Best is cam and stall. Changing to those heads might net 8-10hp.

Cam
good timing chain
good springs
Good Stall
underdrive pulley
160 t-stat
oil pump
ported tb
good injectors are for longivity

good= quality parts, get what you pay for.

we get a few cars a year that have mismatched parts or put together badly. By the time we fix them or adjust everything correctly it would of been cheaper if they just had us build it. Some cars come in perfect.
So, make sure your confident to do the job correctly first.

Skip the heads....buy a cam springs oil pump chain and pushrods will be cheap we will put it in and Don can tune it and make 375+whp. He made my car rip with basically just a cam....do it! Id tune it but I'm not messing with autos fuck that :)

I would definitely stay away from cheap converters too. There's a really good article somewhere on LS1Tech showing the differences between a cheap converter (~$400) and a good one (~$800). A lot of the cheaper ones are converters for four cylinder cars with adapter plates welded on to fit a V8. If a cheap converter fails debris will run right into the transmission, damaging or destroying it as well. And obviously you're not getting a converter to drive like an old lady. It's certainly not somewhere you want to cheap out.

thanks for the info guys

doug, I'll take all the help I can get, when it comes to cars, I always feel lke i take one step forward, then 3 back LOL. Not a good mentality, but its true.

Don will you tune nitrous cars? 15hp doesnt seem worth it, for 400 bucks I can get a complete n20 kit on tech. If you do tune them, is it even worth buying one of the progressive controllers like the micro edge? Or would just a window switch and the tune be safe enough. I found a few nice used kits with heaters, purge, and 78mm plate for around 700. might be able to knock it down if I dont need the controller.

Of course he will tune it man. He tunes turbo cars SD a nitrous car he could do in his sleep I'm sure lol
Your going to have a busy summer :) 11s no problem!

Here's that thread about converters:

http://ls1tech.com/forums/automatic-...education.html

jesus tci is still that bad?

Im just nervous throwing a stall in my 95k 4l60e, just seems like a bad idea throwing a converter in their and having everything else crap out.
Back to the drawing boards.

Get a nice cooler it'll be ok if not then you revuild it or spend your 3k budget on a built trans

Got a TH400 and cooler for sale haha..

In all seriousness its not hard to take the heads apart and use some sand cartridges to atleast clean up the castings. I did this on a set of iron heads and pickeup clost to 15cfm per intake port and a bit less on the exhaust side. Well worth the few hour to clean em up and make them run just a little better than someone elses.

I do agree with doing a cam only. Heads are a PITA and if its only a small gain like Don said.. deff. Not worth it.

But your thinking nitrous which will kill it alot faster.