If you only care about the question, skip 2 paragraps, if you need more info, go back to these first 2. I have a tendancy to be long winded, always have, probably always will

Ok, first off, I am embarassed to admit this, considering I have now had this car for 12 years, done and engine swap, and think I am at least somewhat knowlegable, yet, cams, rockers, rods, etc....I just never learned too much about the terms. I also know this isn't exactly directly related to the swap, but it probably doesn't belong in the General Engine section either since its a fourth gen engine

I decided I needed to re-do the opti on my car. Turns out, its a 94 engine, not a 95, so now I have a 95 opti to return. Ordered a 94, figured I'd vent it myself. Now the devil on my shoulder is there saying, why not pull the timing cover, replace the cam with an lt4 hot cam, replace the timing chain and gears with the "heavy duty" roller chain/sprockets, and the rockers, springs, etc... I looked it up, that'll cost more than $1K from gmpartsdirect.com. I just can't afford that. But, I think if I decided to just do stuff behind the opti, for this month, I could swing it.

Ok, so the question is, can I simply replace the standard 1994 LT1 cam in my engine with the LT4 hot cam, but not change everything above it (rockers, lifters, springs, etc), and still drive it, for oh say about a month when I get some more disposable income?

My guess is yes, but when I started reading everything the "kit" came with, I started to worry, I know what lifters, rockers and springs are, even what roller rockers, and the like are, but I don't know what the LT1 came with stock, and then the kit started mentioning tappets, and some other things, which I suppose I could look up and read about, but I'm at work I'm supposed to be writing software, not dreaming about the next car upgrade!

Thanks all!

Your springs will be at the very edge of their rating and since they've been in your car for several years, pushing them to the limit is a big gamble. BUT, theres nothing preventing you from sticking the cam in there and just not firing it until you can upgrade the valvetrain

If you need to drive the car, then wait for better times financially

FYI, all LTx engines were factory hydraulic roller. You can upgrade to solid roller, but it was not factory

But I would do the springs and cam together.The rr would be nice but they can wait if need be.

Do yourself a favor and skip the hot cam. I have never seen a car run good with one. If you are going to spend the money and most importantly do that hard of a job go with something bigger. At the very least I say cc306 for a t56 car. And before ANYONE says its too much cam for the street, I urge them to drive one. Mine drove around just fine even on a stock tune from a 4.3L caprice (had the wrong ecu in). Car also only ran on 4 cylinders due to a bad opti (2 on each side so it just felt down on power, no missing) and had 3.23 gears behind the t56. Even with NO tuning it idled fine at 850rpms and drove around just fine. You literally couldn't tell the cam was that big.

The job just isn't worth it IMO if you cheap out or go small.

But I guess to answer the questions, you can't run a hot cam on stock springs. Or at least it would be a very bad idea. Its a simple case of do the job right or you WILL be doing it more than once and end up paying in the long run.

The cc306 would not be a bad ideal if the motor was built for it. That high rpm's on a stock motor he would rebuild it quicker than he though.
The HC is a little better than stock and might be what you want for a while,it will leave you wanting more.

That's a very good point. I had my limiter set at 6500 so it would still be "safe" on the stock bottom end. I had assumed that with proper maintenance I was going to be ok until I could build the bottom end.