Which cam to choose?
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From: Lincoln, NE
Car: 1988 GTA
Engine: 350 TPI
Transmission: TH350
Which cam to choose?
Alright I'm in the middle of piecing together my 383 parts and I'm kind of wondering which cam you would recommend.
Not go to be much of a street car, mostly track.
This cam will be going along with a set of Canfield heads and a Holley Stealth Ram
I've been looking at the Comp Xtreme Energy 282HR cam and the LT4 Hot Cam which I already have sitting in my closet.
I really don't have a problem buying another cam if it comes to it.
I plan on pushing the engine to around 6500 rpm so I don't really think the Hot Cam is capable of this
Let me know your suggestions
Thanks
Not go to be much of a street car, mostly track.
This cam will be going along with a set of Canfield heads and a Holley Stealth Ram
I've been looking at the Comp Xtreme Energy 282HR cam and the LT4 Hot Cam which I already have sitting in my closet.
I really don't have a problem buying another cam if it comes to it.
I plan on pushing the engine to around 6500 rpm so I don't really think the Hot Cam is capable of this
Let me know your suggestions
Thanks
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Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 10,907
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From: The Bone Yard
Car: Death Mobile
Engine: 666 c.i.
If it is going to be used primarily at the track and see 6,500 rpm, get a solid roller around 248/256 @ .050 with 110* LSA. The OEM hydraulic roller setup is just too damn heavy and causes problems with the valve train if you are constantly revving past 6,000 rpm.
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Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 10,907
Likes: 4
From: The Bone Yard
Car: Death Mobile
Engine: 666 c.i.
And, before you say "but isn't that a bit much for the EFI system", the short answer is "no". Yes, you will need to do some eprom tuning to get optimal performance. But MAF is quite forgiving. In fact, my friend has a 383 Miniram with a solid roller cam of the same specs I just gave you.
I tuned the eprom for him (it maxes out the MAF @ 4,000 rpm so you need a WideBand to tune the top-end properly). But other than that, the engine runs quite nicely (though with a noticeable lope that makes people stare). BTW, just for a joke, we took the stock MAF eprom and wanted to see if it would start the car....and it did. (And ran quite nicely though the idle speed was too low for a cam that big).
Bottom line, forget the hydraulic roller setup - you'll encounter valve float and hurt your valve train. You'll need heavy spring pressures to keep those heavy hydraulic rollers planted on the cam at high rpms, and they (the springs) will hurt the plunger on the lifter over time and eventually collapse the lifter. A Hydra-Rev kit from AFR will help, but it's not the real answer.
Do it right, do it once and get a solid roller. Adjusting the valves is not that hard and depending how much you drive, it doesn't need to be done that often.
I tuned the eprom for him (it maxes out the MAF @ 4,000 rpm so you need a WideBand to tune the top-end properly). But other than that, the engine runs quite nicely (though with a noticeable lope that makes people stare). BTW, just for a joke, we took the stock MAF eprom and wanted to see if it would start the car....and it did. (And ran quite nicely though the idle speed was too low for a cam that big).
Bottom line, forget the hydraulic roller setup - you'll encounter valve float and hurt your valve train. You'll need heavy spring pressures to keep those heavy hydraulic rollers planted on the cam at high rpms, and they (the springs) will hurt the plunger on the lifter over time and eventually collapse the lifter. A Hydra-Rev kit from AFR will help, but it's not the real answer.
Do it right, do it once and get a solid roller. Adjusting the valves is not that hard and depending how much you drive, it doesn't need to be done that often.
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