for a 305, is this a good choice for a street car? i can get a ZZ4 cam for cheaper than i can get a LS1 cam where i live. all i want to know is the ZZ4 a decent cam compaired to the LS1 cam. Thanks

ls1 cam won't work.

zz4 is not bad, it is a little large on the exuast side IMHO, but should be descent. it will of course require a quite a bit of tuning.

Not to mention head work. The lift on that cam far exceeds the limits of the stockers.

LS1 is a completely different animal. Its like trying to fit LT5 heads on a LT1....wont work. Now a ZZ4 cam, with SDPC vortech heads is a very nice set up. But it will require a great deal of tuning, but its doable.

I think a guy on here "JokerRS" IIRC is running a ZZ4 cam in his 305, search for him maybe and check out his profile if he has anything there.

My lt4hot cam deal feel threw and I will be running a COMPLETE ZZ4 top end on my 305 from cam to heads... Along with victor jr intake... Im starting the swap in 2weeks... HEHEHE ill be in for quite a bit of tuning. but in the end I just want my start and go thing i do now. only reason im not going to carb is cuz i dont like to let it warm up. also ill be running 1.6rr with the zz4 cam thats .544 max lift heads have new springs to handle it woooooo

You should be in good shape with the proper tune!

You talkin to me sucka
Yea I guess i should look into tuning my own chips, but i dont wanna, lmao... Ill drive the 200-300 miles to have someone do it for me... Im doing all the really hard stuff myself.

Ok thats what i liek to hear.

My plan befor i thought of getting the ZZ4 cam was:

Vortec heads, LS1 cam, Performer intake (vortec version).

now it looks like the ZZ4 cam would be a good choice.

As far as tuning goes, i know im definetly going to need it.
but i dont know where to start or what id be doing to make it better for that setup.

so i might get it cutom tuned i dunno, i would need someone who in the future could help me out?

thanks

I like the ZZ4 cam myself. It acts like a bigger cam then it looks like on paper. Any 350 cam acts bigger in a 305. Definantly needs tuning to be drivable at all. I wouldnt try driving 200-300 miles with a stock chip to get it tuned. It will run extremely rich at idle and cruise till its tuned. It allso needs alot of timing added through out the spark chart but once its tuned its very drivable. I think it took us about 28 chips to get there. That was VE, spark, and PE tuning with half of them being PE tuning with a G-tec.
I am getting ready to slap all my goodies on a 350 short block this spring so I'll have to start tunning all over again.

PS does any body have a pair of 85# injectors for sale?

So in other words, this cam would be very hard for a first timer to tune?

Also, would you consider this to be a mild cam? or whatever

It will take a lot of tuning to get it dialed in properly. I would stay away if you are a novice. It is hard enough to dial in an LT1 cam for newbies tuniners no less one that is as big as the ZZ4. The stock heads will really limits its power making potential as well, even if you could use them with that cam. For a 305 the ZZ4 cam is on the big size and is deffinatly not mild by any means.

ok. well im gonna learn how to tune eventualy so its gonna happen with this ZZ4, even if its hard. i have you people to help me right

Oh and when its in it will be companyied by new heads and intake mani, with a bigger fuel pump as well. so all that would have to eb factored into the tuen as well. i was going for vortec heads with one of thoes edelbrock performer[whatever] intakes.

Well it sounds like you are on the right track. I would make sure you do plenty of reasearch first before you start to buy stuff. With the combo you are putting together you will need the fuel pump like you mentioned but you will also need a larger TBI unit and injectors.

I would jump right into prom tuning right now on your stock engine and learn it quite well before you dive into that big of a project. If you don't learn chip tuning now and get it down fairly well before this head, cam, intake swap I see a carb in your future (or a very poorly running TBI engine).

lol ive been trying to make a good component combination for the past month, i keep getting stumbled on the cam and head wether the cam would fit the votrec heads, just cant figure it out, and no oen seems to know the max lift the vortecs can take its all mixed answers. and yea i planned on doing alot of TBI flow working with injectors and other fuel things.

im working on it, the big project will be during the summer and im going to spend time learning tuning this spring. I need moneys to get a pocket programer thing first, then it all starts

If anyone knows could sombody tell me if the ZZ4 cam, 1.5 rockers(or whatever rocker at all), and teh vortec head would work ok? because if that combination works out then thats what its gonna be.
Thanks everyone :hail:

208/221
.474"/.510"
112

are the specs listed for that cam, i don't know if those are 1.5 or 1.6 lift numbers, if they are 1.5, they will not work on a stock head. if they are 1.6 numbers, with 1.5 they would be.

.444 .478

that .477 exaust would worry me on any unmodified stock head. alot of people say they will 'take .480' and they might, but i would leave a larger saftey margin. you really need to check the point at which things hit, and check your clearnaces, they DO VARY from head to head, quality control is just not that great

The Vortec's that I have had a retainer to seal clearance of .465"

The ZZ4 cam spec's are stated at 1.5. I'm going to use this cam with 1.6 rockers for a final lifts of .506/544". The stock Vortecs will not work either way.

The guides will need to be cut down to give lift plus .060" clearance. Larger springs will also need to be machined for and installed.

Definantly not a mild cam in a 305. Has a noticeable powerband of about 2500 to arround 6000 in my setup. It doesn't really bog but a 2500 stall converter would be nice.

hmm, so if i used vortec heads with a ZZ4 cam what would i have to do to make it fit? more detail plz.

Thanks

The first issue is retainer to guide/seal clearance. You will have to get the guides machined lower.

The second issue is you are going to need larger springs. Some people swear that you can use some that are "rated" for .500 plus lift that fit the standard 1.25" spring pocket and say that they are working fine. More power to them. I'm going for a more bullet proof setup for "endurance running" on a road circuit hopefully. I do not have a problem with spending more or doing more work to get there. If you want less work to the heads use a cam with less lift. There are several good ones. The ZZ4 was only $95 new is one reason that I'm using it. Either way I would not run the stock Vortec springs. You can run up to .480 lift with only shimming the springs up .060" and using offset locks as I did for the LT4 stock cam with 1.6 rockers giving a final lift of .480. It still did not get the desired .060 clearance but its working with about .035" which is "pushing it".

Do you have any other cam choices?

DM