redbullapril23

ok I wanted to get a hotcam kit.. and still might(found a cheap one...might keep rrs and sell the rest)
I want to get a cam that is going to get me the most power/tq.
(whats gonna give me the best 1/4 time)

someone recomended this. also I will buy the recomended valve springs.
http://www.compcams.com/Technical/Se...umber=12-422-8

if not this one then what? I dont care about idle...just power!



I have 1996 auto lt1
with:
52 mm tb
open air lid and k an n
hedman LTs
muffler elims
accel wires
underdrive pullies
ac eliminate

plan on eventually going with stg 3 heads....that could be a year or more away though.
also once I get the cam and valve train upgrades in... itll be about 2 months before I get lt1 edit.
thanks alot
your friend/vendor
Sean

redbullapril23

ttt

reed62783

i would recommend a more aggresive cam then the hotcam.

maybe something in the .540 - .550 lift, 224-230 duration or so & like a 112 lsa


with your exhaust mods already and LTs , i think it would give you more power and better et.

of couse u will need to go to a 1.6 rr, new springs, and "recommended" new lifters

redbullapril23

what do you think about the cam in the link I showed you. It said it was the largest cam you could put in!
thanks alot your friend/vendor
Sean

let me know about all your coating needs!

reed62783

if your are going for power u will want to increase lift. the cam in the link wouldnt even help near as much as a larger cam. i would recommend something like i posted earlier. also u will want to change to a 3.54 or 3.73 gear to see all the benefits of a larger cam

tjwong

That comp cam is about the same as a HOT cam. It really depends on what you want and if you have to pass emissions. A HOT cam in a 96 will easily pass if you retain the CATs and have a properly tuned PCM. Going to a larger 224+ duration cam will take more work as far as tuning goes to pass emissions. While it will pass it just needs more work. Going to a larger 224 cam will give you more power, going larger to something like the Comp 306 cam will sacrifice some low speed drivability. And of course emissions will now become a problem.

redbullapril23

emmissions is not a problem.
I dont care if idle is ruff or noticible. but I dont want the entire car shaking all over the place. I want something that will throw me back in the seat. say about one step shy of a 1/4 car.
Beacuse I like to go fast and gunning it at lights, agian this is not an everyday driver! this is my garage queen!

could you guys recommend a couple cams with the links. as you can tell I dont know all that much about cams.
this would be much appreciated!!!!!!
you guys rock thanks alot.
your friend/vendor
Sean

Nathan Plemons

Unfortunately that opens up a very complicated can of worms. Torque, HP and RPM are intertwined, they are calculated off of each other so you can't change one without changing the other. The cam that makes a ton of low end torque also makes a lot of low end horsepower, but the peak numbers aren't all that great because it's done a at a low RPM. Likewise a cam that makes high HP numbers either does so by making huge torque at a moderate RPM or moderate torque at a high RPM.

Unfortunately with our 50 year old pushrod engine technology you can't really have your cake and eat it too. If you want something with massive low end torque it won't make crap for top end power and vice versa.

So what cam yields the best track times? Another excellent question with no good answer. Ideally once you get out of the hole you'll stay in the upper RPM range so you don't really need a lot of low end grunt because you never fall back below 4000 RPM's. However there is the small problem that the first 60' are very important. If you don't have enough power to get out of the hole quickly your track times will still suffer.

Furthermore any cam that makes really good top end power is going to suffer on stock heads, it may actually run like hell. It will cost you all of your low end and then not give you anything back on the high end because the rest of the motor is too restricted. It happens all too often when somebody doesn't do enough research and puts too much cam in their engine. It's all about the combination.

Speaking of the combination, it wouldn't be worth buying the hot cam kit and selling the cam. In that kit you're paying for springs, rockers and the cam. The cam you might sell for $180 and the springs are worth $30. The springs will be completely useless if you go with anything more aggressive for the hot cam, in fact I wouldn't even really recommend them for the hot cam. So you really end up being no better off than just buying your cam / rockers / springs seperately.

Now here comes my advertisement. The LT4 Hot Cam is an excellent choice for an all around performance cam for a street car. It maintains enough low end grunt to be extremely friendly on the street, yet makes good top end power. It also maintains good gas mileage, it has a very aggressive idle and turns a lot of heads. It works extremely well in a stock engine as that's what it was designed for. It's not "too much" cam for the stocker. It also continues to work very well once you do other mods like heads / headers. It does seem to peak in the 370-380 RWHP range though.

It really is a fantastic choice your current and later stages of modification, but it might not ultimately give you all the top end you want. You sound like you are willing to sacrifice driveability for top end power, so there may be better choices out there for you. In that case I can only offer you this advice, BE CAREFUL AND RESEARCH FIRST. Don't get drawn in by peak numbers. I've outrun many cars that make more peak horsepower than me. The reason? Their cams are so aggressive that they don't make any low RPM torque, which means no low RPM horsepower. That means that the total area under the horsepower curve still suffers, and that is what wins the race.

My car makes 382 horsepower to the rear wheels, at 6500 RPM and only 6500 RPMs. At any point less than that it is making less horsepower so that's what you have to consider. Good luck to ya and keep us updated on what you decide to go with.

redbullapril23

Awesome explination!!!!!!!!
so what cam are you running.
yes! I completely agree that to aggressive of a cam will hurt performance.. and I dont care about #'s
I care about et

can anyone recommend a kick azz cam thats a bit more aggressive than the hot cam but not too radical for my setup.
your friend
Sean

Nathan Plemons

Personally I run the LT4 Hot Cam, have been for 30k miles. I really didn't know squat about sqaut when I ordered it. Over that time though I have really learned a lot about the mechanics of how a cam works and how all the different variables affect power in different ways.

During that time I've also seen a lot of people scoff at my "baby" cam and then have their jaw drop when they either ride in it or see what type of MPH I can turn. I don't have particularly impressive ET's because of traction, but the MPH and horsepower is certainly there. Plain and simple it's just FUN and it's still economical enough to drive.

E.T. Wise I've run a best of 12.732 with a 2.1x 60' time on my street tires. MPH for that run was something like 115.

What I really want is 400 rear wheel horsepower, just for bragging rights more than anything. I wanted to do it with the hot cam and I've tried almost every trick in the book and haven't quite gotten there yet. A set of underdrive pulley's might get it closer but my 92 makes that a little more complicated so I haven't done it yet.

My personal experience has been that you want to run as much lift as you can get away with on as tight a duration as possible. The lift lets your heads flow more air at a higher velocity and the small duration keeps your mid RPM / part throttle very reasonable.

Should you not know the specs for the Hot Cam are 218/228 .525/.525 112 with 1.6 rockers.

If I could put any other cam in my car it would be 220/230 .600/.600 112 with 1.5:1 rockers. Unfortunately that's a very steep ramp to get that much lift out of such a small duration. It is actually not impossible, comp cams would grind it for me. The problem is that it would cost about $1500 since they'd have to draw it up from scratch. I simply can't swing that kind of money on the gamble that it would give me 18 more horsepower. Maybe someday after I win the lottery I'll look into it.

You might want to look at my list of dyno charts, it'll show my hot cam power progression and give you some idea of how it goes.

http://www.wku.edu/~nathan.plemons/h..._corvette.html

redbullapril23

thats awesome!

I think I might go to 1.7 rrs
now are they 3/8s studs and self aligning?
what brand part #?

what type of heads are you running?

Thanks alot Nathan!
your bud
Sean

Nathan Plemons

My 1.7 rockers are Scorpion brand. They are 7/16 stud and they are not self aligning. They can be a great upgrade depending on what else you've got. Just make sure that you don't exceed the maximum lift rating on the springs or go so high that you may get piston to valve interference, a combination problem with duration and lift.

Unfortunately I do not have a part number for the rockers. Scorpion is an almost non-existent brand apparently so it's hard to come by that info. A friend of mine at a local speed shop got them for me at cost, I don't believe I even got a reciept...

Comp Cams also sells a 1.7 rocker which should work just as well. Actually I determined that they sell 1.8 and tried them out, it didn't work so well.

You'll need guide plates and hardened pushrods to go with non self-aligning rockers.

As for cylinder heads they stock LT1 castings CNC'd and worked over by Total Engine Airflow.

redbullapril23

wow nm looked at costs... way more than I want to spend...
I can get the gm hot cam 1.6 rrs for like $200 so I think Ill buy them, because reguardless of cam/springs itll be the rrs I go with.

but I need to decide what cam I'm going to get.
I can buy the hot cam for $100 and then I'd have to get springs, retainers, shims.

thanks
you friend
Sean

redbullapril23

so with stock heads and some gears the hot cam is the way to go?
thanks alot your friend
Sean