L31 towing cam upgrade

[Supercharged111]

Yikes! When I worked at a boat shop, we always tack welded the pickup tubes for this very reason.

This is on my LT1.

You must be registered for see images attach

Here's the before pic. Whoever last had their hands on this engine needs to be prevented from reproducing

You must be registered for see images attach

I twisted that pickup tube out of the pump by hand. Yes it was pointed up the whole time, thing wouldn't have spun a bearing if the pickup were in the bottom of the pan. This was 2015, she's still kicking today.

Oh, and I'll say I'm shifting my 395 cammed motor at 5500. . . but I think the blower is stretching the powerband a bit.

 

[kylenautique]

This is on my LT1.

You must be registered for see images attach

Here's the before pic. Whoever last had their hands on this engine needs to be prevented from reproducing

You must be registered for see images attach

I twisted that pickup tube out of the pump by hand. Yes it was pointed up the whole time, thing wouldn't have spun a bearing if the pickup were in the bottom of the pan. This was 2015, she's still kicking today.

Oh, and I'll say I'm shifting my 395 cammed motor at 5500. . . but I think the blower is stretching the powerband a bit.

Smart! I welded mine too.

 

[kylenautique]

She's up and running with the new engine! Took about 40 hours to pull out the old engine, clean and transfer parts, install the new engine and get it fired off. Only real hiccups was the exhaust manifolds. They just fought us when reinstalling them on the new engine. It was weird... We took a break, came back to it the next morning, and they all bolted up with hardly any issues. Its running pretty good. I'm going to have my tuner make some adjustments regarding the new cam. It starts a little rough. The ECM needs some tweaking.. Other than that, it runs great! I've got 107 miles on it so far breaking it in.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[kylenautique]

Well, I've decided that the engine rebuild/swap just wasn't enough pain and suffering, so I'm going to swap out my black box ECM with the 0411. I figure if I'm going to re-tune the truck, might as well do it with a much better ECM... That's my next week project.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

You ended up with the 08-409-8?

 

[kylenautique]

Yeah the 08-049-8 is the cam I installed.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Best guess, you probably need to turn the Torx screw on the throttle body clockwise 1 full turn, opening the throttle blade a bit. I have had to do that on every L31 that has even a mild cam in it. Once you can get a good datalog, I like HOT IAC counts with nothing on, in Park/Neutral to be around 20-25 counts. When you get the 0411 in, will need to datalog to correct the Base Running Airflow and the IAC flow tables.

My normal 0411/P59 tuning is to adjust the MAF table first if it needs small adjustments by setting the maximum rpm for dynamic blend to 400 rpm in the airflow, dynamic tab. Then I set that to ~6,000 rpm, fail the MAF and adjust the VE table while still being able to datalog the MAF.

 

[kylenautique]

Best guess, you probably need to turn the Torx screw on the throttle body clockwise 1 full turn, opening the throttle blade a bit. I have had to do that on every L31 that has even a mild cam in it. Once you can get a good datalog, I like HOT IAC counts with nothing on, in Park/Neutral to be around 20-25 counts. When you get the 0411 in, will need to datalog to correct the Base Running Airflow and the IAC flow tables.

My normal 0411/P59 tuning is to adjust the MAF table first if it needs small adjustments by setting the maximum rpm for dynamic blend to 400 rpm in the airflow, dynamic tab. Then I set that to ~6,000 rpm, fail the MAF and adjust the VE table while still being able to datalog the MAF.

Yeah I tried that the other day. My truck was in the shop getting the hood replaced, so I've been waiting to make some adjustments. It went in the 2 days after the engine swap was completed. It seemed to like 3/4 of a turn the best. Tried a cold start this morning. It was 32deg outside. Fired up pretty good, and it idles better now. I'm picking up the 0411 tonight. Its got an express van tune ready to go for me. Just need to find the time to pin the wires into the new connectors.

 

[Frank Enstein]

I actually broke out some engine modeling software a few minutes ago. I modeled a stock L31 then added the 08-500-8, the 08-409-8 cam as well as the Summit 8800. The Summit 8800 also carries nearly identical specs. The power curves of all 3 you could lay over the top of each other with the only difference being under 2,000 rpm and above 5,000 rpm. At 1,500 rpm the 08-409-8 cam is about 5 ft/lbs stronger than the 08-500-8. At 5,500 rpm the 08-500-8 makes about 5 more hp than the 08-409-8. Then comes along the 8800. When I plugged in the specs off the Summit cam card, the 8800 was down about 10 ft/lbs at 1,500 rpm but up 10 hp at 5,500. I then noticed that the 8800 shows to drop in on a 111 ICL with a 112 LSA. The Comp cams both have 4* advance. Like any engine builder in the same situation, I modeled the effect of using the inexpensive Cloyes single roller 3-way adjustable timing set advancing the cam 4*. The 8800 fell right between the 08-409-8 and the 08-500-8. It splits the difference down low as well as up top and fell right in the middle of the two Comp Cams on the extreme ends. From 2,000-5,000 rpm the computer model does not show more than 1-2 tq or hp difference anywhere between the 3 cams. Given the cost difference and Comp Cams lack of availability, I would go with the Summit 8800 and Cloyes 9-1157.

I was going to recommend the 8800.
I would put it in on a 108 ICL like your test showed too!

 

[Frank Enstein]

Yeah the 08-049-8 is the cam I installed.

I think you mean CCA-08-409-8 right?