Performance Mods

[Dave332]

First off, hello, everyone. I just registered, but have been a lurking guest for a while. I have an '88 chevy nova (corolla) with a 4A-LC (Transverse mounted 4A-C). I'm not interested in spending tons of money, but my research so far indicates that I may be able to to a few things without major cost, so long as I'm able to do the work. Here is what I would like to do, but I would like to know more about it before going full throttle into it:

1. I would like to put on a better carb. I was thining maybe a side draft (weber maybe?). Other than building the carb, is there anything else I will have to do? I read that fitting one of these on a 4A-GE requires replacing or modifying the intake manifold. Will I have to do that on the 4A-LC?

2. I read on http://www.billzilla.org/ that the 4A-LC, 4A-FE, and early 4A-GE's were built on the same block, and have also read about quite a few people swapping their c/fe heads for GE's. I would like to switch mine to dual overhead. Allow me to explain my reasoning for this: I would like a higher duration cam setup and would also like to play with advanced/retarded timings. I am also under the impression that DOHC will give me a higher redline than SOHC (if this or anything else I say is incorrect, please correct me). All this is well and great, but I have seen more than once post on this forum where someone has swapped on the 4A-GE heads and due to the lesser internals in their engine (being the 4AC or 4AFE) the engine failed relatively soon after. Since I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, the idea of replacing the internals is roughly as unappealing as doing a full engine swap (which is not that appealing). Another alternative I considered was to maybe swap the LC head for an FE and then install higher duration cams. If I did this, I would probably be finding an FE head in a junk yard and buying the cams new. I went to my favorite junk yard this morning, and found two or three FE heads that apear to be intact. Is this feasible? If I swap the heads and install new cams, I'm assuming that I'll have to use the timing belt from the FE, is this correct? If so, will that particualar timing work?

2a. Are the cams in the FE and GE the same or different? Where can I buy the appropriate performance cams (256°-272° hopefully)? Also, is there any place I can get new lifters, springs, etc. pretty cheap? Just a hunch, but I somehow doubt that running junkyard heads with all their original parts is a good idea.

2b. Are there any performance cam options for SOHC?

3. On my current setup, I sometimes get a funny noise at higher rpm (sorry I don't know how high, I don't have a tach). My only guess is that maybe I am floating a valve. Is this diagnosis likely correct? What other possibilities exist and how do I fix this?

Also, if you are recomending places to buy parts, I live in the US.