Hey, do you have to change heads if you change the cam? Thanks!

Nope!

No but it certainly makes it easier to do both at one time.

is there a realy big advantage to changing the heads? For example, what would be the differance between changing the cam to a ls6 cam or the cam and heads to ls6 cam and heads. Thanks!

The difference is the LS6's 400 HP vs LS1's 350. I beleive I'm right in saying that those are the only differences.

well the cam tells the heads how long, and how far to open the valves, so changing the cam will tell the stock heads to stay open longer, and to open farther.

But that can only allow so much air using the stock size valves and the stock flow numbers, aftermarket heads will allow air/fuel to pass by the valves faster, and with more volume than the stock heads.

Its easy to think of it like this
The cam is your brain, and the heads are your lungs/throat/diaphram, you can tell your lungs to breath in deeper or faster (change cams and not heads) but your only going to get so much air in, but if you swapped your lungs for aftermarket performance lungs, even not telling your your lungs to breath fast or take in alot of air(cahnging heads but not cam) your still going to get more air in faster.

So obviouslly it works best if you do both but it isn't necessary to do both.

As for power gains, I couldnt tell ya that.

Sounds good, so what kind of power increase would you see form changing th e cam alone and what kind from the heads alone and what kind with both :) .

well, iv seen reports of 500HP with both heads/cam but they are aftermarket performance parts that flow higher numbers than the LS6 cam/heads.

Most cams iv looked at advertise their specs and not their alone HP gains, but iv seen from 16-35 so far, but the point is not the power it gives but more that it changes your power band depending on your application. Also, like a supercharger any future mods will be multiplied in the power they give.

The same goes for heads also, but I am seeing larger stock number increases, its hard to find numbers though as they usually include a cam in the package. <_<

Perhaps some other members who have done the change can help us out.

One suggestion - from me anyway - If you do go with a head/cam swap stay away from the LS6 conversion (unless you find someone with a Z06 that will unload them for cheap)

You can get a lot more power and still have drivability from a more aggressive cam/head package. The Z06 (LS6) cam is small. If you are gonna tear it apart go for the glory..

With that said - I am not sure how much you will get just changing one or the other but... changing it to the LS6 head/cam you can expect about 400 to the flywheel..going more aggressive (but still drivable) you can expect 450-500 at the flywheel.

I just swapped the cam in mine this weekend. Only did cam and valvesprings, the cam is a custom grind by Cartek that was designed to work with stock heads. You can do well with a "cam only" swap, I could have picked up more by doing an underdrive pulley and other items. I'll have dyno and track results next week, it's going to be tuned this week. With cam and all bolt-ons, you can see a nice increase, and swapping heads will help make more power in the upper RPMs. LS1 castings would be better than LS6, as the runners are more conducive to torque production which we need given the weight of our cars.

A few years back, when I had my Trans Am, I remember a few members from the ls1.com forums upgrading with LS6 parts. I'm sure you could find a wealth of info there.