CorvetteForum Member Shows Off C6 Corvette LS3 Build Gains

Corvette with upgraded head, cams and a tune pickups up 80 horsepower at the wheels.

The C6 Chevrolet Corvette is one of the best used performance cars on the market today. While they offer solid performance in stock form, they take to modifications very well. This allows owners to add power with common upgrades and this thread in the C6 Tech/Performance section by BigRon1212 is a great example. He recently added new cylinder heads and a camshaft to his already-modified Corvette, adding 80 horsepower over his previous numbers while also providing the lumpy idle that you would expect from a cammed LS car.

LS3 Corvette Build Introduction

When the OP first introduced us to his C6 Corvette, he began with some history on the car. His most recent updates included heads and a cam, but previously had some power-adding upgrades installed.

This plan started last fall when I decided to start making a list of parts/direction I wanted to go with the car and I am super excited its finally almost done.My car is a 08 3LT M6 NPP car with basic bolt ons.

Backstory: Back in May of 2019 I had my car dyno tuned.

It made 403whp and 399wtq SAE on a Mustang Dyno AWD-500. (Basic bolt on’s same as below for reference)

April 2020, I took my car to a local well known shop to have my ported heads/spinmonster cam installed and tuned.

Baseline Dyno Mods list:
Halltech MF103 Intake w/beehive
Texas Speed 1 7/8ths LTH’s
Texas Speed 3 inch off road X-pipe
Vmax Ported Throttle Body
Dyno Tuned (on prior MD-500 Mustang Dyno)

The Corvette with this modification list made 423 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque at the wheels on a Dynojet prior to the heads and cam being installed. The dyno sheet is the “before” run on the same machine as the “after” numbers with the new heads and cam. As you can see, going from the Mustang dyno to the Dynojet led to a difference of 20 horsepower and 41 lb-ft of torque between the two dynamometers.

Heads and Cam Installed

Next, the OP shared the items included in the most recent portion of the build, along with some pictures of the process.

Now the parts list for install.

GMPP CNC Ported LS3 Heads w/BTR .660 springs/titanium retainers
Texas Speed Cam ground to 230/234 .615 .600 114+2
BTR 7.350 Pushrods
BTR TRUNNION KIT
Johnson 2110 Lifters
C5R Timing chain
ARP bolts
GM LS9 Head gaskets
Powerbond Harmonic Balancer PB1117SS
Along with all the necessary gaskets, etc.

As time went on, the OP added an idle video of the Corvette with the new heads and cam, followed by a dyno video. He didn’t share the sheet from the run, but we know that it made 503 horsepower and 458 lb-ft of torque.

Several members have posted with questions on the build, including “dAgent”, who is interested in more details.

Those are good numbers BigRon, about what I expected with those heads; they’re probably good for 10-20rwhp. They raised the peak to 6500 also, without the heads you probably would have peaked by 6300rpm. How did you come up with the 7.350 pushrods though, did they measure for pushrod length for those heads and lifters? I thought Spin always mentioned using slightly longer than stock 7.425 pushrods. Would be nice to see the dyno graph if that’s not too much trouble. Also, are you going to re-dyno after you port the intake?, would be interesting to see what that picks up; should be good for another 10rwhp. Smart thinking replacing the lifters, balacer, timing chain and doing the trunnion kit while you were at it for the extra piece of mind/reliability. All around great build BigRon, congrats; now tell us how all the extra horsies feel and grip, & be specific. My build is not for another couple of months so I have to live vicariously through you for now.

If you have questions or comments on this C6 Corvette LS3 build, click HERE to head into the thread.

Photos: Corvette Forum members

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