got the lt1 cam in, came apart and went together nicely. no problems other then so tuning i now need to do. the car runs a bit leaner 133-134 at idle then to stoich and sometimes 124 at part throttle. timing is set at 10* seems to be nice. time for prom tuning.

 

did you do the swap with the engine in the car? any problems or tips you can give to a fellow 305'er doing a cam swap this summer? thanks man

 

yes the engine was in the car, heres what u need to do:

drain coolant
take off plenum, valve covers, runners, dual snorkel intake, rocker arms and pushrods and distributer, while its draining, once its done pull the radiator, and fans, u can get away with just takin the passenger side out if u wanna be slick.
next is the accesory belt/belts, (i took off the ac/smog bracket on the passenger side tooo. water pump, intake manifold, spider, lifters .
pop the balancer off and then the T-chain cover, take the t-chain and cam gear off, taek the cam button out and CAREFULLY slide out the cam.

now for the performance end of the LT1 cam upgrade:
there is a performance gain to be had, if u have the peanut cam (LG4, LO3, 305TPI Auto and 90-2 NON G92 305TPI 5spds) there will be a good noticable difference. its even worth it on a L98 cammed car, this is the cam i had. the performance gain isnt huge, its subtle. you will tell a difference in 1st and 2nd gear but with the 5spd it pulls third fourth and fifth like crazy, i hit my speed limiter at 3500 in fifth like nuthing. and id say that it pulls strnger from 4-5k too.

a lot of people said its a waste of time for what you get out of it. well thats their opinion. i spent 5-6 hours swapping cams and i think it was worth it. to me the labor is worth it if there is somethin to be had. i didnt want a large cam that would amke this car idle lopey and require a lot of prom tuning etc etc. to me the LT1 cam was a perfect upgrade, no one will notice the differnce in the exhaust, but there is one, slight. u wont through the computer into a frenzy either. but like the stock cam doin PROM tuning will maximize power gain and effeciency.

ive yet to get it to the track but, id say a 2 tenth difference and a mph or two. for 20.50 i paid for the cam id say it was worth it!

 

oh man, thanks a sh*t load... ::copy, paste::

I hope that with the cam, heads, and rr's with full exhaust i will fly down to the lower 14's really quick, and with a trans rebuild, new tc, and bigger(numericly) gears, and some tunning, i will start to hover around the 13's. Also im gunna start to do suspension to plant the power, and give me a little bit more control on the road. Thanks for the heads up man...

 

here's pics of me doing the swap in my car

http://fl-thirdgen.org/mrr23-7.html

 

sounds like a lot of fun right there...was it hard to do...i gotta get my lt4 cam in this summer and im scared was it no prob?...what im trying to ask is if an idiot can do it?

 

if you have basic mechanical knowledge, no problem.

www.fl-thirdgen.org/mrr23-2.html you can see dyno results

 

so all you did was change from an l98 cam to the lt1 cam , if so 2 tenths is a nice gain, what do you figure the gain would be when you got the peanut cam in there, i been hering a stock peanut cammed 305 tpi runs 15.9 in q-mile, now i hear with a cam like the comp x treme energy 212-218 449 456 112 lsa would gain a full second 0-60 can this be thanks

 

the .2 gain was going from lt1, stock runners, siamesed stock base, to zz4 cam, slp siamesed runners, and edelbrock base.

 

Thank you for perfectly illustrating my point about the LT1 cam. While a little better than the L98 cam, an LT1 cam is still a stock piece and will be beaten by even a simple used grind like a ZZ4, that can be had for basically the same cost, and won't cost you anything in driveability or emmisions because it is still a very mild short duration cam.

Nobody ever said an Lt1 cam wasn't better than an L98. But 6 hours to a weekend of work + $50 in gaskets, + a timing chain + springs to really do it right would make me more inclined to spend another $20-50 on the cam and do it right once.

 

ED
what about the cam i choosed , comp xtreme energy 212-218 449 456 112lsa , going in a 86 305 tpi with 21,000 original miles and 3.42 gears , i might even get the heads ported with the bigger 1.94 1.55 valves , how do you think my 305 will run
thanks

 

Yeah i was thinking about the LT1 cam a long time ago....but then i discovered teh zz4. In a few months ported heads, the zz4 cam with springs, and headers will be going on my car....we will have to see what it runs....

 

Can you put a ZZ4 cam into a 305 and get good results? Do you need to do head work to make this happen?

Cams are pretty inexpensive all things considered. I would like to throw one into my car to tide me over until I change the engine out for a 350 or 383.

 

well to use the proper springs for the zz4, you will need to enlarge the spring pockets to fit. with the lt1 cam my car went 13.83 @ 97.52. with the zz4 it went 13.68 @ 98.98. i never had a L98 cam in my motor. so, i can't say how much better in a 350 it would have been. but, i do the cam swaps to see what differences it makes. and have concrete results for people to see. right now i have switched from the stock runners and siamesed base to siamesed SLP runners and edelbrock base.

i never got a chance to dyno the car with the zz4 cam and stock runners and base. so dyno #14 was the lt1 cam, stock runners, siamesed stock base, and 22# injectors. dyno #15 is the zz4 cam, slp siamesed runners, edelbrock base, and 24# injectors.