Cam or no Cam in my C6?? i know what difference it will make overall..just thinking about future...resale etc...

 

How original is the car right now?

 

Also, what are your reasons for considering a cam? And, what other mods are you thinking about? For the most part, modding a Corvette (as opposed to a camry) is generally done with a reasonable purpose. Changing out the cam should include adding headers and intake, at least. Changing out the cam will definitely thin the herd when it comes to resale.

Answering Solaris' question, and mine, will help answer your own question.

 

My grand sport has a cam and the rest of the usual goodies (headers, intake , TB , ram air etc.... ) and ill be honest it drives amazing, I really love it even when compared to my previously magnacharged Z06.

But when I see the cost and receipts involved in all that I say to myself a supercharger would of been far more efficient

A cam can run you $3-$4 grand with parts and install, you can pick up a used blower kit for that and end up making a lot more power.

But yea the cam and goodies drive amazing, they say NA power is the best power and I definitely agree

 

who charges $3k-4k for a cam install?

 

A lot of places , when most of the owners don't have a clue? all the information in the world at their fingertips and there's people who have paid $2000 for a brake job, because the TECH told them it was a corvette

 

Again if it was my car I would of just went right into a blower set up, but yea here in Canada the good shops will charge $3-$4k for a cam and all the supporting valve train upgrades, parts/labour and tuning.

A damn tune here alone is $600-$700 as far as I know

How much does a good shop charge in the states ?

 

Well, from what I know when I got estimates: Horsepower addicts in Delaware has a cam package for $1950, another Delaware shop charges about 4K and ECS charges 4K...

 

Holy ****. A cam is like $250~ for most modern V8 engines.

The most expensive cam I would ever consider is a $500 custom grind.

A cam in a pushrod V8 simply moves the VE curve around the rpm range.
A stock cam utilizes near 98% VE In a range where normal driving is done (2000-6000rpm or so)
The cam will simply shift this higher, say 2500-6500 or 3000-7000, etc...
The point is by moving VE and thus torque higher in the RPM range, the engine makes more power.
The trade off is reduced economy/efficiency at lower rpms. The engine may run rough, chop, etc...
Some people prefer their engine to chop at low rpm and install an unnecessarily large cam that actually makes the vehicle slower, especially if driving on the street where rpms spend their time around 2000-3000. A large cam could significant reduce torque in that range (could lose 50-80ft*lbs) which can make manual transmission more tedious to drive properly.

What does it cost to change a cam by yourself?
Cam 250-500
springs 150-200
gaskets 75
balancer bolt 10
oil change 50
Might need pushrods ~100
Shouldn't need lifters.

Now lets talk about lift, lifters
Naturally aspirated engines are difficult to make power with because you can't simply turn the dial and make more.
For example, the 4.8/5.3/6.0L truck engines are very well known for supporting 600-1000rwhp with just cam/spring and boost.
Here is an actual example (and 23 more in that channel)

that is an all original 4.8L engine with just cam/spring and boost making over 750rwhp and hes going to make even more with it.
The total investment inside the engine including cam upgrade is under $1000 and it supports over 700hp already.

So as I was saying, naturally aspirated engine struggle to make power without boost. They have to seek gains through the head/cam/intake/exhaust design, shape, and maximal effort.
This usually means people will go for high lift cam, big port head, etc...
Many people do not realize that this means changing valve springs every 20,000 miles or so (some setups)
Additionally, high lift means more guide wear, more valvetrain abuse, and it becomes harder to control the valve at higher RPMS
For this reason, I always recommend the lowest lift, slowest ramp rate camshaft you can buy.
Although this will limit peak power in a naturally aspirated application, it will also ensure engine and valvetrain longevity.
IMO it isn't worth the extra 20-30hp you get from high lift, high pressure components (in a stock setup)
To really take advantage of high lift camshafts and high spring pressures, the engine overall needs a rebuild/rethinking and much 'larger' components to make the trade off worth it, plus a competition to win since. Why would you reduce the lifespan of your engine purposefully unless it was to win some kind of event.
never made sense to me

 

i have kooks headers ,cold air intake..Borla cat back...thats all my bolt ons i have now..

 

im not gonna race it! but having that power is nice! LOL...presently i have Kooks headers ,cold air intake,and Borla cat back....

 

now i have Kooks Headers,cold air intake,Borla cat back..its gonna cost be around 2,500 to do cam etc...because mileage is 70k that it! so we dont need to pull heads to do lifters etc....

 

IDK..but where im getting mine done at will be around 2,500...car only has 70k miles...so we dont need to pull heads,which means no lifters/ etc...

 

Below is a price breakdown on the parts you will need ..... I would think the labor-only charge should not be much over $1,000

Be advised that Cam Motion will grind any specs you want in your cam ... You don't have to settle for some pre-selected duration, lift, LSA or ICL specs
_________________________

Cam Motion . . Custom Grind Camshaft (with optional 8660 steel alloy core)
$ 425

BTR . . . . . . . .660" Lift Platinum Dual Spring Kit with Steel Retainers (SK001)
$ 229

BTR . . . . . . . .Rocker Arm Trunnion Upgrade Kit (TK001)
$ 115

BTR . . . . . . . .5/16” Dia. Hardened Pushrods (7.400” Length)
$ 94

BTR . . . . . . . .1 Bolt to 3 Bolt Cam Conversion Kit
$ 41

BTR . . . . . . . .Camshaft Installation Gasket and Seal Kit
$ 43
______________

Parts Total: $ 947

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Keep the lift on the cam below .600" and your valve springs will last a good long time.

In fact, I would specify a lift on both the intake and exhaust valve lobes to be .585" (your aftermarket dual springs should then last as long as a stock cam with it's stock 'beehive' springs)

 

Since the harmonic balancer has to be removed in order to change your cam, I would replace the 'failure prone' OEM balancer with a high quality aftermarket balancer.

This will not add any labor charge, since the balancer must be removed anyway.

Doing this will save you a boat-load of money later on ... I can pretty much promise you that sooner or later your OEM balancer will fail (start wobbling)

 

The biggest issue with cam swaps I see is
1. debris/dirt transfer, technician didn't use gloves, poor handling of oil surfaces, etc...
2. cam bearing abuse which apparently results with spun cam bearings and trashed engines approx 20 to 30% of the time (worth searching about)

I only bring it up because it costs the engine which would have been fine if it was never opened. There are other ways to gain 50hp. I'd rather have a shot of nitrous than let somebody else touch my engine. But then again nobody is going to treat it the way I would, care enough to clean the room its in, install filters and fans/vents to ensure no foreign contaminant can wander in. I was doing a cam swap when I Was 15 years old and watched a leaf falling, loopdeeloop like in a cartoon or something and zip right down into the distributor hole. And it was a big ol leaf too.

I never saw it again but that engine spun every bearing so bad the bearings looked like you cut a piece of aluminum pipe with a chop saw. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the leaf either. Cleanliness can be overlooked or grossly mishandled without a thought or notice
never elect for surgery unless there is no other option, or you can perform it yourself with a high rate of success.

 

Your not going to get an aftermarket cam for an LS based engine for anywhere near $250 .... unless you go to GM and buy something like an OEM LS7 cam for your LS2 / LS3

 

Don't lie to me lol
https://www.ebay.com/i/173934705767?chn=ps
$210 shipped sloppy stage-2

https://sites.google.com/site/sloppy...sloppy-stage-2

Most famous cam on the internet, where you been brah

 

Got to be Chinese !

I'll pass
_____________________________________

Yup, I was right:

"Get it by Mon, Jul 1 - Mon, Jul 15 from Shanghai, China"

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