Hey guys i was talking to somebody and his dad would install a cam for me for $200 if he didnt have to take the engine out. Is that possible for the Camaro?

What cam should i get? Thanks!

 

Man I dont know if they can do it without taking the engine out , but for the cam choice it really depends on what you want.A high revving (big duration) high rpm torque engine or low torque (big lift) engine?

 

You need to read the LT1 cam digest in the stickies, some guys have gotten them to run without tuning, some haven't. It's best to learn how to tune before messing with cams.

Just for reference, a LT1 cam is around 206 dur. at .050 which is VERY mild. If you go any wilder you'll have a mess on your hands untill you get it tuned, and mail order ain't gonna cut it. Keep searching there's lots of cam info on the boards.

P.S. You can swap the cam without pulling the motor, just have to drop the oil pan to get the timing cover off and rotate the AC condenser out of the way.

 

tuning as in prom tuning? Thanks for the info about how to get the cam out.

 

yep prom tuning, I don't consider cranking up the fuel pressure and dialing in some more timing "tuning". The only way to do big or even medium size cams is to get inside the ECM and calibrate it for the new cam.

 

 

Does the $200 only include labor? Will you provide him with all the nex gaskets and parts that you will need?

Take some time to read the LT1 cam digest linked at the top of the forum.

Do not plan on any cam swap unless you do chip work. I have run two different LT1 cams in my car on the stock tune ('94 B bod and '94 f-bod cams) and the car ran slower than with the stock cam. The car was a fuel eating, stumblimg, surging mess. It needed 12° base to keep from stalling and just ran like death. Both cam swaps were performed with the engine in the car. Don't listen to anyone that says you must remove the motor. You can, and some guys think it is easier but after doing it both ways myself I will do my next cam swap with the motor in place.

 

thanks Shifty, the guy will do the labor for $200. I dont know about the gaskets i will probably have to buy them.

But he said he knows people who do prom tuning.. what should i do you think?

 

Do you have any other suporting mods? You should have at least a full exhaust (headers back) before you consider a cam swap.


$200 seems a bit low to do a cam sawp. Are you sure this guy knows what he is doing? People who know how to change cams in these cars don't go that low unless they are a friend and or just want to wrench with you for the fun of it. I would double check his credentials and or ask if he has changed cams in 3rd gens before.

 

I put a comp cam in my 1992 camaro rs(Z03) 305 TBI without any chip work. But it does have a hypertech chip in it. The comp cam is designed for our cars with the computer controlled. The part # is 08-500-8. I would recommend this cam to you because it gives you a lot of torque and power, even up to 4500rpm. My motor idles at around 500-700rpm with a nice rumble. But when I had that old gm factory black "cold air intake" on it it would idle at like 1000rpm b/c it was sucking for air. This is a good indication that if you do get this cam you will need to get a free flowing air cleaner, K&N is what I have and works great. Also you probley should have your heads rebuilt with new performance vavle springs. The original 305 TBI valve springs I could compress with my fingers. Those are are around $60-100 but is a must if you want the most out of your cam.

 

I'm surprised that cam runs decent at all, I'd almost say you got lucky and/or your definition of good driveability is a little different than mine. Too much lift for untouched stock heads too, its .488 on the exhaust, so you aren't going to want to run that without cutting the guides.

That's a bit bigger than an LT1 cam too, 92camarors, I'd lay money your car would pick up a LOT of power and smoothness with some chip tuning. A good indication that it needs to be tuned would be that it lopes at idle, that cam should be able to be tuned to idle very very smooth. I know my ZZ4 cammed motor idles almost as smooth as stock now, just a bit deeper rumble.

It may run fine for you, but that's definitely not the norm.

M1tch, I also would not trust that somebody knows somebody that knows how to tune. I would feel pretty confident in saying that tuner has never touched a TBI car. Not many people have experience with this kind of stuff besides the people on this board, you'd be surprised. You're here now as a frequent poster, and you have this wealth of knowledge in front of you about tuning these PROMs, look into it, you will not regret it and be very satisfied when your car runs perfect because you tuned it yourself. good luck