What is considered an aggressive cam?
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 8,238
Likes: 0
From: Lakeland, Center of Florida Fl
What is considered an aggressive cam?
I am curious what is considered an aggressive cam. The cam I currently have is a 224/224 .581 113lb. Is mine considered aggressive? The reason I ask is that my cam may have got messed up do to the collasped lifter. If it is messed up I will have to buy another cam. I have an M6 and would like the most aggressive cam possible so I can get the most HP, my CR of my new heads are 10.85ish if that makes a difference.
Jon Pine
Jon Pine
Moderator
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 17,124
Likes: 3,757
From: Charlotte NC
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Cruise-In V Veteran
St. Jude Donor '08-'25
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (XCELER8)
I am curious what is considered an aggressive cam. The cam I currently have is a 224/224 .581 113lb. Is mine considered aggressive? The reason I ask is that my cam may have got messed up do to the collasped lifter. If it is messed up I will have to buy another cam. I have an M6 and would like the most aggressive cam possible so I can get the most HP, my CR of my new heads are 10.85ish if that makes a difference.
Jon Pine
Jon Pine
So to answer you question about how aggressive your cam is, well it would really depend on what type of numbers you heads flow.
But to answer your question another way if a stock cam was a 1 and most agressive cam availible on the market (for a stock cube LS1) was a 10. Then I think your current configuration would probably be around a 7.
Hope this helps.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,786
Likes: 6
From: Lafayette Colorado
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (XCELER8)
With a compression ratio of 10.85 I would guess that the heads have been milled correct? If so, the P/V clearance with the .581" lift will be very close. If the heads have been milled over 0.030", I woul donly use a cam with a lift of about .570ish. Most cam with a duration of over 220ish with lift in .570+ range are considered aggressive :)
Keith
Keith
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 8,238
Likes: 0
From: Lakeland, Center of Florida Fl
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (kromberg)
Hey Keith..Thanks, God only knows what my idoit mechs did. There is a good chance I will have to replace the engine if it is messed up to bad..nothing like throwing 6500 to the wind...It may have knocked off a lobe so I will have to purchase that also..GRR :mad Well, we will see and I am sure the new mech can tell if the clearance is good.
Jon
Jon
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,786
Likes: 6
From: Lafayette Colorado
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (XCELER8)
Hey Jon, if the pistons are still good, you can have them fly cut to allow for a higher lift cam. You might want to look into this if you have to pull the heads. I hope this are not as bad as you are thinking. I totally know the feeling of investing a lot of money and have things go wrong :banghead:
Keith
Keith
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,809
Likes: 0
From: Frisco TX
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (XCELER8)
Personally IMO - anything beyond a 224 or .570 lift is considered really agressive.. anything under that is just agressive to mild..
[Modified by bparker, 3:39 PM 4/14/2003]
[Modified by bparker, 3:39 PM 4/14/2003]
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 3,504
Likes: 25
From: Insert Wittty Comment here
Re: What is considered an aggressive cam? (bparker)
The only problem with an agressive cam is that in some places you have to pass an emissions test, if you are one of those people. Radical Cam = Not passing emissions. Big radical cam means flycutting pistons for PTV clearance. Also, a big cam means having the car tuned with LS1edit to get the idle, etc... squared away. If you have an automatic, you will need a stall converter, as the car withy a big cam and a stock converter will be a dog.
Big question, what do you want to do, and how much do you want to spend. If you spent $6500 putting a used motor in your car, you spent too much. You could have freshened your motor up, and bought one of the more cost effective H/C packages out there and put it in your car for about the same money.
Also, you can do a cam change, but it really helps to think of the whole thing as a system, you need to match the heads to the cam, etc... Just throwing the biggest this or that at something just means you end up having a mismatched POS.
Big question, what do you want to do, and how much do you want to spend. If you spent $6500 putting a used motor in your car, you spent too much. You could have freshened your motor up, and bought one of the more cost effective H/C packages out there and put it in your car for about the same money.
Also, you can do a cam change, but it really helps to think of the whole thing as a system, you need to match the heads to the cam, etc... Just throwing the biggest this or that at something just means you end up having a mismatched POS.
