just curious if someone can briefly explain how a cam works. i've been trying to go over my engine combination to see if the cam itself is possibly wrong or if maybe the way the heads were setup wrong.

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/camshaft.htm

 

really to the point and easy to follow...thanks!

 

One of those shows on SPEED had a really nice episode about cams... very in depth. here are some other notes:

DURATION:
Duration is the time the valve is open, and is measured in crankshaft degrees. The duration can (and usually is) different between the intake and the exhaust, with the exhaust being open longer (more duration).
More duration will move your powerband up. For instead, a 195 dgr duration cam may have a power peak at 4500 rpm, where a 250 dgr cam may have a power peak of 6500 rpm (number grabbed out of the air, but should give a sense of the numbers). Look for duration measured at 0.050 lift. That will give you a truer idea of the cam. There's also 'advertised duration', recognized by the very large numbers. You should concentrate on the dur@050 numbers. When a cam is said to be a '205 dgr cam' it usually means 205 degrees @ 050 intake duration. Exhaust may be more duration. This is because the intake duration is more critical for how the motor will run than the exhaust duration.
Stock for the LT1 is in the 201-205 range intake (different for different years). A stock car has a power peak at 5000rpm. But other breathing mods such as porting the heads can move the peak up even though the cam remains unchanged.Increasing duration usually increases peak hp, but decreases low end torque. It also increases overlap (see the overlap section below).

LIFT:
The maximum amount (in inches) the valves open. May (and often is) different between intake and exhaust. Lift is generally a Good Thing. More lift makes more torque and horsepower. What limits valvelift is physical contact between valves and pistons or contact between retainer and valveguide. With non-roller camshafts (all LT1s have roller cams), high lift was difficult. this is less of an issue with our roller cams.
When increasing valvelift, the valvesprings have to be checked to make sure they can take the additional lift without binding. Stock lift is around 0.459" on the exhaust valve. Stock LT1 springs get marginal around 0.490". Most aftermarket cams will put you in the 0.520-0.535 range, and you have to get better springs.
Only drawback to lift is that it tends to make a torque curve peaky, i.e. increase midrange while hurting upper and low rpm. This doesn't seem to be too much of a problem on the LT1, though. Even with very high valvelifts, the torque curve stays remarkably flat.

LOBE SEPARATION
Lobe separation is the number of degrees the intake and exhaust lobes are separated. More separation decreases overlap (see overlap below). However, tighter lobe separation makes more high-end hp.

LOBE CENTERLINE:
The relation between the camshaft and the crankshaft. Nearly all street cams like to be 4 degrees advanced.

OVERLAP:
This is the killer for street engines. Overlap is the amount of degrees that the intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time. Unburned air/fuel mixture will be pushed through the cylinder when both valves are open and straight out the exhaust. This decreases mileage, increases emissions, and make the engine run rough at low rpms. It also decreases low-rpm torque, and hurts throttle response.
All cams have some amount of overlap. Stock cams all try to keep the overlap low for the above reasons.
More duration with no other changes will increase overlap. One way of lowering overlap after it's been increased by more duration is to increase lobe separation. This is because moving the lobes away from each other decreases the time they are open simultaneously.

 

thanks!!