hey all. first off i jusy want to say thanks to everyone that helps out others on this board frequently. you know who you are and i wont bother with names. i had absolutly no clue about anything a few years ago when i bougt my first thirdgen and now im building a stroker monster. second i just have a little advise to anyone (especially new people) when buying a cam for your new engine. ASK AROUND!!! the best thing to do is call comp at least 3 times because chances are you will get three different opinions. then take those do some research and call them one more time and run everything by them again. thanks to some great people im making nice time with my new engine and the cam was the hardest part.
i called comp the first time and told them what i was running and got CS XR276HR-12. i thought that would be the winner until i did some research and called back to get close to the 280HR with a 112 LSA. i thought that was the winner until i just got off the phone with comp for a third time and got basically the 282HR with a 112LSA. and im still not convinced thats what i really need so ill call them back tomorrow and get another opinion.
i have nothing against comp what so ever so i hope no one takes this the wrong way. im extremly happy that comp has a toll free line and would take the time to give out free info!!! im just saying to anyone building an engine triple check everything, especially that cam recomendation, whether it be from comp or a buddy!!!

well im done blabbering, good luck!

 

One of the biggest problems getting a cam recommendation is what the advisor doesn't know. You tell them you have a stock torque converter so they recommend a cam that won't get killed by a stock torque converter. But, you have plans for putting in a 3000 stall Vig when you do the cam change but you didn't tell them that. No wonder they gave you "bad" advice.

We really got on Chevy High Performance Magazine's case on this board for their "My Generation Camaro" project because they built it so mildly. One thing they never did was put in a higher stall torque converter. That one thing alone affected the cam recommendation they received and their performance improvement (or lack thereof) more than all the other things put together.

If you tell them you have a TPI system, you're going to get a very mild cam recommendation. If you plan on putting a Miniram on when you change the cam, tell them that up front. If you have stock heads now but will have them ported and checked for .550" lift capability before they go back on when the new cam goes in, tell them.

The engine in a 2500 lb race-weight Vega will need a different cam than the same engine in a 3500 lb race-weight 3rd gen. An engine that's driven to work daily and raced twice a summer should have a different cam than one that's raced every weekend and driven to work twice a summer, even if everything else is the same.

Tell them what you're going to use it in and what you're going to use it for.

Tell them more than what you think they need to know.

 

very true...heres what i told them right off the bat.

Going into a 1991 camaro
383
Stealthram (tunnel ram) Fuel Injection
10.5:1 compression
trickflow 23 alumnium heads
6" rods
manual t-5 tranny (but told them swapping to t-56 soon)
3:73 gears out back

i never really specified what type of driving (race or daily) this will be seeing on either call but finally on the third try they recommended the cam i had in mind. like i said there will be a 4th call tomorrow to make sure what i got was good sound advise and would work best.

 

Don't they also make one of those cams with a 116 LSA? MY LB9 has a big LSA cam and it idles well and is not real peaky.

Best luck.

 

im not too sure on that. i know there are 114's available and probably 116's too. the 112 seemed to work best on my application though as the 116 did on yours.