[Lee]

I've helped on a lot of LS builds over the last decade, designing custom ground cams. I've got the chassis dyno results on most, so the feedback has helped tweak future designs.

Although they perform well with cams with intake durations @ 0.050" in the lower 200's, they perform BETTER with intake durations in the upper 220's/lower 230's. The stock cams are so small in order to keep the emissions in check.

The LS engines do not have the torque from idle to 3000'ish RPM that Pontiacs do. Pontiacs are better for lower RPM torque, LS are better for power above 3500. Almost every LS I work with has at least a 3000rpm stall speed converter - but the lock-up converters make them quite livable on the street.

LS's have a really rigid block, great flowing heads, relatively light reciprocating assembly, stable valvetrain with 1.7 (or 1.8) rocker ratios, and are designed to have EFI. The EFI system is killer, when properly tuned it can idle decently with cams designs that are too radical for carburetors (or self-learning EFI systems).