What are the effects on driving the car?

I've never driven a cammed car and plan on throwing one in mine along with a torque converter in about 3-4 months once my classes are out. So far the plans are an ms4 cam with a yank ss4000 converter.

I repeatedly see people saying oh that's not going to be a good daily for some set ups.. What should I expect to be different after this that would make the car annoying to drive to some people?

 

What kind of car?
What is your rear end ratio? (This is critical to know.)
What cam are you considering?

 

with that cam its all in the tune. shitty tune and your gonna hate life driving that car. although it is a big cam i know 3 people that drive around Tick polluter cams in their dailys. and they have no complaints

 

it's a 2000 TA ws6 stock rear but I'm having mike norris do the install/tune so I'm pretty sure it won't be a shitty tune lol, but why do you say I'd hate life? Does the car accelerate weird? shift weird? what's the catch? sorry for such a simplistic question but like I said I've never driven a car with a decent cam and stall
and the ms4 is 239/242 with .649/609 111 lsa i think is what it is normally, I would have to ask TSP if they recommended a different lsa.

 

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that cam is not suitable for the street and unless you build the engine to rev to 8000 rpm, it will be slower ET than a milder cam.
I originally had a custom 231/237 with .612/.607 lift and 111 lsa. While it had great performance, it also required 950 rpm idle and had terrible gas mileage. Furthermore, it only created 7" of vacuum at idle; this was not an issue for me because I have Hydroboost power brakes, but stock braking systems prefer 15"+ of vacuum.

I then changed to a COMP 54-459-11 which is 231/239 with .617/.624 lift with 113 lsa. Those two cams might sound similar, but it improved the low-mid-range and gas mileage dramatically. Idle is now 900 rpm with 11" vacuum. On the track I shift at 7000 RPM and know it would be even faster with higher RPM. (I have dual valve springs, LS7 lifters and other upgrades.)

The first cam (111 lsa) had 13 degrees of overlap at .050; the second cam (113 lsa) has 6 degrees of overlap at .050. That big difference in overlap at .050 is what makes the cams so different. By my calculations the MS4 cam would have 18 degrees of overlap at .050. (The Tick 229/237 has 9 degrees of overlap at 0.050).
As far as I know, no GM cam has ever had any overlap at .050; they all have Negative overlap. Any overlap at .050 severely affects driveability, gas mileage and emissions.

Here are some other threads on the cam:
http://www.ls1.com/forums/f7/ms4-cam-100112/
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-s...e-with-it.html

To calculate the overlap at .050, I punch the .050 duration values into this calculator: http://www.wallaceracing.com/overlap-calc.php
(The requested "advertised" duration gives you overlap at .005" which IMHO is not as useful as overlap at .050")

I would suggest at max overlap at .050 in the 6-9 degree range.

 

If you run a MS4 cam in your car you better be prepared for checking and/or changing valvesprings often due to the harsh lobe ramp rates. There is no reason to run that cam in a daily driver type car. Period. I wouldn't even run something like that in a weekend only car.

That is a max effort cam more suited to drag racing and will require a lot of gear, stall, lightweight rockers/valves, and a high RPM limit to do what it's meant to do and if your car is not lightened significantly still won't do what it's meant to do.

You can easily be faster with a good combo with a mid size cam on less aggressive lobes that will last longer. You can have something that drives nearly as civil as stock but runs like stink when you lay the hammer down. If you look around enough you can find plenty of cases where baby cam 224/224 cam cars put a hurting on guys trying to run max effort cams on the street (and track if the car isn't right)

EPS, Tick, Texas Speed, and others will gladly help you choose something that will do what you want and do it well. I am willing to bet if you even call TSP they will steer you to one of their other cams than the MS4.

 

i would talk to Martin@Tick, he will steer you in the right direction.

 

hmm ok thanks for all the good info guys

 

Yea I had an MS3 and I wasn't too fond of it especially since the tune I had didnt even let spin high enough to be properly utilized. That cam need RPM to shine and the RPM that it requires is too much for a stock motor.

Plus as Thunder said you'll be changing springs often.

 

converter should be picked for the comb., same with cam
there's a saying if you error on cam selection, error on the small side, more street logic than anything
if you lose to much engine vac. then you lose power brakes, or their not as good
do more research, don't build something your going to hate, lol