Cam Choice??

LAFENATU · Jul 8, 2010

SN95.ohh said:
Show me high numbers without a blower please.

And im not looking for a whole lot of torque. I can already move out the hole pretty well. Im looking for something that will help pull up top. Maybe im in the wrong car but im a fan of horsepower not big torque numbers. All the torque in the world with zero horsepower to back it up isnt going to win me any races in the long run.

No one is making you buy an alphabet cam dude. Order a custom cam if you're not satisfied so you can get what you want lol..

Frezzy Cam's are good as well.

NXcoupe · Jul 9, 2010

Well I'll jump in here! Well the reason people are bashing on the alphabet cams is because anyone who knows things about duration, overlap and lift, knows that a cam that has the same lift and duration for the intake and exhaust is not going to make power like a cam with dual pattern lift duration favoring the exhaust. Just a fact. I have had B cams, E cams, F cams, and had a few X cams on the dyno. They sound nice, pick up a little bit of power and some work well with blower apps, but then so does a stocker.
I grind custom cams, no I don't go out to my million dollar machine in my back yard and grind a cam, rather I do what all the big name guys do, go through the hundreds of lobe profiles and choose combinations that will work well with certain engine combinations or someone's specific engine combo, and then have a camshaft company grind it for me. I go with a top name grinder because I believe the quality of the camshaft and their cnc lobes are excellent. And NO, I am not advertising, just qualifying myself.
Now back to the discussion, with stock intake and heads, no cam will make more power in the midrange and top end that I know of. Most camshafts open the valves up too much in those stock heads that stop flowing at .440 lift, so opening them up farther causes the air to tumble and you'll get a howling, rumbling noise on the flow bench. I have done a lot of work with stock heads, flowing them and developing a port design that I went 10.0X with on nitrous and a stock cam, yeah, stock. Nothing works better with stock heads than that camshaft.
Now, the ONLY camshaft I have found(and I didn't look very hard) that will make a little more power, or at least should, with stock heads is the b cam. It has very low lift, more duration and has tight LSA. BUT, you will need better valve springs to work with ANY camshaft you put into it.
If you do plan for sure without a doubt to buy aftermarket heads and intake down the road, the stage 1 TFS cannot be beat for the money. If you want to make power with the stock heads, that cam will probably not do it. It will sound good tho.

95Grandtouring5.0 · Jul 9, 2010

It'll sound good, but still have relatively no balls since the stock heads and intake are killing your motor. My advice, don't put a cam into it until you first put on a good set of heads.

SN95.ohh · Jul 9, 2010

NXcoupe said:
Well I'll jump in here! Well the reason people are bashing on the alphabet cams is because anyone who knows things about duration, overlap and lift, knows that a cam that has the same lift and duration for the intake and exhaust is not going to make power like a cam with dual pattern lift duration favoring the exhaust. Just a fact. I have had B cams, E cams, F cams, and had a few X cams on the dyno. They sound nice, pick up a little bit of power and some work well with blower apps, but then so does a stocker.
I grind custom cams, no I don't go out to my million dollar machine in my back yard and grind a cam, rather I do what all the big name guys do, go through the hundreds of lobe profiles and choose combinations that will work well with certain engine combinations or someone's specific engine combo, and then have a camshaft company grind it for me. I go with a top name grinder because I believe the quality of the camshaft and their cnc lobes are excellent. And NO, I am not advertising, just qualifying myself.
Now back to the discussion, with stock intake and heads, no cam will make more power in the midrange and top end that I know of. Most camshafts open the valves up too much in those stock heads that stop flowing at .440 lift, so opening them up farther causes the air to tumble and you'll get a howling, rumbling noise on the flow bench. I have done a lot of work with stock heads, flowing them and developing a port design that I went 10.0X with on nitrous and a stock cam, yeah, stock. Nothing works better with stock heads than that camshaft.
Now, the ONLY camshaft I have found(and I didn't look very hard) that will make a little more power, or at least should, with stock heads is the b cam. It has very low lift, more duration and has tight LSA. BUT, you will need better valve springs to work with ANY camshaft you put into it.
If you do plan for sure without a doubt to buy aftermarket heads and intake down the road, the stage 1 TFS cannot be beat for the money. If you want to make power with the stock heads, that cam will probably not do it. It will sound good tho.

I really appreciate a response like this. Thanks for the info.

Javi · Jul 9, 2010

as much as you think you know about cars, you should be able to pick a cam yourself..
nope,alphabetic cams arent the best.
but what do you want for the wimpy stock heads and intake?
you say you want to do mild hci, then tsf 1, might be what you want..

Rice_slayer · Jul 11, 2010

Wow shock, what a way to start off a membership here, lay off both of you for christ sakes! Anyways, they are right, a cam with stock E7 heads is useless and pointless, the cam isn't the bottleneck in the factory set-up, the heads and intake are. I went and did my HCI at the same time and I am glad I spent the cash to do it right. Granted, the only other "cam'd" car I have rode in is my cousin's 83 stang with a 351w stroker with a cam approaching .700 lift. The TFS1 is a great cam, I love the sound and performance too, it pull HARD from 3k-6k, and before with stock cam i would pull from 1-3k and then die FAST. I have heard E cam'd cars and they sound good, but there are better ones out there as said. Pick your heads and intake first and cam last, putting a cam in with stock heads/intake is a waste of time, money, and a HUGE waste of driveability. Having a crappy idle/shaky car with absolutely no performance benefits? No thanks!

ttocs · Jul 11, 2010

I have a set of trickflow heads, and they make a cam to match the heads which has proven to make good #'s and be reliable with the two, would you still go custom grind? It just seems like an easy way to get proven gains, where with a custom grind who knows what the gains will be?

Venom351R · Jul 11, 2010

being that your a poor college student your money would be better spent elsewhere on the car then the cam since you still have stock heads. Kinda like how you cant change your pants until you take your shoes off, same thing w/ stock heads and going w/ an aftermarket cam. Kinda pointless. There are lots of other options out there for mods you can do that will be about in the same price range as the cam would have been.

RideThePONYgt · Jul 12, 2010

no point in opening a motor once to do a cam that is'nt going to help anything. then rip it open again for heads and intake sometime. just do it all at once.if you have trickflow heads either go with a TFS cam or a custom grind.

95opal · Jul 12, 2010

28 replies and just a couple of people commented on waiting to put the cam in with a set of heads. Im pretty suprised especially since you stated you were a broke college kid. Heres my .02 save the money and do heads and cam at the same time. You will save enough money on gaskets and fluids to buy the cam if you do it once. Good luck with your decision

TheNatster513 · Jul 12, 2010

custom cam from shaun tiede. email@; [email protected]

he will answer also any other questions ppls on here dont know.

OnyxCobra · Jul 13, 2010

95opal said:
Heres my .02 save the money and do heads and cam at the same time. You will save enough money on gaskets and fluids to buy the cam if you do it once. Good luck with your decision

man isn't that the truth, gaskets are freakin expensive.

ttocs · Jul 13, 2010

I alread said above that I have trickflow heads that I am waiting to match a cam with. I couldn't imagine getting into the heads and not going the extra time to do the cam while I was in there.

blue9550gt · Jul 13, 2010

Can anyone tell me about gt40 head i've got a set of the cast iron and tryin 2 think if i should change my flow-cut e7's or stick with them please help

Steven · Jul 13, 2010

buy nitrous. You won't regret it.

I like this dick swinging contest on the galactic scale. A car with a camshaft doesn't make a big deal, as long as you don't have serious vacuum demands and don't like a bucking bronco (depending on the cam of course). I think I'm qualified to say it, considering I've had alphabet cams, comps, lunatis, iskys, crower to name a few. It's not that big of a deal to put one in.

LAFENATU · Jul 14, 2010

blue9550gt said:
Can anyone tell me about gt40 head i've got a set of the cast iron and tryin 2 think if i should change my flow-cut e7's or stick with them please help

What are Flow-cut heads?

Between the 2, I would do the GT40's. They have a much better exhaust design as well as larger intake and exhaust valves.