hey guys. I t sure if this question has been brought up before but.... I am running a stock 5.3 with holley 300-130 intake and a msd 6010 box. stock heads for now and prob a 750 holley double pumper. we are running a 3200 stall converter in a turbo 350. car is strip only car it will not see the street.we will be running a 100 shot of nitrous (not 100%) sure of this yet I have the kit but still undecided. my question is what cam should I run, I have talked to the big three cam makers and they all have diff opinions on what (THE BEST) application for my car is. I want to run the best producing cam with out any head work. any suggestions would be great. sorry for the long post but I tried to include as much info as possible. i will change the springs in the head if needed i just don't want to get into machine work at this time.

 

no advice at all????

 

What gear are you running? Also a factor in choosing a cam. If i have learned on thing over the years its match your cam to the combo as much as you can to maximize its purpose. A lot of guys want to put the biggest cam in possible and wonder why jt runs like ***. Is that intake a dual plane or single plane? With a fairly tight converter like that you def dont want to run a cam to large it will kill it. Who have you talked to as far as cam recommendation?

 

it is a dual plane with rpm range from 1500 to 6500. I talked to lunati 3 times today and each representative had there own grind that was the "best" I talked to crane cams but I have never really been a fan and the guy was an *******. I talked to comp and he wanted to set me up with a cam with a 270 duration and 630 lift I think. I talked to my neighbor (old school ihra racer) and he said he was pretty sure that cam would shove the valve through the piston. the cam specs I have from lunati are (227/233-584/584-108 lsa and +2 degree). im not realy familiar with the degree of the cam. those specs seem to be closer to the 5.3 specs I saw in the sticky database on the fourm.

 

i am a mechanic and i am no dummy. but i have never built a performance engine. i am not familiar with cam degrees or how to figure out piston to valve clearance. i just don't want to put the wrong cam in and smoke the motor on startup or get to the track and have it fall on its face.

 

the 630 lift cam would not shove the valve through the piston unless you installed it completely wrong. But anything over about a 540 lift would require a valve spring upgrade, and to be safe should be to dual valve springs. If you are planning to only go to the limits of the intake, being 6500 RPM, then inform the rep of this. They will tell you different setups based on having nitrous or not, also based on rear gearing, trans, car weight, tire size, track length (1/8th mile vs 1/4 mile), heads, headers, mufflers or not...... and the list goes on and on. Talking to 3 different guys at one company will get you 3 different opinions because of the different questions they asked.

Now, here are a couple things you need to look at doing BEFORE ordering the cam:
Decide NOW if you are going to change to 799 or 243 heads for more flow, or get aftermarket heads that have been ported and polished. If you are, wait on the cam and springs. Get the heads first, then springs, then camshaft. When you have ALL 3, THEN change them all at once. I say that because then you don't have to worry about a lifter falling down since you will have the heads off and can remove the lifters if you want to.

For now, try running the stock engine with the nitrous. Just like it is. I have pretty much the exact same setup as you except my intake is single plane, and I have a 93 S-10 standard cab short bed.

Now, being worried about results or looking goofy because of tuning issues is GOING to happen unless you tune on it some out in the middle of nowhere on some country road. Follow your timing retard chart and add 1 degree of retard for safety. Make sure you have 2 stage colder plugs for 100 HP of nitrous. When you try it out for the first time, get the car moving and wait til 2500-3000 rpm, hit the gas with nitrous on, and see how it does through ONE gear, preferably first. If ANY THING AT ALL is not normal sounding, it hiccups, backfires, or even bogs for a second, shut it off. Something is not right.

Take your time on this, seek advice from the guys running nitrous on LS engines in the nitrous section, and be ready for a LOT of questions. Primary question I would say will be first one asked, "how does the car run on motor?"

If your answer is "I don't know", then don't even bother asking the question. If the car is not running as well as you can make it on motor, then nitrous will only amplify the problem.

Good luck with your build-up and start a page of the build by itself. LOTS of pictures and information about the car are very helpful when seeking advice.

 

Which cam makers did you talk too ?
From what I've seen you leave a lot on the table calling up the big companies like comp and lunati.
Not taking anything away from them but people like Martin @ tick and brian tooley are the go-to cam gods when it comes to these motors.

 

If the motor is stock...maybe an ASA Hot cam would be enough.... "for now"

 

Just look around in the classifieds for a cam in the mid 220s on the intake and maybe a good split to low 230s on exhaust to help out the exhaust when you spray it. That dual plane intake is going to want to work in the mid range, so I wouldn't go too crazy on duration, even though its a strip only deal. You can do something with some overlap, to get the little engine moving with . maybe a 110 LSA. Ho, wait, that's an ASA cam like Doug said! LOL. The ASA would be fine, but at a 525 lift, Id look for something a little more aggressive with lift in the upper 500s, but I wouldn't pass on an ASA, if you found one cheap.

 

You're building a strip only car with nitrous, starting with a dual plane and then looking at cams in the 630 lift range?

Seems to me you want to rethink the intake.

 

Id put a single plane on for strip only, although my dual plane still pulls past 6500 rpm easy

 

Isnt it normally accepted that the dual planes dont like sizeable amounts of nitrous?

 

I say throw a 2216 edelbrock cam in there and lest it fly. Enough with all the opinions since it is a stock 5.3 with nothing special. Lol

 

[QUOTE=89gmcs15;18152754]Isnt it normally accepted that the dual
That's been the theory for as long as Ive been fooling with cars. Im not so sure it works that way in reality though. Hot Rod did a test a few years ago to see if the theory held water. In their test , not only did the dual plane do well with the nitrous, but it also made a little more power than the exact same nitrous jetting on a single plane. They went so far as to check the fuel/air/nitrous mixture at each port. They came to the conclusion that up to a 200 shot or so the dual was fine to spray.

 

I have a FTI cam by Ed curtis. All 3 of my last motors have run better than they should according to what people say. I have heads milled .020 other than that, stock with cam and carb set up. Ran times in sig. It still has more in it, so you be the judge.....its a 6.0, but ed knows how to make em fly.