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Hey guys, has anyone heard of the "police" cam shaft that is offered for the 1988 trans am's 5.7L engine? I've seen one in the store, but I cant find any specs on it..can anyone here enlighten me?
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Yep. there is a different cam for a police package...sealed power cam shaft CS 274. If you go to the advancedautoparts.com web page and look up 1988 T/A 5.7L Vin 8 cam shafts, it's listed there as a police option
The cam they are referring to is the Sealed Power CS274. The specs are:
Duration @ .050": 194/203
Lift w/ 1.5 ratio: .390/.410
LSA: im guessing its like 112-114
This cam is designed for low RPM usage at the great expense of upper RPM power. Upper meaning probably above 5000 or so. It may be cheap, yes. But you will not gain anything over a stock cam with this. Or, at least, it wont be noticable.
You DON'T want that cam. That's part of the package that was responsible for such engineering marvels and milestones of high-power performance achievement as the 165 HP 350s of the 70s. It's a copy of the GM "929" cam. LSA is 114.5° IIRC. There is no worse cam in existence, except for the stock LG4/L03 cam.
However, that's a flat-tappet cam, and a 88 L98 had a roller motor. So it's not, strictly speaking, a bolt-in. Not far from it, but still not.
I would guess, that the only reason it's offered as a "police" cam, is because alot of police depts couldn't care less about performance, and all they're looking for is the cheapest cam money can buy to get their cars back on the road. Maybe it should have been called the "optional phone company van" cam instead. So yes, it's cheap, and also inexpensive.
Altogether the wrong cam for anything even dimly resembling a performance build. In no case would it produce an upgrade. I'd guess that if you stock that cam in an otherwise stock L98, you'd lose about 15-20 HP, and gain nothing in torque or HP at any RPM.
Go with the non-"police" cam, which should be a direct replacement for what's in your motor now, and should be a roller; or look at cam company catalogs such as Comp, Crane, Lunati, Crower, etc., for something better than that, which is pretty weak as it is.
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