Marks2604

Hey guys,
I own a 2001 C5 corvette with the auto 4spd, it’s my daily driver but I’ve been wanting to make more power out of it, what would be the best cam upgrade for daily use. And on top of that what are required or must do upgrades/mods that I’d need before even thinking of camming it. I already upgraded the oem harmonic balancer, spark plugs, but I do also plan on upgrading to the Ls6 intake manifold, getting long tube headers, upgrading the throttle body, but what else should I look into before cams.

Eshoremd

You should already have a LS6 intake manifold.

Markolc1981

Headers/exhaust first. That might make more power than a mild cam.

There are hundreds of off the shelf "streetable" LS cams out there. You need to be very honest about the goals of your car before one can make such recommendations.

You also live in the worst state for emmissions controls, so hopefully you have a way around that.

smitty2919

Nope....not on a base auto car. LS6 manifold only came on LS6 equipped Z06's.

Eshoremd

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...s6-intake.html

smitty2919

I'll have to do some more digging on this, but if true, I stand corrected!

Eshoremd

What's your budget?

Smoken1

My 02 vert has the LS6 intake manifold

MazdaCorvette

I had a Michigan Motorsports Stage 3 drift cam installed alongside longtubes, 40 lb injectors, and a CAI (among many replacement parts) and I must say that the car could still be daily driven depending on your commute. I had it tuned by an LS god by the name of JSPEED TUNING in Gastonia, NC so that might have helped a lot. I still get 22mpg hwy and 10-14mpg around town depending on how aggressive I drive. My only complaints that are "unfixable" due to the cam being so big are that the car bucks a good bit under 1700RPM in every gear BUT 6th and the MCLEOD clutch I had put in is absolute crap but that can be remedied with an LS7 clutch/flywheel setup for an easy OEM+ upgrade but you'd be doing a high stall torque converter. Also being completely catless can make sitting in traffic pretty bad at times. Id probably have gone with a BTR stage 2 if I didn't have 2 other cars to daily. Putting down a conservative 420WHP btw

Beast

I’m going to say my .02 cents on here. You already upgraded the balancer, so I’m assuming your car is back together and you’re driving it. I would definitely get longtubes, high flow cats, and an xpipe. You should get 30-40 rear wheel just from that. Being an A4 trans, I upgraded my diff to a 3.73 and 3200 stall, yours being a daily driver, you might want to consider maybe a 3.42 diff and 3200 stall before a cam swap. A diff and stall will make a strong mid range cam run so much better. If your still on stock Horsepower levels I’m guessing your 1/4 mile time is anywhere from 13.2-13.4 in good air. With mods mentioned above and stock internals and on a street tire, my best 1/4 mile is 12.5 @ 111mph. I have drag radials in my garage for track purposes only, I’m hoping to expect a 12.2-12.3 time, this summer. I’ll post times later this year.

Just something to think about before you tear the engine down, unless you already did. 😳

Do you have a 2.73 or 3.15 diff???

benflynn

I run a tsunami v2 and everything else, ot drives like it has a cam in it but with the 6spd and lightweight it seems fine to me, plenty of tq cruising in 6th at 1500.

eh, with A4, d say 221/228 ish and a cheap SC

Mc556

With the auto you really need to think out how far you want to go before you start down this path. Everything I say from here out is based on a daily driven automatic car.
Once you commit to anything other than a very mild cam you’re really going to need a converter swap. Also you can’t just expect the car to make usable power with cam running everything else stock. You will have a motor making power in higher rpm range while still bogged down and in the lower RPMs with the stock converter at 1200 stall The result for a daily driver will be a car slower off the line and in acceleration in passing etc.
A 3:42 z06 take out gear and a 2800 conveyer swap will make the car accelerate so much faster. I guarantee you would blow the doors off a stock ls1 with just a small cam and no other mods.


I would recommend this approach
The gear along with air intake and exhaust would be stage 1 . Tune stage 1.5 . Long tube headers converter stage 2. Cam and Heads stage 3.

If you keep the stock stall you’re always going to be disappointed. However if you do the gear will be the most noticeable change. Especially if you have the 2:73 ratio now ( 3:15 was a dealer option)