I accidentally picked up a new zz4 short block for half price, so it looks like my new engine will be finished sooner than expected.  

Any recommendations for a hydraulic cam spec?  

what heads are you going to use, and how much power do you want.  

AFR 195cc heads with beehive springs and shaft rockers.

I also have a 750 cfm Speed Demon and a Victor Jr. manifold that I could use.

I was thinking of trying to go for a wide power curve instead of a peaky one, so it's more fun on the street.  I could easily make 550 hp, but I'm thinking 500 would be sufficient.  

nice bargain    


look into Comp Cams extreme energy hydraulic rollers...they are ground on 110 and offer a broad powerband...

AFR elimataor heads are a great choice...but you will make more TQ and trade off 10-15hp at top end for it with an airgap style manifold and a 1 inch spacer.

sorry for the bad news...but an 'easy'550 is out of the question...more like 440/460 tops...


Q: why the 5  stage dry sump?thats high end drag race stuff...the motor is not set up for dry sump oiling nor has the ring tension to benefit from it...


my 02

al  

And the shaft mount rockers are not needed for a street application. You'll save yourself a good chunk of money just using a good stud mount roller rocker.

As for a cam, I'd get all the specs together on the heads you're gonna use, call the Comp tech line, give them the specs, tell them what you want the motor to make, what kind of car it's going in, if it's an automatic what stall converter you're using, and what rear gear you have. They'll get you hooked up with the right cam.  

The best path to the widest possible power curve is to sell the high r.p.m. and pro race stuff you don't really need (shaft rockers, dry sump(unless you're going road racing)) and INVEST IN TURBOCHARGING.  

Cube for cube, NOTHING can put more "area under the curve" than turbocharging. NOTHING.

The stock ZZ4 has 10:1 compression, so you'd need to keep the boost fairly low unless you fuel with E85 or change the pistons. However, even a low-boost turbo mill could pump out in the neighborhood of 600 h.p. (and massive midrange torque) with a  reasonable street cam.

And unlike the bottle, a turbo is ALWAYS ready to go.  

I already have the oil system with an adapter and shaft rockers from a high-RPM application, so I figured I might as well use them.  I ended up with beehives on the AFRs, so I can still push the RPM envelope if I need to with the shaft rockers.  It's overkill for street, but I do plan to road race occasionally.

On the other hand, I could sell them and use some cash for all the rest of the stuff the short block needs (and it needs a lot!).  Actually, for anyone in the Chicago area I have a 283 corvette 2-bolt with a forged rotating assembly and an extra crank in addition to the shaft rockers and dry sump.  PM if you're interested.

As for the 550 hp, I was a little off.  Car Craft made 522 with a little more compression.  I was thinking of trying to find a hydraulic roller similar to the solid one they used.

Eventually, an RPM Air Gap would be a sweet upgrade.  I'm biased for the Victor Jr. because I got it for $35 with a crack and had it welded for free.  

(delete)  

What about gaskets?  I have some thin steel gaskets from Fel-Pro (I'll have to check the PN after work).  Are those safe with new aluminum heads and a new block?

I'll also need a water pump, timing chain, flywheel, distributor and things like that.  What's the best way to get quality non-overkill parts?  I feel like Autozone would have substandard parts, Summit would charge me too much, and scavenging at a junk yard would require a lot of time and expertise/experience that I lack.  What's the least waste of time and money?  

As far as the cam I would use P#LUN-501A5LUN witch has a .530/.530 lift and is a hyd. roller.  

summit is too much money??try jegs if you wish to NOT support your local speed shop!!!!  

my 02 again...

you will need much more than an adapter to run the dry sump pump...rear main cap need to be changed or a block off plate...scavenge filters..tons oF AN fittings and hose (the big stuff)...a tank..a drive mandrel and pulleys..alternator brackets..plus misc other doodads...

chaching chaching  

I scored a tank, drive mandrel, brackets, et cetera on eBay after NASCAR season.  They needed cleaning and rebuilding, but were otherwise fine.  Since I worked at a machine shop, it wasn't a big deal to do the work myself.

Now, the only things that makes me hesitate are the AN fittings and an oil pan (a block off plate is like $20, right?).  For the high RPM engine (9000-9500 rpm) I was building, I really wanted external control of the oil system.  Now I'm hesitant about going through so much effort when a regular pump will probably do the job.  

Looks like I'll be putting the dry sump on the shelf for now.  Good call.  I think I'll pull the rest of the parts straight from that CC '03 article.

I treat Summit/Jegs as the same because they're both retail.  eBay is my other option.  If there's a problem with Summit vs. Jegs, it might be worth creating a separate post to hear it out.  

Hm.  The zz4 is a late-style block, so it technically requires a late-style cam.  The closest I can come to the cam in the CC article is a fuel injection cam with an LSA of 113, 242/248 @ 0.050, and .584/.579 lift.

That's the easy way out, but it costs $750 for the cam and lifters and I'm not sure it will mate happily with a carb.  Though I do save the money on a thrust button.

Another idea is to take an early-model cam, grind down the part of the plug boss that interferes with an early-style timing chain, then get a double-roller and a thrust button.  I'm a little worried about the plug popping out or leaking with only a little skinny piece of block pushing against it.  

summit and jegs:


the are not retail priced on at least 80% of product mix....that why MAP pricing has been put into effect...with my old job i used to to to PWA(performance wharehouse assoc) meetings and other WD agenda...

i used to get a CD from a buying group every 60 days...it was a price comparo..so we can help guide the retail speedshop owners with pricing guidlines.