I have been reading an essay by cam guru David Vizard, wherein he states, in part: “Big (but not excessive) overlap is a prime key to big power numbers, but only if your exhaust system sucks.”
Given that information, I wonder about the negative degrees of overlap specified in my cam, as eneumerated below. Before I bother to have this thing istalled, I’d really appreciate gaining a better understanding.

This is a retyped copy of the spec sheet (w/no .006 numbers given) for a new custom cam from Futral. It is/was intended for a ‘01 c5 with stock LS6 intake, in combination with Breathless Perf Vortex Intake, ported throttle body, Dart 205cc Heads, B & B Shorties, stock cats, Bassani X-Pipe, Magnaflow Cat- Backs.

Engine: LS1 Grind #: 220-220-14 Core: 3310129

Lobe size bc/ht IN: (no entry) EX: (no entry)

Enter (2) : 2

Camshaft Data = 4 CRNK DEG

DURATION AT .05 IN

INTAKE - ROCKER RATIO = 1.7 IN
Lash 23 24 25 hyd

EXHAUST - ROCKER RATIO = 1.7 IN
Lash 23 24 25 hyd

INSTALL CAM ON * * CIL# 1

Intake & Exhaust

LOBE SEPERATION = 114 CAM DEG
valve overlap = -7.9 CRANK DEG

INTAKE
valve open = -.7 ‘BTDC
*CENTERLINE -—-> 110 ‘ATDC
valve clses = 40.9 ‘ABDC
DURATION --——> 220.2 CRANK DEG
lobe lift = .32161 IN.
VALVE LIFT --—> .54674 IN.
lobe area = 24.81 IN * DEG

EXHAUST
valve open = 47.2 ‘BBDC
*CENTERLINE -—-> 118 ‘BTDC
valve clses = 7.2 ‘ATDC
DURATION --——> 220 CRANK DEG
lobe lift = .3215 IN.
VALVE LIFT --—> .54654 IN.
lobe area = 24.78 IN * DEG

As a service to this Forum, which has, over the years, been of immeasurable help to me, I must spell out a summation of my infuriating experience with Futral Motor Sports.

After I bought a set of Dart Heads from FM vettenuts, (excellent transaction by the way) I called Dart and asked who they felt could provide an ideal cam to complement their product. In retrospect it was a naive thing to do, because in the final analysis, who can really determine which cam manufacturer is better or worse for a particular application. However, and to my ultimate dismay, they steered me to Futral Motor Sports, who I called March 19th. What follows I would swear to in a court of law!

Sadly these people at Futral have absolutely no understanding about cutomer service, or they just don’t care. Most annoying is that they rarely answer the phone. The standard procedure is for the answering machine to cite their business hours, (in your face so to speak) and to ask to leave a mesage, which is another joke. Call them around noon. There’s a small window where one might get lucky. Again, today during this window, to inquire about my overlap question, I had no luck.

Upon my first Futral contact, as a novice, I discussed my needs/intentions, as best as I could. I was specific about wanting low end torque, and as much power as possible, given my restrictions for a fairly good idle, my express counsel that I never rev the engine to red-line, and that I don’t race. In reality, I wanted something strong off the line, and with as much torque/power thereafter, across the power range as is feasable.

We settled on some specs, and I provided payment. A week later I came across Futral’s on-line catalog, to discover that my agreed upon cam had a power range from 1800-6600 RPM. That’s hardly what I was looking for. My contact was either not listening, or he didn’t care. When I confronted him with my discovery, I was told that all specs in their catalog are wrong. (So, buyers beware, do not order from the catalog, try your best to hit that narrow window when someone might answer the phone.) Anyway, the elapsed week was inconsequential, because nothing had yet been done to fabricate my purchase. At this juncture my contact offered to agonize over my needs in collaboration with the owner.

They seem to not even communicate among themselves. One a day certain, expecting a promised call from my contact, with new spec numbers, no call was forthcoming (it turned out that my contact was sick). As an alternative I called the alleged collaborative other half, the owner, Allen Futral. Yeap, my call got through, but to my surprise this character wouldn’t talk to me - he was too busy to bother with his paying customer - because he was working on an exhaust; would I please call back later. Fine, I called back later and was asked to hold. Yes, I held, and held, and held, and held, and held some more, and the musack wasn’t that great. In the end this character, the owner Allen Futral, actually closed shop and left me hanging. (He must have been in a hurry to wrestle alligators in the bayou.)

At last on April 5th I received an e-Mail with an UPS tracking #, which turned out to be invalid. The excuse on the 6th was that UPS didn’t pick up the package the previous day, but it would be shipped that day, the 6th. By late evening the tracking # was still invalid.

On April 7th I received (and returned) a call that my credit card # didn’t work - two sequential “55” were confused for two “33.” All was made well, and the cam would be shipped forthwith. On my evening follow up with UPS on line tracking, I still had no valid tracking #. After repeated attempts to get through, on April 8th I was given another tracking # over the phone, but with no follow up by e-Mail. It turned out that in reading the tracking # to me, a “T” was mistaken as a “7.” I’ll give the benefit of the doubt for the first numerical mix up with the credit card, but twice? By April 10th I called the credit card co. to dispute payment. Finally, on April 13th an e-Mail arrived with a proper tracking tracking #. On April 14th the cam arrived, and I lifted the payment dispute with the credit card co.

At my Futral contact’s suggestion my order included hardened push rods. Where they shipped? Hell no, but fortunately I wasn’t charged for them either! My experience with these people leaves me to wonder what kind of outfit they are, or if they are fly-by-nights working out of their basement. Perhaps they have so much business that they spend the majority of their time in their safe, counting money. There’s undoubtedly no phone in their safe, and that would explain their lack of concern with incoming phone calls. My advice; if you chose to do business with these people, get their cell numbers. Caveat Emptor - GRT

 

If my 50+ years of running a business has taught me anything, it's people just sometimes screw up. The reasons for this are endless with some valid and some not......Successful businesses, however, are usually fairly quick to correct an obvious wrong. Often the mistake is not altogether the fault of the business, as in verbal miscommunication, but again as the customer is paying the bills and giving referrals, the customer should be considered "right" and situation corrected. Seems this cardinal rule may have been violated. Best of Luck
Tom

 

I'm not going to comment on Futral, other than to say sorry your experience went that way, and that, overall, I am not surprised by your experiences.

As to the cam, you want low end torque and as much power as possible. That's fine, provided you understand that in a cam shaft torque and horsepower are trade-offs. Generally speaking to get better torque, you sacrifice top-end power and vice versa. Second, you want a good idle, which is at odds with high overlap (as is great low end torque), and resulted in the 114lsa recommendation most likely.

The cam you quoted looks a lot like a turbo cam to me -- which is at odds with an NA street driven engine, only if you want absolute horespower. That cam will provide good power, great torque and a very smooth idle and good driveability in an LS1.

Could you get away with a 220/220 112lsa? Sure. It would be a great cam too.

Personally, I'd go with a forward split (exhaust biased) profile, maybe a 220/224 575ish lift on a 112 lsa.