Cam upgrade question

Corndiddly

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Well when I bought the car I was told it had a cam. I just pulled the cam and miced it and came up with .444" lift, so it's stock. What's a good cam to upgrade to? I have a edelbrock upper and lower intake. Crappy ebay CAI, long tubes with a off road x pipe.
 

white95

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Short answer:

1) Steeda #19 [works well with the stock tune]
2) Trick Flow Stage 1 [can work with the stock tune]
3) FRPP E-303 [hit or miss, mine worked with the stock tune but idled funky]
4) Can also install 1.7 roller rockers to the stock cam for a nice gain instead of a cam swap!!
 
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Corndiddly

Corndiddly

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Any pluses going with 1.7 and stock cam over let's say the trick flow stage 1? I like the idea of putting a fresh cam in over putting the old one back in.
 

Addermk2

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do not run an E303 cam.

Honestly, if you have stock heads, an aftermarket camshaft is a waste of time.
 

white95

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Addermk2 is more knowledgable on this topic but when you use 1.7 rockers with the stock cam it effectively raises the lift at the valve. Right?

Also, the OP has another thread asking about upgrading the heads to AFR 165 (or something similar in 1.90/1.60) status. Hopefully he wont try to put "lipstick on a pig" by putting an aftermarket cam with the E7 heads.
 
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Corndiddly

Corndiddly

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Would it hurt to put a cam in though? I may not gain any power, but when I do upgrade my heads I don't have to worry about putting one in then. My stock cam has maybe 150 to 160,000 miles on it.
 

whiplash473

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Problem is you're cam selection is limited now with stock heads..and when you put new heads on you'll probably wanna upgrade


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whiplash473

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I'd throw in a trick flow stage 1..there's a lot of choices and opinions tho


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Addermk2

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Well when I bought the car I was told it had a cam. I just pulled the cam and miced it and came up with .444" lift, so it's stock. What's a good cam to upgrade to? I have a edelbrock upper and lower intake. Crappy ebay CAI, long tubes with a off road x pipe.

I would be more inclined to believe that you measured a 0.277" difference between peak lobe height and base circle diameter.

Addermk2 is more knowledgable on this topic but when you use 1.7 rockers with the stock cam it effectively raises the lift at the valve. Right?

Rocker arm "ratios" are a multiplier of the cam lift. The measured valve lift of a stock cam is .444" with a 1.6 rocker. The cam lift is actually only 0.277". When using a set of 1.7 rockers, you new measured valve lift should be ~0.472".

Makes sense. What would be a good cam with my set up and trick flow 170cc heads

TFS stage 2 and notch the pistons for valve clearance.
 

white95

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Addermk2

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LOL, you don't need new pistons big guy. You just need to notch what you've got.
 

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