Bowtie Brody's Namesake 96 454

[BowtieBrody]

Not much news on the old bucket, just a few interior mods like swapping LEDs into my Esky cluster,

Also threw some badges on, I bought a set of two, and the other one will get mounted on the billet insert when it gets here.

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Trying to research on cams and head work, and I don't know if I should just rebuild the stock heads, port and polish them out, or spring for some aluminum heads; cams is about the same, comparing Comp or Crane cams.
Vortec 454 gurus what do you think? Any sort of internal performance upgrades are a few years down the road, but I'd still like to have my ducks in a row for when I tear into this thing.

 

[98chevy2500SS]

Truck looks killer man! Love ECSB 3/4 tons!

If only they made a 350 emblem like that 454 one...

And I agree with some people having no respect, hate when I see paint scratches in my door from other people's cars. Always remember, take up 4 spots! LOL! That's what I do all the time, everywhere I go, unless it's a small parking lot, I'll be good and take up two, lol.

 

[BowtieBrody]

Truck looks killer man! Love ECSB 3/4 tons!

If only they made a 350 emblem like that 454 one...

And I agree with some people having no respect, hate when I see paint scratches in my door from other people's cars. Always remember, take up 4 spots! LOL! That's what I do all the time, everywhere I go, unless it's a small parking lot, I'll be good and take up two, lol.

My girlfriend always wonders why I park in the back of parking lots, I showed her all the new dents after a trip to Mooresville which required me to park in a bunch of tight spots, she understood after that

And the company I bought these from quite possibly makes 350 badges, it's a CNC'd strip of aluminum with 3M adhesive on the back, I was debating on using squarebody 454 badges but $50 per badge vs $17 for these,

 

[Christian Steffen]

Not much news on the old bucket, just a few interior mods like swapping LEDs into my Esky cluster,

Also threw some badges on, I bought a set of two, and the other one will get mounted on the billet insert when it gets here.

You must be registered for see images attach

Trying to research on cams and head work, and I don't know if I should just rebuild the stock heads, port and polish them out, or spring for some aluminum heads; cams is about the same, comparing Comp or Crane cams.
Vortec 454 gurus what do you think? Any sort of internal performance upgrades are a few years down the road, but I'd still like to have my ducks in a row for when I tear into this thing.

I do like cam swaps on these motors, the stock cam is small and I believe it is set like 6 degrees retarded from the factory which hurts low end torque. Cam swaps are somewhat laborsome though, you could ask @cool_as_crap about that. They require the adjustable rocker conversion, longer pushrods?, and a tune of some sorts. IMO the results are worth the work and money, you just need to be prepared for that.

As far as heads go, if you were going to look down that road, I would just try to find a used whipple, put a cam meant for superchargers in, and buy tuning software instead. You'll be in it for about the same money, and have better low end power with the SC. If you put on new heads, you're going to need to do a cam, and at that point it would need to be dyno tuned by someone in person which costs as much as tuning software. Also, it is my opinion that the intake is the real choke-point in this system, so if you did a head swap you would have to figure out a way to make it flow a bunch more, whereas boost doesn't really care. The results of either option would be awesome though.

I've been kicking around the idea of yanking my heads off to do some port work for awhile, but damn that is quite a bit of work. If I got that far, I wouldn't do much to the intake side except for cleaning up any really rough areas. If you remove too much material on the intake side, you'll reduce port velocity which would hurt low end torque. I would then clean up and rough spots in the combustion chamber, and polish the exhaust runner. I'm not sure yet what I would do to the intake manifold.

 

[BowtieBrody]

I do like cam swaps on these motors, the stock cam is small and I believe it is set like 6 degrees retarded from the factory which hurts low end torque. Cam swaps are somewhat laborsome though, you could ask @cool_as_crap about that. They require the adjustable rocker conversion, longer pushrods?, and a tune of some sorts. IMO the results are worth the work and money, you just need to be prepared for that.

As far as heads go, if you were going to look down that road, I would just try to find a used whipple, put a cam meant for superchargers in, and buy tuning software instead. You'll be in it for about the same money, and have better low end power with the SC. If you put on new heads, you're going to need to do a cam, and at that point it would need to be dyno tuned by someone in person which costs as much as tuning software. Also, it is my opinion that the intake is the real choke-point in this system, so if you did a head swap you would have to figure out a way to make it flow a bunch more, whereas boost doesn't really care. The results of either option would be awesome though.

I've been kicking around the idea of yanking my heads off to do some port work for awhile, but damn that is quite a bit of work. If I got that far, I wouldn't do much to the intake side except for cleaning up any really rough areas. If you remove too much material on the intake side, you'll reduce port velocity which would hurt low end torque. I would then clean up and rough spots in the combustion chamber, and polish the exhaust runner. I'm not sure yet what I would do to the intake manifold.

Forced induction really doesn't toot my horn, I feel like it'd be too much for a daily; and I think I'll probably just stick with the stock heads with a little bit of porting and cleaning; I was researching on Comp's website looking at the 454 camshafts they offer, and there was one that was advertised as being a good all around cam, I don't remember the grind number off the top of my head though;
I don't see where the adjustable rocker arm kit is though, do they still offer it?
A 411 swap seems pretty enticing now with mulling around all the upgrades I'd like to do,

 

[Christian Steffen]

Fair enough, for just daily driver purposes a cam and tune will be plenty (exhaust too right?), a little head work would just be gravy lol Even just a tune makes a big damn difference on these.

Look up the cam PN and post back so we can see.

Actually you probably need to do the 411 swap, unless blackbear can tune the black box? HPT and EFILive only support back to 98 I believe.

Here are the adjustable rockers.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...32XEa_rxpihJo1RAuLGMGuo-QS4pebExoCmdgQAvD_BwE

 

[BowtieBrody]

Fair enough, for just daily driver purposes a cam and tune will be plenty (exhaust too right?), a little head work would just be gravy lol Even just a tune makes a big damn difference on these.

Look up the cam PN and post back so we can see.

Actually you probably need to do the 411 swap, unless blackbear can tune the black box? HPT and EFILive only support back to 98 I believe.

Here are the adjustable rockers.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...32XEa_rxpihJo1RAuLGMGuo-QS4pebExoCmdgQAvD_BwE

Exhaust work most certainly; that's the only thing I've been 100% sure on what I want to do from the start, Gibson shorties, true dual 2 1/2 inch with the tips tucked close to the tires and a Jones MF2468,
I don't see why Black Bear couldn't tune the black box to fit the cam specs and optimize everything, we'll see when it comes time though, I'm thinking about getting the black box tuned around tax return time, just to see how much power I can get with exhaust and a tune before anything drastic,

 

[Christian Steffen]

Exhaust work most certainly; that's the only thing I've been 100% sure on what I want to do from the start, Gibson shorties, true dual 2 1/2 inch with the tips tucked close to the tires and a Jones MF2468,
I don't see why Black Bear couldn't tune the black box to fit the cam specs and optimize everything, we'll see when it comes time though, I'm thinking about getting the black box tuned around tax return time, just to see how much power I can get with exhaust and a tune before anything drastic,

Okay good, exhaust is a must haha

Honestly you'll probably be fairly impressed with the difference that makes.

You may want to check with black bear to verify that he supports 96 trucks though, the computers are different.

 

[BowtieBrody]

Okay good, exhaust is a must haha

Honestly you'll probably be fairly impressed with the difference that makes.

You may want to check with black bear to verify that he supports 96 trucks though, the computers are different.

They do support the 96/early 97 PCMs, they only tune them mail order though,
And that Comp grind is a XR264HR, I'm also looking into Crane Cams , any opinions on them?

 

[98chevy2500SS]

And the company I bought these from quite possibly makes 350 badges, it's a CNC'd strip of aluminum with 3M adhesive on the back, I was debating on using squarebody 454 badges but $50 per badge vs $17 for these,

$17?! Not too shabby! Looks like it is made with quality too.