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[Z06] Need some help picking cam and supporting mods

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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 09:59 AM
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Default Need some help picking cam and supporting mods

Seems like the valve spring failure is more common than I thought so will be swapping them out before they go. Hopefully they can hang on another week!

Since I am half way there, might as well do a cam to get some nicer sound and a little more power. The car has a drop in K&N zip tied on and the borla straights over the axle. Got it tuned and it made 386. Car is my daily so still want it to crawl around parking lots. No headers and want to keep it that way.

I need some help picking a cam to make some more power and take care of the valve spring issue. What other parts should I order since it is being opened up?

The vengeance racing and BTR cams seem popular and look like they are making great power.

Help please
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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 10:29 AM
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What is your aversion to headers? The cam is going to affect parking lot drivability infinitely more than headers will.
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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 10:52 AM
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personally I would do headers first, I would want to increase the amount of air the engine could effectively move out before I increased the amount of air it could take in... or even better do the headers and cam at the same time... along with the springs you should get a good set of hardened pushrods, beefy timing chain, and might as well replace the oil pump for insurance since you are already there... valve seals isn't a bad idea if your engine has high mileage... the stock balancer sucks so might as well replace that with an aftermarket unit that won't come apart and wobble
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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 05:54 PM
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I went with this cam package, kooks headers and off road xpipe, vararam intake.
http://www.flowtechinduction.com/fti...shaft-package/
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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by NosLaser
What is your aversion to headers? The cam is going to affect parking lot drivability infinitely more than headers will.
They seem hard to install and way too expensive. Also dont want car to be obnoxious loud. Local z owner by my neighborhood has mild cam with intake and tune making 420 wheel. If I can get close to that and have the peace of mind of newer valve springs, I would be more than happy.
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Old Sep 4, 2016 | 07:01 PM
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Originally Posted by neutron82
personally I would do headers first, I would want to increase the amount of air the engine could effectively move out before I increased the amount of air it could take in... or even better do the headers and cam at the same time... along with the springs you should get a good set of hardened pushrods, beefy timing chain, and might as well replace the oil pump for insurance since you are already there... valve seals isn't a bad idea if your engine has high mileage... the stock balancer sucks so might as well replace that with an aftermarket unit that won't come apart and wobble
That is what I had in mind besides the timing chain. Car has 45k on it and dont really want to spend supercharger money for barely any power.
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 12:16 PM
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Originally Posted by albodent
They seem hard to install and way too expensive. Also dont want car to be obnoxious loud. Local z owner by my neighborhood has mild cam with intake and tune making 420 wheel. If I can get close to that and have the peace of mind of newer valve springs, I would be more than happy.

You sure he doesn't have more than that? 420 at the wheels with just a cam and intake sounds pretty strong.
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 12:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Acid666
You sure he doesn't have more than that? 420 at the wheels with just a cam and intake sounds pretty strong.
Thats what he said. He is running an MS4 cam and cut off muffler part of the titanium....so just an axleback.

Not sure what the specs of the MS4 are or if I am limited to size of cam because of the headers.

Any ideas on cam size I should consider?
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 03:47 PM
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Originally Posted by albodent
That is what I had in mind besides the timing chain. Car has 45k on it and dont really want to spend supercharger money for barely any power.
if you do a cam a good timing chain is a must... the stock chain is weak and I am not a fan of double roller chains either, the links are tiny in comparison to a beefy single roller like the katech c5r... every time your engine turns over it is yanking on the timing chain and the more aggressive your setup is the more stressful it is on the chain... if the chain snaps then you're going to be getting a brand new engine, the results are not pretty at all

Originally Posted by albodent
Thats what he said. He is running an MS4 cam and cut off muffler part of the titanium....so just an axleback.

Not sure what the specs of the MS4 are or if I am limited to size of cam because of the headers.
an ms4 is a donkey d*ck cam for a car with stock heads and manifolds, that car should make it to the upper end of the 400's if it was set up right... it probably sounds mean but it's choking the engine, personally I would get something smaller unless you are going to do the other necessary mods to let that cam work as it should
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 05:44 PM
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Parking lot drivability and an MS4 cam but no headers...

Something about this discussion has gone awry
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 06:21 PM
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Originally Posted by albodent
Thats what he said. He is running an MS4 cam and cut off muffler part of the titanium....so just an axleback.

Not sure what the specs of the MS4 are or if I am limited to size of cam because of the headers.

Any ideas on cam size I should consider?

Is he running a C5 Z or a newer? I asked because a C5Z making 405 horse stock isn't the easiest to get 420 to the wheels with just a couple of mods.
Now a newer one with an LS3 on up might be different.
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Acid666
Is he running a C5 Z or a newer? I asked because a C5Z making 405 horse stock isn't the easiest to get 420 to the wheels with just a couple of mods.
mine made 420rwhp with a smallish cam, headers, vararam, and tune... you can probably do it with a big cam but driveability is going to suffer which the op doesn't want but a cam that will drive well will probably not hit that number without headers which the op also doesn't want
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Old Sep 5, 2016 | 07:05 PM
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My XS Power headers fit great, cost under $750 shipped, and took me 2 hours to install. The OP needs to choose what will make him happy of course, but there really are only benefits to long tubes. I think they are worth the price for how much easier they make spark plug changes alone
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Old Sep 6, 2016 | 09:45 AM
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Originally Posted by albodent
They seem hard to install and way too expensive. Also dont want car to be obnoxious loud. Local z owner by my neighborhood has mild cam with intake and tune making 420 wheel. If I can get close to that and have the peace of mind of newer valve springs, I would be more than happy.
You're going to need long tubes to make that power cam-only unless you put a donkey dick cam in there which I would not advise. You will fight a losing battle by camming a car and keeping the factory manifolds, it's really an *** backwards way of doing things. Your current dyno numbers seem inflated for your mods so keep that in mind with your hp goals.

Headers are expensive and I about cringed when I bought mine but installing headers is actually alot easier/quicker than a cam swap. Swapping valve springs is the quick and easy part of the cam swap. It gets time consuming and labor intensive when you begin taking everything out the way to get the stock cam out especially the steering rack. Headers with your Borla may be too obnoxious for you but you could always sell the Borla and switch to something milder if that becomes a problem. Just my .02 but either way atleast those valve springs will be fresh and you will have peace of mind.

Last edited by wrkdWS6; Sep 6, 2016 at 09:47 AM.
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Old Sep 6, 2016 | 10:19 AM
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The numbers did seem really high for his set up. I was just speaking to him and he mentioned the cam he went with is similar to the MS4 but larger split to be able to work with stock exhaust.

I did consider the XS headers but have read some posts where installation is a nightmare. Dont want to chance having to cut car up to fit these headers.

If I end up doing a cam, it is going to be something mild. Somewhere in the late 210s early 220s with low lift. Timing chain sounds like great preventive maintenance as well!
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