Build Thread – The Misadventures of a Cam Swap

Last summer I wanted to make my TA faster so I added long tubes, an off road Y and a Magnaflow cat back. While I was at it I decided to take off the air pump and egr and put in new sparkplugs. Since I didn’t get it tuned It actually got slower. (I lost to a stock LT1)



So last winter I figured I needed to do a cam, intake and head swap, and then get it tuned. (It was supposed to be very simple) I pulled the engine out taking my time figuring I had plenty of time and still get done by spring. When I was putting it back together I found out that my valves where hitting my pistons, so I needed to fly cut my pistons. Not wanting to get any filings in my drive train I decided to have someone with all the machining tools do it for me. Someone I know used him and had a good experience so I felt good taking it to him. (More on that later)



When the pistons came out he said they needed to be replaced due to and excessive amount of blow by, I found a new set of diamond pistons off LS1tech for a good price and took them out to him. While I was changing the pistons I figured I might as well get forged rods to go with the forged pistons. Since I had most of the parts already it was best to do a full rebuild.
Fast forward 6 months and delaying my tune after being told I would have my engine back in time I get the call saying my engine was done. The problem is the cost was $600.00 more then what was quoted to me. This pissed me off so I just put the car on the back burner for a couple months. After I got done being pissy about it I decided to pick up my engine.



I went out and paid the extra and got my engine, but before I loaded it up I was told that my cam has a micro-fracture in it, before it went it I was called and told it was a scuff and that most of it could be buffed out and it would be fine. At this point I just wanted my engine back so I took it (the port matching on the intake that I asked for didn’t get done either)
Over the next couple weeks I put the engine in the car and lined up my tune, when I get down there I find out that they won’t put it on the dyno because a stock drive shaft is not balanced and wouldn’t handle the speeds the car would hit on the pulls. So I said check everything out so I know it is ready for when I bring it back.



This is when I get told that when the intake was installed that it wasn’t put on correctly and I have a vacume leak coming from my intake and my O2 sensors were bad, I had them swap out the sensors and do most of the computer tuning so I would be able to drive it.



Then this week I took the car in to get an alignment so it is good to go, not even that can go as planned. I was told my passenger side wheel hub needs to be replaced. The hubs are the only thing I didn’t replace over the summer when I had the K member out of the car.



This week I picked up a new intake to put on and that leaves a cam swap for winter



To be continued………………..

I hate when shit never goes right. Keep with it!!


and thats come crazy jacking up!! looks like it's about to launch in to space. lol

Man this is such a typical "jerk you around" type of thing that always seems to happen to people. Cars are the worst and best hobby ever.

I like the new intake

JDMasfck wrote:

thats come crazy jacking up!! looks like it's about to launch in to space. lol

No its just an F Body! they do wheelies without engines, thats how fast they are!

so you pretty much never got to drive your car at all this year? that sucks.

Sorry to hear about your problems, thats cars though

Are you sure that a STOCK LT1 beat you after long tubes and catback? Unless you had traction issues I just cant see that happening.

bigbird94 wrote:

Sorry to hear about your problems, thats cars though

Are you sure that a STOCK LT1 beat you after long tubes and catback? Unless you had traction issues I just cant see that happening.

Oh it did, it did.


But hey now you have the NAWZ so those pesky LTWON's will not be beating up on you anymore.

...unless they sneeze some nawz themselves

was this is a dig race?

yeah it was a dig, i didnt have a problem with traction, the car was falling on its face coming out of the hole stumbling until it hit higher rpms. it was a 14 sec pos at the time

mtperformance wrote:

bigbird94 wrote:

Sorry to hear about your problems, thats cars though

Are you sure that a STOCK LT1 beat you after long tubes and catback? Unless you had traction issues I just cant see that happening.

Oh it did, it did.


But hey now you have the NAWZ so those pesky LTWON's will not be beating up on you anymore.

the nitrous is for those pesky turbo guys, the motor is enough for a LT1

I gained power when I added LT's to my 02 T/A and that was untuned. Must have screwed something up.

GTSLOW wrote:

I gained power when I added LT's to my 02 T/A and that was untuned. Must have screwed something up.

good chance

it has more to do with removing the rear O2 sensors, air pump and EGR. the computer didnt have the right fuel ratio. low RPMs had no power but once you got going and built RPMs then it had more power

twistedpower wrote:

mtperformance wrote:

bigbird94 wrote:

Sorry to hear about your problems, thats cars though

Are you sure that a STOCK LT1 beat you after long tubes and catback? Unless you had traction issues I just cant see that happening.

Oh it did, it did.


But hey now you have the NAWZ so those pesky LTWON's will not be beating up on you anymore.

the nitrous is for those pesky turbo guys, the motor is enough for a LT1

I will give you a chance to back that statement up.

no problem