jayyyw

Not sure if this is allowed. Glanced through the rules and didn't see anything about it.

Anyway, just a fun little BTR 3 vs BTR 4 comparison. Not the end all be all, I know. Too many variables. I just have to say that my setup always seems to surprise me.

Apparently BTR has a new set of camshafts out with different specs(so I've been told). If that's true, both of these cams are the last revision and not the newest ones.

The outcome shocked me a little. It was closer than I expected but I have just a little more "work" done to my car (BTR 3). So in the grand scheme of things, seems about right. If he were to do the same, extra, things I did, he would have most likely pulled me.

Enjoy. Or not. I'm the camera car.

v8sten

This is great. Me and my friend did the exact same thing.

My car (at the time)
07 Z06
BTR Stg 4 (old grind)
FRH heads 12:1 CR (may have been more, it sure seamed like it)
K&N CAI
2" Kooks, no cats
3" modded stock mufflers

His car
09 Z06
BTR Stg 3 (old grind)
AI heads 12:1 CR
Haltech 105mm CAI
Fast 102mm intake
80lbs injectors
ARH 1 7/8" headers, no cats
Billy Boat Fusion mufflers

Both cars made just over 600 RWHP with the same tuner on the same dyno. Comparing the dyno charts his power band came in sooner and ended sooner, where as mine started to climb at a higher rpm and fell off well above 7000 rpm. We did a 60-160 race and he pulled a car length out on me immediately and around 100-110 mph i started coming back. we agreed to let out at 160 mph exactly. we were door to door when we both let out. awesome race.

jayyyw

Nice! Glad to know the results are not abnormal. I know the power bands are different between the cam. My buddy had a BTR 3 in his car before and then switched to the 4. He says it lost some down low torque and doesn't feel a difference up top. Also that is drives a little worse.

Im a little weary of swapping cams at this point. Afraid of losing some of that punch but I do want so more pull up top. I've done a little bit of weight reduction and it seems to be working. Have a few things left that I want to try before I even consider changing out the cam. I'll likely have Mamo spec me something special. I was very intrigued by the new TSP cam lineup but feel it may be in my best interest to get something custom made for exactly what I want the car to do.

Ghost Knight

What's up J. I have the newer BTR 4 on the 112 LSA (old was 111). If there is a third revision, I'm not aware of it. I had the BTR 3 before the 4 and they drive identically IMO, with the 4 having more midrange that you can feel.

As you mentioned, some other key differences are weight, wheel size (e.g. 27.x" vs 25.x"), a solid point of compression, plus simple car to car variance.

I agree that I can't feel the top end difference, only the midrange increase following a gear change with the BTR 4.

lamboworld

Are you racing Ghost?

I am interested to see how my Mamo spec'd cam performs to the BTR3. I was going to go with the BTR4, but I just decided that it was more important to me to ensure that car doesn't buck or surge in cruise mode.

Mamo spec'd this cam for me: 236/250, .650/.650, 114+3

I have Nitrous for the track or racing, so I guess that I don't need to max out power with a cam. I think that I am going to have my short block rebuilt this winter with a piston setup to run a big *** shot of Nitrous.

Ghost Knight

Yes, he and I are racing. The surge feels the same between the 3 and 4 in my personal experience. The tune likely effects this a lot (JMS in Texas did a great job).

jayyyw

I'm definitely interested to see your results with your new camshaft. Are you planning to go with the original tuner? Would be nice to see your BTR 3 graph overlayed on the new one. I'm afraid of switching cams only to have it perform worse, or even just the same/slightly better. At this point, I don't think just a cam change will be a drastic difference.

I've been toying around with the idea of a 100-150 shot on top so I can keep my great driving cam and nice powerband.

lamboworld

New tuner. I did a baseline pull on my B3 cam and it was 597/530 but it was well into the 90's and very humid. I should have some back to back results tomorrow or Friday.

Nitrous is a lot of fun. I am running a 125 shot with C16 in a stand alone tank. It was about 4k including the install. Well worth it IMO.
I would check into the ability to get a mother bottle before I went this route. It is expensive and inconvenient if you have to take your bottles to refill them often. I ran 168 in the 1/2 mile from a dig with my old cam which was 226/246 114 LSA. This new cam should easily push me into the 170's with Nitrous.

Problem now is that I am maxed on the stock short block and I will have to put some new pistons in if I want to run anything bigger without the risk.

jayyyw

That's what I've heard. My tuner mentioned that he was interested in possibly acquiring a mother bottle. That would be nice and probably push me into getting a kit.

Like you, I plan to put some forged pistons in my short block but that's, at least, another year from now. Maybe nitrous will be easier and cheaper to find by then? Who knows.

441LSXTT

I also am curious between the two cams. I would really like to see a graph between the two cams to see which one is better because I'm gonna get either or of the new version as well as AI heads. I'm supposed to order everything this Friday. I did see one guy with the stage for cam that makes 636RWHP his low and mid range was really good

jayyyw

Ghost can likely respond to this and post his graph. He isn't the first I've talked to that swapped from the BTR 3 to BTR 4 and said it really was not worth/didn't feel much of a change. The BTR 3 in my car actually came from someone that switched to the BTR 4 and was tuned by JMS as well.

lamboworld

I don't have a dyno sheet yet, but here are the results. New cam made more power everywhere vs the B3 up to 5,800 rpm.

The dyno pull today was in very humid 90+ degree weather and the B3 was done yesterday on the same dyno in the morning with a little less heat.

New cam (Mamo):

581/515 just motor
691/671 with 125 Nitrous shot

B3 Cam
597/530 All of the gains vs my Mamo cam were above 5800 rpm

Ghost Knight

You went backwards

When racing, you're above 5.5k the whole time, so the B3 would have been faster in all scenarios.

lamboworld

True, but my car no longer drives like a POS. I am okay for giving up 15whp for drivability. I also have 700whp for the track with n2o.

Turbo2L

Drivability typically has more to do with the tune and/or tuner than it does the cam. The BTR IV and B3 are not really that big for a 427 cubic inch motor, all things considered.

lamboworld

Here you go. For whatever reason this dyno and actually the last dyno I was on had issues with getting an RPM reading on my car. Not sure what that is all about.

lamboworld

Yes, I get that but drivability is also VERY subjective.

Ghost Knight

Nice comparison. What tires did you dyno on? I wonder how this compares to your original cam.