please help with cam selection
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,025
Likes: 1,120
From: North tonawanda NY
1: If a person can't afford a hotrod then they made a mistake buying or building one in the first place.
2:Just because a car has a loud exhaust and a lopey can doesn't mean its junk and has to be worked on all the time.
3: If I can't have what I want then I would rather do without instead of settling for something less.
4: I build an engine around the cam.
2:Just because a car has a loud exhaust and a lopey can doesn't mean its junk and has to be worked on all the time.
3: If I can't have what I want then I would rather do without instead of settling for something less.
4: I build an engine around the cam.
The Thumpr a compromised design to give an excessive lopy idle at the cost of all aspects of performance.... performance is performance and a "hot rod" it supposed to perform not just look like a fast car that performs worse than stock...
That's like having the option of a roller cam or a flat tappet at the same cost... the smart person would choose the roller cam for all the performance gains.... if my mild 268h can provides better torque and HP as well as better gas mileage at the cost of not faking the cool idle of a much bigger can than so be it.... like was posted earlier I can always remove a plug wire and pose the same sound.
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,736
Likes: 56
From: anchorage ak
Thats what I told myself when I bought a lifted ram with a 5.9 and 4.56 gears and 35"mudders...... 5 years later and I put about 6,000 miles on it....instead driving the company toyota or one of my other vehicles like my vw kit car...
Bottom line no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise the gas mileage DOES come into play when it comes to how much you do or dont drive the thing unless your loaded.... I'm not saying its a deal breaker but when you have the choice of a better running more powerful car with good vacuum and brakes or a cool sounding car that "fakes" the sound of a much bigger race cam at the cost of power driveability, braking power and gas mileage well.... Just google it and read up on all the people on other forums who used them and recommend against them because of issues or removed them for a better cam....they are a bitch to tune as well from what I've been told.
If you want to be the guy at the carshow with all the people who know nothing about cars loving it and all the people that do giving you the same look I get when riding by harley guys on my metric cruiser or taking my kitcar to a carshow then do it... but just keep it in mind that most "gear heads" think of the thumpr cams as the epitome of a fake "poser" Part. Obviously having the other toys I have and a lifted truck with "compensating" across the windshield I dont really care what others think and I like the sound of the thumpr cam myself and if it hadnt been for the other performance compromises I would have used it in my vette but I just cant justify it on sound itself.... its like the reverse flow mufflers in the sidepipes bolted to a built up engine choking the output out...
Bottom line no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise the gas mileage DOES come into play when it comes to how much you do or dont drive the thing unless your loaded.... I'm not saying its a deal breaker but when you have the choice of a better running more powerful car with good vacuum and brakes or a cool sounding car that "fakes" the sound of a much bigger race cam at the cost of power driveability, braking power and gas mileage well.... Just google it and read up on all the people on other forums who used them and recommend against them because of issues or removed them for a better cam....they are a bitch to tune as well from what I've been told.
If you want to be the guy at the carshow with all the people who know nothing about cars loving it and all the people that do giving you the same look I get when riding by harley guys on my metric cruiser or taking my kitcar to a carshow then do it... but just keep it in mind that most "gear heads" think of the thumpr cams as the epitome of a fake "poser" Part. Obviously having the other toys I have and a lifted truck with "compensating" across the windshield I dont really care what others think and I like the sound of the thumpr cam myself and if it hadnt been for the other performance compromises I would have used it in my vette but I just cant justify it on sound itself.... its like the reverse flow mufflers in the sidepipes bolted to a built up engine choking the output out...
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,593
Likes: 103
From: Southern Indiana
I understand exactly what the thumper does, I don't race so I want the baddest sounding car that pulls into the cruise in or car show.
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,736
Likes: 56
From: anchorage ak
Tim even though you dont race, I'd bet your vette is no slouch. Don't you have a 11 sec nova to? I'd also care to guess that you don't run the thumper series cam. When I built up the l48 I used the xe262h all though the sound wasn't radical you could tell it wasn't stock. The xe288hr in my 400 has that distinctive sound that the mimic cams produce and still has power. Its been a while since I've looked at cams let alone the mother thumper, iirc you'd need about the same compression, stall and gears fort the motha thumper that you'd need to run a decent cam designed for power instead of sound giving that lopey cam sound. The spark plug remark was being a wiseass on my part and no I don't recommend anyone do that. But honestly if it was your vette being discussed what would you do?
Last edited by bluedawg; Apr 28, 2013 at 07:23 PM.
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,593
Likes: 103
From: Southern Indiana
They didn't make the Thumper cam back then, my favorites are the magnum series I have ran all of them.
The guy says he doesn't care about gas mileage, or performance just sound.
The thumper is made just for that train of thought, actually the only cam that states its a cam for loping, so if it was recommended to me I would say thank you and go to the web site and start looking at specs.
Also my current and last vette, if I keep it long enough already has a notebook started on it about yanking the previously installed cam by someone else and stab in the lopiest of the thumper series and a nice set of 202/160 heads!
The guy says he doesn't care about gas mileage, or performance just sound.
The thumper is made just for that train of thought, actually the only cam that states its a cam for loping, so if it was recommended to me I would say thank you and go to the web site and start looking at specs.
Also my current and last vette, if I keep it long enough already has a notebook started on it about yanking the previously installed cam by someone else and stab in the lopiest of the thumper series and a nice set of 202/160 heads!
Last edited by Tim H; Apr 28, 2013 at 08:07 PM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,025
Likes: 1,120
From: North tonawanda NY
Well I'll say it again.... I have a new thumpr 12-600-4 I believe for sale cheap!... but you'll need a vacuum booster for the power brakes and vacuum operated accessories to work so I've been told.... how true that is I dunno. Anything bigger than the thumpr I have required a higher than 2000 rpm converter...
Last edited by augiedoggy; Apr 28, 2013 at 08:32 PM.
