I have a TBI 305 in my 91 Caprice. I've got a cam from a 96 Camaro heading my way, but I am starting to doubt that purchase. I plugged the specs for the stock cam and the LT1 cam into Desktop Dyno2000 for a 305. The LT1 cam gives slightly more power (about 15 extra hp) and a higher powerband (about 500 more RPM), but a 30ft-lbs torque below 3000RPM. Until around 3800RPM the L03 cam appears to be better.

The Caprice weighs over 4000lbs and has a 2.56 rear gear and an auto tranny with stock converter. On the highway I'm cruising at 1500rpm at 65mph.

What are the opinions of this board on what I should do with this cam? Should I go through the trouble of installing it or not?

 

there must be an error somewhere. the LT1 cam will give a huge gain in hp and ft/lbs across the board. even the length of the power band sounds wrong too. teh LT1 cam shoudl put peak torque around 3200-3400 rpm and peak hp 5300-5500rpm. both rpm's are 1000rpm clear of the factory peaks.
install the cam. you will be very happy with it.

later
tim

 

This is a funny question because more power is always a good thing. Let's face one fact, what ever you do to a v8 it's still a v8 agreed?, well what is the advantage of a v8 over lesser cylinders....yeah, torque. You've got plenty of low end that a small loss of torque would be virtually undistinguishable yes the hp gain and pulling power will be obvious.
If there is one thing I don't like it's hearing about people say they don't like the hp and they want "low end." In your case you've still got a car. Do you tow a boat every other time you drive your caprice? Do you always have it full of people? It's a car, you want to have fun, do the cam swap and you will be very very glad you did. BTW, my car has too much low end. With the way my tranny shifts it's an adventure at every intersection. I'll give you some of my torque in exchange for some more horsepower .

 

224/230 @ .050, .5025/.510 w/1.5, 114LS

How do the specs of that cam sound for a 305 that wants to be a 350? The cost isn't much more and I want to get the most out of the cam swap.

 

that is waayyyyyy too big for a 305. the valve will be really far intot he hole and you will have a serious vacuum problem. the lobe center is the only thing that is appropriate.
there is no such thing as a 305 that wants to be a 350. a 305 is an animal unto itself and needs to be treated that way. you have to stick to cams with lower lifts to make power. since you don't have the big bore of the 350 to work with you have to deal with valve shrouding issues that cost you vacuum at lower rpm's(below 3000, where we spend most of our time driving). the trick is to get away from the traditional american horse power logic of just get more air/fuel in and turn to a more european approach of raising intake velocity to make power.
the key is to realize that there are 2 ways to get a lot of air into a cylander, 1. a really big hole it can get through easily or 2. make it move through a smaller opening at a higher speed. since we do not have a big hoel to deal with we are left with only one option.
bysticking to cams that have low lift, fast openiong ramps, and comparitively long durations we can achieve this. that makes cams lik eht eLT1 and stock LT4 great. since the LT platform was developed with small valves, the casm that were developed to match them were created more for velocity than fo rtotal air flow. this creates a cam that will produce more torque, better fuel economy and a smoother idle.

later
tim