Texas Speed and Modern Muscle Review (long)

[fuffl]

Hey All. You might remember me as the first doofus to blow up his Camaro :( Well now I'm back and operational and thought I'd share my experiences with those out there in the C5 world. If you're short on time just skip to the summary at the bottom.

First...the engine! - by Texas Speed

I blew up my LS3 and ordered a new motor from Texas Speed in December of last year. I boxed up all the remaining useful parts (sadly just 1 head, rockers and springs) shipped them down and began to wait for my beast to arrive.

Because the motor specs are the most important thing...here they are!
LS3 block stroked and bored to 427ci
Ported and polished heads from Texas Speed
Callies forged crank and rods
Wiesco forged pistons
238/248 .605/.615 114LSA custom ground cam with Comp duals and chrome-moly pushrods
1.7 Harland Sharp rockers
1 7/8" American Racing long tubes with 3" catless X-pipe

Assembling the engine is supposed to take 2-3 weeks with an extra one tacked on while I shipped my parts down there. I had to move 2.5 months later and still had no motor. So I packed up boxes and bags of parts and moved to the Chicago area. I'd already yanked the stock motor. After another month and a half of this my motor finally arrived. Note: for those counting...4 months is a lot more than one. But now that my motor was here I could begin the install

Modern Muscle in Oswego, IL

These guys really went above and beyond the call of duty for me. When I moved to the Chicago area I didn't have a place to store my car (I thought the motor would be around on Monday...so what was the big deal, right?). As you'll notice above that's not exactly how it happened. These guys were kind enough to keep my rolling car on their property while I waited for the motor. Keep in mind this car didn't run, they had to push it inside at night and outside during the day. In the meantime I figured I'd buy a clutch while the motor was out. One of the workers had a GTO with a Monster Stage 4 clutch. I was worried about driveability so he said "here's the key-take it for a spin". No take-my-word cuz Ive got one. Not here. He sent me out in his custom painted candy purple GTO to check out the clutch!

After the motor arrived it quickly became clear that my organizational skills are poor. A few parts were missing and a few more were broken. No complains from Modern Muscle...even though my immobile car was taking up much-needed space in their shop. We patiently awaited the parts to arrive.

Now lets fast forward to a happier day...Dyno Day! I'd read up on the TS motors in some magazines (good read here http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...rt2/index.html ) and was quite excited. Jason on here put down 500 at the wheels on stock displacement so i was really excited to see what my 7.0 would do. Sadly it topped out at 490hp/475tq. This was a little disappointing, but Justin at Modern Muscle really nailed the tune with a butter smooth A/F all the way through. Most of the stroker motors around were making 20-40 more hp so something was amiss. The gentlemen at Texas Speed suggested that it was likely the fact that I don't have CAI and the motor was choking. This seems reasonable and I'll post an update when I get paid and get it dynod with the intake.

Summary:
Overall my experience with Texas Speed was OK. The wait was quite disappointing but in the end they delivered me a really big motor. They were kind enough to include a goody or two for free to offset the wait. Through the whole process John was very friendly. In the end my opinion will be made or broken on the amount of power I am able to get. If the intake nets 20-25hp on this big ol' motor I'll be a happy man.

Modern Muscle was fantastic. They did a great job dealing with things that were out of their control while making me feel like a valued customer. Fun guys, excellent tune, and fair pricing...I don't really know that there's much more to say here. If you're in the Chicago-land area it's certainly worth the wait to get in line.

[jrpxxii]

Just curious, what were you told the engine would make from Texas Speed when you got it? I will say, larger cubes need alot of air so I would say you will see some big gains with CAI.

[RedJewel2SS]

good review, when i move to midland i would like to take my car there IF i'm impressed with their VVT cam and valvetrain development.

have you decided on an intake yet?

if i might make a suggestion: ADM Performance Race Intake

i have one as do others and i was very impressed. it relocates the MAF sensor inside the sealed box to prevent heatsoak, and the intake scoop grabs cold air right from the front lower grill, just like "ram air".

if you look at the 1/4-mile fast list sticky, the top 3 camaros in the bolt-ons category without drag radials have this intake

[fuffl]

Just curious, what were you told the engine would make from Texas Speed when you got it?

- Nothing specific. I think generally places shy away from estimating on custom builds because it's so hard to tell what they'll make.

have you decided on an intake yet?

- Nope, but ADM is on my short list. I'm going to add a 102mm throttle body and FAST intake manifold eventually, but that's a way off. Whatever I get will need to be a good pairing with that.

[RedJewel2SS]

Originally Posted by fuffl

- Nothing specific. I think generally places shy away from estimating on custom builds because it's so hard to tell what they'll make.

- Nope, but ADM is on my short list. I'm going to add a 102mm throttle body and FAST intake manifold eventually, but that's a way off. Whatever I get will need to be a good pairing with that.

on the fast intake and tb, your throwing your money away, when you can get a ported intake and tb for half the price, but that just my opinion

[tvwilkes]

Can't go wrong with Teaxs Speed. They are a great company to deal with.

[|BLACKSS|]

a few years back i ordered a 408 stroke short block from them i already had there heads ms3 cam and fast 90/90 setup longtubes 3" true dual exhaust with x pipe underdrive pully msd coils and wires the works and did there mail order tuning the car made 380rwhp and was using 1 quart of oil ever 800 miles could not find were the oil was going the car didnt smoke at all so i took it to a local shop after texas speed couldnt tell me what was wrong the tuner there said that the mail order tune was still set to stock air fuel was all jacked up it was a mess after the tuner retuned it..it made 420rwhp and had to add a lot of timing so i had them open the motor and we found that 2 cylinder walls were egg shaped...had the block machine and put new rings in retuned and the car made 495rwhp cost me and extra $3000 i still like Texas Speed just wont buy a short block from them ever again or do mail order tune $125 and the ecu was still at stock I still think they are a good company they make really good cams and heads im excited about there new L99 packages...i just had a bad shortblock experence

[fuffl]

Ended up going with a fastlane CAI. It gained 19hp/9tq.

The dyno run:

Sound courtesy of American racing headers/X-pipe (thanks Camaro5 Group buy!) and stock mufflers. Does anyone know of a good muffler swap that isn't a full catback? These things are hideous and I want some deeper sound.

[bigsquirrel]

Nice man, are those stock wheels painted black?

[fuffl]

Yeah. Black powdercoat with gold flakes to match the IOM paint. Just can't see the flakes inside.

Side note, probably would look better with no flakes. haha

[bigsquirrel]

That is a very nice look might have to steal it ;-)

[Bad70supreme]

This is why I will be going with a mild cam and low boost setup on my stock motor!