When Im done with my 99 it will have:

dynatech long tubes (on the way)
vararam (currently installed)
slp high flow cats (on the way)
Corsa catback (currently installed)

dyno tune (after the cam)

Im looking for a mild cam that will boost my powerband without killing my idle, gas mileage, or drivability (is that a word? it is my daily driver)

Does such a cam exist? What else needs to get upgraded along with the cam?

Im coming froma DOHC turbo 4 banger, and cams scarred the crap out of me with their complexity to install. These motors seem much easier to work on, but I have no experience with them, so I turn to you guys.

 

Brian, I would reccomend giving the guys at Texas speed a call. They are sometimes hard to get a hold of but its because when you do get through, they will talk with oyu until you are comfortable with what oyu want to do. I have never felt rushed to get off the phone with them.

sounds like you might want a 224/228 on a 114 lsa possibly. But talk with them and then make some decisions. Best of luck to you.

 

BrianG01,

We have a few options, but the 2 that come to mind are our H cam and 2X cam. The H cam being the milder of the 2. The 2X cam will give you little more power and is middle of the road when it comes to aggressiveness.

With a cam you will also have to upgrade your valve springs.

There are other options like chromoly pushrods, double roller timing chain, etc.

If you have any questions just shoot me a PM.

We're located only about 3 hours away from you. We are worth the trip.

Max

 

Brian, don't fear the install! I have never been much of a mechanic; just a guy who isn't too dumb, and isn't afraid to try with a great set of directions. I used LS1howto.com's head/cam swap instructions, and aside from some minor problems (which were fixed), I got it up and running, and it will by dyno-tuned first.

As far as cams are concerned, please be careful about people's opinions. There are a ton of uninformed people out there (more so on LS1tech.com than here) commenting on cams. Of course, there are some extremely knowledgeable people out there as well; just beware people who throw out the name of a cam and don't give you a good, detailed explanation as to why it is what you want. I would highly reccomend consuming everything you can on cams for a month or two before deciding; you won't regret it.

You can most certainly get a smaller cam that won't hurt your driveability, idle, or gas mileage, that will net you a good 30 horse at the wheel. I went with a 224/224 on a 112 LSA (.581 lift). It was bigger than I thought I'd go at first, but a lot smaller than what many people choose. With cats and a mild catback, it's not obnoxious, although it has some lope. The valve noise, of course, is louder. I have an appointment to have it tuned on the 23rd, but when I fired her up after the swap, I was amazed at how well it idled. After I put 20 or 30 miles on it, without a tune, it will now hold hold a nice 650rpm idle with just a tad bit of idle hunting when taching back down to idle. I'm sure that once it's tuned, it won't hunt anymore. As far as driveability, it drives 100% like stock even untuned. So I would say with confidence that you can acheive your goals. Maybe you'd like to go smaller than I did, but you'll still get a nice bump in performance. Best of luck!

 

What type of problems did you have? Im doing mine hopefully next month.

 

Well, Don, I stripped a couple of threads in my aluminum block (cam retainer plate) due to a crappy torque wrench. The fix on that was actually really easy, but still nerve wracking, since I was tapping threads right above my oil pan. I also mis-inserted my oil pump o-ring, which damaged it, and caused me to have low oil pressure at startup. It was sheer failure to follow directions. I put the o-ring into the oil pump instead of on the pickup tube, as the instructions clearly stated. I had to spend about four hours tearing stuff off to get back to it, and put in a new one. That stunt cost me about ten total hours. Finally, I sheared off two bolts; one on the intake manifold and one on a valve cover. Both broken bolts came out extremely easily with an easy-out. The intake bolt broke because I used a long extension, which I believe allowed me to put too much lateral force on the bolt, and the valve cover bolt snapped because I stupidly set the torque wrench for the water pump bolt specs by mistake. Here's a link to my install with some pics. As you can tell, I'm a bit long-winded, so I will understand if you don't care to read it all.

The only advice I would give on the install is take your time. I would never ever ever consider doing it if it's your only means of transportation, and you only have a day or two. Such pressure can only lead you to the dark side.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1643785

 

kilrb has given you some great advice. Another thing to consider is maximizing torque in favour of HP on a daily driver. Get the cam seller to provide you with a dyno plot of the cam and whatever heads you're going to use. You want a TQ curve that is high, flat, and starts at a low RPM. You may have heard this described as the area under the curve. The more area under the curve, the better. TQ is what you feel when you punch the throttle on a hotrod.

 

My sentiments exactly!

 

Can someone translate this into "this is my first corvette" language?

 

intake/exhaust (lobe sepperation angle)

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327734

 

Kilrb's adventure/write-up is a great read. It's got me thinking of doing a cam at some point.

 

and to confuse everyone even more

Cam Guide

 

The first number is the intake duration, which is basically the total number of degrees the intake valve is open 0.050 or more (the numbers published are 99% of the time from 0.050" of lift). So when you see 224, that means that as the cam rotates, it lifts the intake valve open for 224 of the 720 degree rotation of the engine (remember that the camshaft turns at 1/2 of the engine speed, so this 224 degrees is out of two full rotations of the crankshaft).

The second number is the exhaust duration, and it expresses the amount of rotation the exhaust valve is open (just like the intake duration does).

The LSA is lobe separation angle. This number tells you the number of degrees between the centerline of the intake lobe and the centerline of the exhaust lobe. This magic number is important, but it's not an island unto itslef. People know that a narrower LSA will increase overlap, and thus lope at idle, but many don't realize that LSA isn't the only story. The larger the duration of the intake and exhaust lobes for a given LSA, the more overlap there will be. For a given set of durations, As LSA increases, overlap will decrease, and as LSA decreasses, overlap will increase. BUT, a cam with smaller duration on a 114LSA will have less overlap, and thus be less lopey than a larger duration cam on a 114LSA. You can have a small cam with a 110LSA that has way less lope than a larger cam with a 114LSA. Many people think "All you have to do is make sure your LSA is at least 114 and you won't have a lopey idle." This just isn't true.

Two other numbers you'll also see are expressed in thousandths, and they are intake and exhaust lift. You'll usually see them as 224/224 .581/.581 112LSA. The .581/.581 is telling you how much lift the cam has for the intake/exhaust. The more lift, the more flow, and also the more valve train noise. It is my understanding that lift isn't just a "more is better" kind of thing, but it should be tailored to your specific application.

Hope this helps a bit. Definitely check out the link AU N ENGL mentioned. Read it through three or four times.

 

David Vizard has written a good book on cams, very easy to understand. He also recently wrote an article for Popular Hotrodding (link below). Key is to know enough so you get a cam that is going to provide you with a car you still want to drive. A lot of guys say "Bigger is better", but that's not necessarily the case.

David Vizard Article

Here is another light read, in favor of smaller camshafts.

Small Cam Discussion

 

Pick the size cam you want , then go bigger
CAM =

 

If all else fells give me a shout and I will give you the # to my friend at Comp Cams and he can answer every question you have.