From the research I have done the xp hot cam is a better cam than the xpz and the xpz is slightly bigger better for torque, the guys at zzp are the worst customer service but 3 of them I contacted all said xp hot cam over the xpz. When I went to my shop for the dyno of course it was the most humid day of the week so that didn't help at all and beside the guy had a small industrial fan not a big one in a warm shop. I probably will go for the bigger intercoolet but I am currently broke. I was originally going to get that one but wasn't happy I would have to fabricate it to fit and move the altenator according the zzp. I'm buying a fenderwell Intake next week so I'm sure that will help a bit Untill I get 1500$ for the intercooler. I really hope your right and I gain more power from it, it won't be installed probably for another 2 months.

 

Bigger intercooler will cool more to let you run a smaller pulley to make more power. Once you drop a pulley so far Wil need a belt wrap kit to help with belt slip and then soon you spin the sc out of its efficiency range and you need a ported gen v to help compensate for that. Best bet for you is save for a ported gen v and a intercooler for a gen v and then install both together.

 

And as bumpin mentioned your probably going to need a Northstar tb and lq4 maf for this setup as well.

 

Interesting that they would say that. Have you ever thought about a cam from another vendor, or a custom cam?

What do you mean when you talk about fabrication? It's pretty much a bolt on. Some cars need cradle spacers, and other cars need some cutting up front depending how you mount the FMHE- but you shouldn't really have to 'fab' anything to install it.

Please don't be intimidated by the alternator relocation bracket, it's nowhere near as complex as it sounds. I just had to install one on my monte when I switched to the 99+ style alternator setup. Wiring still reaches just fine, you just install a spacer under the front leg of the alternator.

I don't see what this proves? Unless you personally know everything about his setup, there are a lot of variables there. Maybe he has a crap tune, maybe he has a worn out bottom end, etc etc. It's hard to compare cars directly (especially run on different dynos), but it's best to look at the results of multiple cars to get an idea of where you should fall.

I really honestly question how good the shop is. Maybe they're a great LS tuner, but don't you think it's odd that they're talking you out of upgrading ICs just because the full size kit doesn't come with a reservoir?

Even a relatively mechanically unskilled person could go to a junkyard, buy a used coolant reservoir, place it in any open place under the hood, and plumb it in (it's really just 2 hoses- in and out). For a speed shop that builds 1200 hp fbodys, sourcing and installing a simple reservoir, even on your current setup, should be a cake walk.

The XP is better than the XPZ? You do realize the average of the current top 5 record holders for each cam is 45 whp higher on the XPZ, right (375 whp average for the XP, 420 whp average for the XPZ). I wouldn't really say the XPZ has better torque either. It might make more peak torque than an XP since the engine if flowing better overall at higher RPM, but torque down low would most definitely be worse.

If you're that unhappy- have you thought about going somewhere else? ZZP isn't the only place that makes 3800 parts. Not that I particularly recommend another vendor, but you also don't want to limit yourself to 1 vendor's parts.


I guess I had assumed that you were looking to buy something since you were looking at a $400 meth kit. Didn't realize it was a longer term thing.

Where did you get $1500 from? A new full size core is only $650. Unless you've got a cheapy pump and FMHE, you don't necessarily need to replace them. Even if you do- you can pick up a pump and frozenboost FMHE for like $300 combined, and just go pick up some 3/4" rubber hose from the parts store to plumb it all together. Even if you had to buy everything new, I don't see it costing $1000- especially after considering you could sell your current kit for a couple hundred bucks.


Speaking of pulley size- here is a good article I found on ZZP's website about their cams:

Which Cam Should I Buy? - ZZP News

ZZP claims 320-330 whp out of their smaller VS cam, and that's without ported heads. They claim you can run a 3.1 or 3.0" pulley with heads/headers and NO IC at all, and as low as a 2.6" with an IC.

For the XP cam, they also claim you can run a 3.1" with basically no other mods than the cam (implied), a 3.0" with other mods like headers/heads, and a 2.6" again with an IC.


That really reinforces my early point about pulley size. I don't have a lot of personal experience with tuning/modding XP cars, but it certainly sounds like you're probably a few steps too big on pulley size for your mods.

 

Didn't realize we had experts on here who know everything, thanks!