Looking for cam specs that provide good valvetrain longevity
12-30-2003, 01:13 PM
#1
Looking for cam specs that provide good valvetrain longevity Am I correct in believing that aggressive profiles and high lift increase valvetrain strain where-as larger duration doesn't necessarily do so? If I went with a higher duration, lower lift cam that didn't have an aggressive rammp rate like the Comp Cam XE-Rs or the TR series, would that give me a better chance of long valvetrain life? I'm looking for a setup for 50k+ miles of useage as a daily driver, weekend player. I understand hard driving is going to wear stuff down faster, but anything that will minimize additional wear and tear is desired.
How much difference in power is there going to be in a .550 lift and a .580 lift cam, all other specs identical? I've looked at the flow numbers provided by MTI and Patriot on the ported heads, and the difference in flow from .550 lift and .600 lift is around 6-12 cc's. doesn't seem like a huge difference to me. I understand in competitive environments every last microliter of power you can tweak out of your engine can be the difference between winning and losing, but I'm not necessarily looking for a couple extra ponies if it's going to have a noticable impact on my valvetrain lifetime.
I don't mind having a lopy or higher idle. So something with 228 or greater duration and a 112lsa is probably what I'm going to go with. I just don't want to get too aggressive with ramp rates and lift that I have to replace parts every couple years (averaging 10-12k miles a year). And are there any cams available that fit these sort of specs or am I going to have to go the custom grind route?
How much difference in power is there going to be in a .550 lift and a .580 lift cam, all other specs identical? I've looked at the flow numbers provided by MTI and Patriot on the ported heads, and the difference in flow from .550 lift and .600 lift is around 6-12 cc's. doesn't seem like a huge difference to me. I understand in competitive environments every last microliter of power you can tweak out of your engine can be the difference between winning and losing, but I'm not necessarily looking for a couple extra ponies if it's going to have a noticable impact on my valvetrain lifetime.
I don't mind having a lopy or higher idle. So something with 228 or greater duration and a 112lsa is probably what I'm going to go with. I just don't want to get too aggressive with ramp rates and lift that I have to replace parts every couple years (averaging 10-12k miles a year). And are there any cams available that fit these sort of specs or am I going to have to go the custom grind route?
12-30-2003, 03:55 PM
#6
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Originally Posted by jRaskell
I don't mind having a lopy or higher idle. So something with 228 or greater duration and a 112lsa is probably what I'm going to go with. I just don't want to get too aggressive with ramp rates and lift that I have to replace parts every couple years (averaging 10-12k miles a year). And are there any cams available that fit these sort of specs or am I going to have to go the custom grind route?
There are plenty of lobes available, in various configurations, that will get you long life and still are great power producers. They all would still require the proper valve springs and matching hardware to perform correctly, so don't discount the peripheral's importance.
Just for an example, I have over 25 different lobes with 224* duration at .050", utilizing lobe lifts from .310" through .365", all with not one valvetrain issue. It's all in the engineering...
Ed