw a 10rwhp difference. All other mods the same.

SpinMonster

No but when a FAST comes out for the LS3 heads it is stated to be a bigger difference than the FAST 90 made on the LS2. I saw the direction this was going when the escalade came out with these heads. Long before the first LS3 hit the roads, my car had the LS3 heads. I traded up on the parts to be ready for the new platform if you can call it that. It took quite some time to nail down the tune. When I did, the curve was remarkably similar to the first 08 I scanned. I was proud.

I am waiting because while Cartek isnt buying into the LS3 heads, they will everntually ahve to since the heads are now standard. Dave told me that they are early in R&D work with these heads and I didnt want to jump in on a product that isnt optimized yet.

Some of the CNC ported LS3 heads arent doing squat for the power curve. One of the more popular companies is losing low end TQ for a 6hp jump at the top end. That is considered a stage 3 head. Fully CNC'd runners, valve job, stainless valves, springs capable of .650 lift and chamber work. They flow huge numbers but that only validates heads from other tuners/vendors that have heads that flow 50CFM less and beat the performance. The LS3 head is really that good. I think of the LS3 as comming with a trick flow aftermarket head. Bone stock and healthy cams are closing in on 500rwhp. It isnt worth 2k for the cnc'd versions that are available for the LS3 heads.

The tune is very much more involved than the 243 heads. Those who try to run a stock timing curve will see a nice dip in the 3-4k range. You cant tune an LS3 headed LS2 in 4 dyno pulls. It took me 15 hours and I can tune a typical H/C car in less than 3.

PowerLabs

This thread got me really interested in LS3 heads..
However, wouldn't you lose compression since they are 70ccs?
And wouldn't the piston/head combustion chamber quench area be altered? I would imagine that these heads would form a small ring shaped pocket around the top of the cylinder since they were designed for a larger bore... I would be worried about carbon residue accumulation there causing a hotspot...

Any thoughts on that?