September, the goodies have started to arrive! By this point, I was tired of waiting and holding off. I knew what I needed, so from a military installation far from home, I started to place orders and let the goodies find their way to my house. Much of it was from GPI's website, which if you order it from the website and have it delivered to your home instead of having it delivered to GPI in Arkansas, saves you tax.
So right here we have the meat and potatoes; I came home from a month long training event to find these boxes waiting for me: Theres my new SS4 cam and its installation kit which includes an AFM/DoD delete, lifters, pushrods, lifter baskets, dogbone style dampener, to name a few. My Powerbond damper was at GPI on the shelf waiting for me. Theres the Circle D 4k converter, the ADM trans cooler I got from Janettyracing, and lastly, some Nitto NTO5R drag radials. 305/45/18s. Only at this point, I am wondering where the wheels are that I ordered... But I had my drop off date on September 21st to think about.
I dropped off the Camaro on September 21 as scheduled, and met the crew. Ryan was busy rod modding an intake manifold. He and I discussed tuning aspects including idle quality, shift points, shift firmness, and converter lockup.
Keeping character, I made sure to do my follow up and check progress of the job, so here is my car under the knife. They used the Lindy tool to flycut the pistons to ensure adequate PTV clearance. This was a big mamma jamma of a cam goin in!
And another angle. Look at those intake ports!
If only there were some kind of "can" that could maybe..I dunno.. "catch" some of that stuff before it accumulates
I returned to GPI a week later, as Ryan was putting the finishing touches on the street tune. James informed me that the car was about 4x louder now with this new cam, (it was still straightpipe exhaust). I almost couldn't believe it, until Ryan pulled the car into the garage and strapped it to the dyno. I simply thought, wow. The idle lope was substantial. It sounded like a completely different car, it sounded mean.
I got a video of the dyno tune, but it was so loud, not only did it hurt my ears, but the speakers on the phone wouldn't even pick it up. It was more or less a cacophany of harsh noise to the phone's speakers. Ryan raised the rpms through the gears then covered both his ears, put the pedal to the floor and let 'er rip with a deafening LS-style scream to 7300rpm. I almost dropped my phone, trying to cover my ears, as the volume exceeded my expectations by a decibel or two..or three.. And the results:
474rwhp@6400rpm and 430 ft/lbs@4800rpm.
Right along the lines of my expectations with a cam-only L99 car. You can see that the cam pulls strong way out past the peak, but the stock manifold, heads, and throttle body are saying NOPE. You can also see the VVT at work in the curve.
I want to say that GPI
is a top notch shop with a great crew full of proficient, helpful, friendly, and energetic individuals that have my loyalty. Thanks guys! I proudly joined the ranks of those with a cammed 5th Gen! The Camaro drove COMPLETELY different. The combo of the SS4 cam with the 4k stall converter and the 3.91 gears with the aggressive 1st gear of the SS all worked together in harmony, delivering good get-up-and-go, the broad curve of the VVT doing its work, and the top end of a big cam. The drive home entailed getting followed by a trooper, and when I pulled over into a parking lot, he got out and smiled and said, I'm not pulling you over, I just wanted a closer look at this thing! He then asked if he could get a video of it idling! After a chat, I headed back home, feeling great!
Stay tuned for Chapter 3, the wheel debacle, the suspension upgrades, and getting this thing to the track. I am going to start including more videos, both street and strip, as there was only one thing left to do: test this thing at the drag strip!