Pickin a cam

[TheFuzz]

It is a toss up, but it is more personal preference than anything. That being said, Justin's Z06 cam might be up for sale here soon

Dibs

As for the different cams, does one make more power down low than the other? I can look at specs all day, but if you have any first hand info on that, I'd love to hear it.

 

[NathanJax]

Dibs

Actually, you should take everyones advice and NOT do the z06 cam if your going to s/c...

And in that case, I got dibs

As for the different cams, does one make more power down low than the other? I can look at specs all day, but if you have any first hand info on that, I'd love to hear it.

Ditto.

How exactly is it personal preference if I don't know the difference? (besides 20hp)

Sorry, you might have to talk to me about this stuff like I'm 12... I've tried to figure out all these degrees and slopes and stuff, but it hurts my brain.

To Clarify, for my DD, if I have intake, exhaust, E-Fans, BB Tune and want to get a cam, would the best all around (performance,price) be a stock z06 cam? And if so, which one of those would I chose and why? Maybe if you could give a comparison on the 2 and the reasons why you would want to chose one or the other?

I'll PayPal you $5 for your time explaining this to me


PS I love TYF.com





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[TheFuzz]

:scum:



You know, you should take everyones advice and NOT do the z06 cam if your going to s/c...

In that case, I got dibs

Heh, maybe I'll go with a blower, maybe I wont...I might do the cammed LQ4 and save the blower for the new Tahoe I plan on buying once the Yuke is paid off, in which case I'll be glad I scored that cam from Justin.

 

[NathanJax]

Heh, maybe I'll go with a blower, maybe I wont...I might do the cammed LQ4 and save the blower for the new Tahoe I plan on buying once the Yuke is paid off, in which case I'll be glad I scored that cam from Justin.

Fine.. 2nd DIBs... (Jenna, monies in PayPal)





Bumping to keep this at the top cause I'm really interested in her response

 

[NoChrome]

Translating cam is a little difficult, but Ill put it this way... If you have lots of valve overlap, you get good mid and high end power, with a nasty lope down low, a loss of vaccume, a terrible idle, and a really mean sounding lope. You get valve over lap based off of the LSA or lobe seperation angle. Thats from top of the intake to top of the exhaust in degrees. To find the overlap you have to taken in the duration of each lobe and the lsa... Now to negate the draw back of the overlap you can tune your idle higher, and get a torque converter that doesnt lock up untill you are nearing your power band.

Now if you have a big heavy slow truck... you want very little overlap, a draw back to that is you lose the high end power but you have a much more "streetable" ride. These cams are found in most stock applications for emission reasons and reliabliaty. The biggest perk (in my book) for little overlap is more dynamic compression ratio. We can all use math to find the static compression ratio, but when the motor is turning and the valves are open at the same time you loose some of that pressure and force air (and valuable fuel) right out the exhaust. Which is why you want little overlap on a super charged engine.

Thats the basics of what we need here. I could go on but this post is long enough.

 

[NathanJax]

Translating cam is a little difficult, but Ill put it this way...

Thats the basics of what we need here. I could go on but this post is long enough.

I'm reading that, and I somewhat understand that, but I still don't know how to figure out what those numbers mean and how to translate that into which cam to pick. I've read about it here and PT.net, but still don't grasp it.

I need it in layman's terms. Like...

"zo6 385hp cam 204/211 valve lift 0.525/.0525 lsa 116" means fast 0-60mph but slow 60-100mph

"z06 405hp cam 214/218 valve lift 0.555/0.551 lsa 117.5" means good all around streetable truck. Good steady climb all the way to 100mph

You know what I mean?

 

[NoChrome]

Ok, look at it like this, for the most part a really narrow lsa like 112* or 114* will be better for high engin RPM, a really wide lsa 116* 117* is good for low end power like idle up to around 3-4K rpm...

Now if you buy a converter that will flash to 3K rpm, you dont need the low end power because your stall lets you blow right by it. But with the stall and that cam you need a tranny cooler, a tune, and prolly exhaust work.

Figure out what rpm band you spend most of your time in, then weigh the pros and cons of each and go from there.

The Z06 cams would be fine for any truck on here, if I were going to pick one I would pick the 117.5 lsa cam. But I would not personally want a z06 cam I would go with this one 214/220 .600/.523 115 LSA

 

[JennaBear]

Basically, the lower HP cam, will make more power at the low end. The higher HP cam will obviously make higher HP however, at the mid-high end. There is not a huge difference between the two for all intents and purposes.

 

[NathanJax]

Basically, the lower HP cam, will make more power at the low end. The higher HP cam will obviously make higher HP however, at the mid-high end. There is not a huge difference between the two for all intents and purposes.

But you would need to get a stall converter as well? Or would that only "Help"?

 

[NoChrome]

For those cams you do not NEED a converter but they always help getting you outta the hole.