How much of an improvement HP wise would I get if I upgraded my otherwise stock(unless you count new muffler and WAI) 92 3.1's camshaft?
I've looked around here and i cant find any numbers. You don't have to be accurate either, I get that it will be different for everybody. A guess will do.

Also, if I do upgrade cams, will my exhaust lope a lot? Is a lopey idle bad for the car, because I quite like the sound?

Thanks!

 

a cam can provide a decent increase in power , but to get the most out of the cam swap u should do headers and some intake/head porting

do u plan on racing the car at the track at all or is this just an around town driver

the 252 grind cam offers great off idle power which is good for intown driving
the 260 grind moves the power band up higher which is better for passing at highway speeds and something that will be raced

the biggest single improvement u can make to a v6 car is the gears in the rear end

if ur car is a 3.1 auto it has 3:23 gears , if it has a 5 speed it has 3:42 gears
im a big fan of 4:10 gears in the v6 car with and automatic and 3:73's in a stick car

 

It is my around town/daily driver. I think I probably will throw on some headers when I do the cam but I still don't really know if the cam is worth the work or not. How much hp/torque would I gain from getting a performance camshaft in one of these engines?

Mine only has about 80k miles on it if it helps.

 

honestly the cam swap is only worth it if u port the heads/intake , and u will have to get an ecm tune to go with it

my built n/a 2.8 barley cracked the 15's with a cam, ported heads/intake, headers and 2.75 ex system

cam and headers will run u around 350$ i think the headers cost around 250 so u need to dbl check on that , then u need to port the heads which is another 100$ in the tools if u dont have them + new valve springs/locks/retianers/valve seals if u go for the 260 cam another 100 bucks


so now ur up around 500-600 bucks depending on how much of the work u can do urself for around a 30-50 hp gain

u can buy a set of gears for 140-200 + install kit for 100 and then 300 for an install if u cant do it yourself

the gears i think would do much better

the swap from 3:42's to 4:10's in my car was the single biggest improvement i ever made to my car besdies the turbo , and also the wonderbar , strut tower brace , and 1le sway bars

 

If you have a stock exhaust, I'd say start there. The stock exhaust is choking your engine. Get headers, a good high flow cat and a catback (not just muffler) to let it breathe. I agree with porting the intake, I did that on my 3.4 and made a big difference above 4500 rpm.

 

My 2 cents. IF the car is tuned up well then you can do things such as headers and opening up the exhaust. Then you could even get a cool air intake off a older thirdgen and toss it on as it looks better and helps cooler air come into the engine

As for the cam, you can toss a delta 252 or 260 in but it will run rough without a tune and you wont gain as much as you can without a proper ecm tune.

Id would recommend doing the rear end work, some exhaust work, and the cool air intake first before the cam. Although the cam and some head work will gain you the most horsepowe for you $$, you have to do tuning and when all said in done you will still only gain 15-25 hp max from a mild cam, porting the heads, and a tune by itself. And that on its own will cost a good 300-500 bucks depending on the gaskets, tuning hardware, and so on...

I have 3.73s and a decent lsd, it was far the best mod short of the turbo stuff.... it made the car much funner to drive.