What is the best cam, and by best I mean a cam that will give good gains and keep my fuel mileage decent, that can work with stock heads? I will have headers and 3.42's by the time I buy a cam.

I'm not the type of person who will buy many performance parts and assume they will work well. I've done that on my old GTP and things got bad. So I demodded, remodded and my car was faster that way. 1 mod at a time.

So again, what cam is the biggest for stock heads? I have a SD Lb9 and it has the L98 cam in it. Yes I am sure do a "search".

Thanks!

-Kevin

 

Dead stock heads? No modifications to increase it's capability to handle higher lift cams (stock heads poop out around .470 lift before you run into trouble)? Stock as in stock valve springs? Stock as in no port work?

And what's the rest of the combo on intake and exhaust? All stock again- stock induction, stock exhaust (including manifolds, cat, muffler)?

I ask because there's stock and then there's REALLY stock. Means different things depending on who you talk to.

 

Stock as in, bone stock Lb9 heads. I'll upgrade the springs of course, but no porting or anything like that....at least not till I'm tuned with the cam.

As for the car, I'll have headers and gears. And that's it.

 

You are gonna get some different opinions on this, but for the 305 I'd stay under .450" valve lift, under 220* actual duration, and low low overlap. Especially if you are keeping the TPI setup. You want to compliment the bottom end torque to keep your mileage and work well with a tuned port setup. You can get away with a little more lift than that, but on stock unported heads you're not gonna notice a difference. All it's gonna do is put more wear and tear on the valve train.

EDIT: Just reread the topic. This isn't a situation where more is always better. You want to pick the best cam for your car and what you plan on doing with it. Go with to much cam, and you'll be left with a car that doesn't start pulling until 3500rpm, and then because of the TPI you run out at 4500.

 

find some sorta computer compatible cam with a conservative duration adn keep lift abround .44 or so to be safe. they say screw in studs are safe till .48" or so but ive had them pull out with .450" lift on old heads

 

With a cam like you described, what kind of gains are we talking here? Both 1/4 and hp/tq?

I might go with an LT1 intake or just get an aftermarket base and runners and port them a bit. Cost will be the same, but if I do love the way the TPI looks. However, LT1 intake looks slick and topend......decisions, decisions.

What cam will work with the stock TPI, but will sing with the addition of the LT1 intake?

 

i ran an lt1 cam with my stock heads, and a lt1 intake. didnt take the heads off the car, was going to go l98 aluminum, but ran out of funds. i ran these springs. i had full exhaust, suspension, and 3.73s, tuning by john millican. ran a best of 13.7 @ 100 on 2.0 60', i know it had a better '60, but the clutch didnt like it

 

Everything else the same, I'd say 30 at the wheels wouldn't be out of the question.

It's two completely different intake designs, I'd decide on the intake first and then choose the cam. You want the cam to compliment the engine, not the other way around. The LT1 intake you'd want more duration, and you could run alot more overlap as long as you can tune for it since the LT1 intake will take you much higher in the revs.

 

30whp staying with TPI, or with LT1 intake?

 

Either one, the peak power will just be at a different rpm.