I got a pretty big cam its either 234/239 or 234/240, I think the intake and exhaust lifts are like .598 and .612. I got ls2 timing chain, ls6 oil pump, tsp hardened pushrods (chromoly i think) and prc gold dual valve springs rated at .660 lift. (think i have stock lifters not sure, i can find out though).

This is my first car i ever bought, previous where just my parents slow family sedans, all automatic, so im new to all this, (been reading on here for like 2 years though).

I hear there is much more maintance obviously with a cam, my rev limiter is raised to about 6700 or 6800 and tuned for the cam/heads and everything i got. If i dont bring it past 6000 or so do i still get the high maintanance/chance of reliability problems with big cams? If i see i really need the extra power in a race i wont bring it past 6500rpm. but that will be rare (not alot of street racing goes on in my area and itll NEVER be brought to the track).

basically, what should i expect reliablity wise. I hear you have to check your valvesprings every 10 or 15000 miles when you have an aftermarket cam, is this true with the parts i have??

 

Not trying to flame or anything but why would you buy a car with such a built motor if you are just going to occasionally street race it and never take it to the track? As for your cam maintance question. If it is a hydralic lifter cam there shouldn't be a lot of maintance required (anyone correct me if i'm wrong) If they are solid lifters there is much more required.

 

I'm with phoenix305, why buy that size cam when you want a nice reliable street car? The springs you have most likely wont break on you if you install them correctly. But they will probably lose seat preasure within a few thousand miles. The PAC 1518 beehives would be a better performer and dependable than the Associated made duel springs. Not really a good package for what you say you want to do with the car IMO.

 

Too much for just street play. Just get a cheater stick from thunder racing or something smaller so you can have the torque for play.With a big cam you have to rap it up to get your power, with a smaller cam the power is there instantly.

About the springs, I have the MS3 and use the same springs(PRC golds). Still have no problems, should last 10,000-20,000 miles before seat pressure goes.

 

Probably "should" but I dought it. Just removed a set with only 288 miles and about 40/50 dyno pulls. About half of them had saged close to a 1/4" already. There's more on them sagging I'll see if one of the threads made it to this site.

 

You guys are right, it is too much for street play ESPECIALLY with the 3.23s in it now (it was tuned for 4.11s, that should REALLY help when i get those, previous owner said the car will be completely transformed once i put those in ).

I exageratted abit, its not a daily driver its more like my fun car maybe to drive on nice days, more than just a weekend driver. I didnt know the cam was so big when i bought it lol. I was thinking it was a medium sized cam like one of those 228 cams that tons of ppl seem to get. So im stuck with what i got, but honestly its not bad at all.

Ive only driven it 4 or 5 times and am already used to the driveability, so thats no problem at all, gotta use the clutch more and slip it more then a normal car which i hope doesnt kill the tex oz700 clutch, but comfort and feel wise im pretty used to it.

I just need suggestions on what I should be looking out for, when should i maybe get a good mechanic to check out ****, I mean I dont want to just wait for something to break. Whats the regular maintance and check ups you should do with a heads/big cam car?? Pretty sure the heads cam and clutch all have less than 8000 miles on em.

 

If your looking for a set of springs you could also consider the all new PRC EHT valve spring kit. It's a huge step forward in spring technology compared to previous springs on the market.

That being said at .600" lift those springs you have right there will have a extremely long life. I have tons of spintron data with those springs next to many different companies out there. At right around the .600" lift area that spring will do a hell of a good job for you for many many miles to come.

There are thousands & thousands of sets of those springs being run on cars on this site & around the world. I've seen a set with over 40k miles on them at .600" lift & they were starting to loose some pressure, but probably had a few miles left on them! Gomer once had a set of the gold ones for over 50k miles if memory serves me correctly.

I have seen the associated double spring like in these kits loose some height on crazy lobes & big lift. That's the main reason we've spent a year developing & tweaking this new PRC EHT spring kit. The EHT kit has been tested past .700" lift with a heavy valve & had great results. The down side to the EHT spring kit is its about $350 a set. While that's 60-70 more than the standard old PRC spring kit, it's still over $200 less than any competitors spring kits that use EHT material to build their springs!

 

Ill look into those springs but I think I should be good for now. Should I get aftermarket lifters? Is there anyway to find out if springs are going bad without physically taking **** apart? for example are there any specific noises or weird things the car would do to signal the springs are starting to go??

 

The only real way is to take them out and get the seat pressure tested, I wouldn't worry too much about spring life, like Jason said 30k and they might need to be replaced, but it never hurts to check them at 20k... I think the cam you have the same cam as mine, I don't slip my clutch why do you have to slip yours? Also, not revving your car to 6.8k isn't really going to help your springs survive that much more really since the valves are opening and closing the same lift at idle or at 6.8k I'd be worried more about other parts than the springs at that rpm though