I want to move my redline higher and make as much power as possible up top as I can -- while still remaining streetable.

By streetable, I mean that I want to be able to drive it around town without it idling so rough that it constantly wants to stall at lights, and I still want to have decent fuel mileage on the highway. If it becomes difficult to drive, that is not of concern to me.

I really don't know the first thing about what cam specs mean... whether higher lift, duration, etc is good or bad... what it means for the powerband, or anything really.

I know I want power up top, and I want my redline higher. The cam that has caught my eye is Comp Cams # CCA-54-428-11 on this page:

http://www.racenet.net/valve/cca-gmls1.php

Duration @ .50 228-230, Lift .571-.573, LSA 112

It says I would need the LS6 intake manifold, and computer re-programming... no big deal. What else would I need (I am assuming ported heads, new valves and springs), and would this work for what I want to do?

PS - I also want to supercharge it in a couple years.

 

First question--Why do you want to move your power up to the top end? By your mods, you don't have the setup to be anything but a dyno queen.

Peaky power ONLY works if the rest of your car is set up to take advantage of it. If it isn't, you end up having another 400+rwhp mid-12s car.

 

Call Allan/Candy @ Futral Motorsports (FMS) ----------->

They have the FM11 cam (228/230 .581/.597 112+4) and it is perfectly streetable. MOST of us here in the ATL run Allans cams. SS Rally Red is running it on stock heads with boltons..made 408/390 with 4.10s. Smallwood has a 228/228 (FM10 i think) and made 413/409 on stock heads. I run the FM11 with TEA heads. gotta get mine tuned soon.

Allans cams work. make great power under the curve. AND they are great people to deal with. Customer service is second to none.

 

How far up into the RPM's do you want to go? 7000....8000..? there is NO reason you need to move your RPM's that high for something with the mod list you gave. And to effectively take advantage of RPM's that high you need to have the bottom end to back it up. And to get the power band higher up in the RPM range you have to go with a narrower LSA, 106-108. And then you now have a VERY lopey cam that idles like a dragster.

Right there you have kind of contradicted yourself. You want it to idle smooth, get good gas milage...but at the same time you dont mind if its hard to drive. Thats a bit confusing. because as soon as you go to a BIG cam thats going to move your power up, it is going to idle rogh and choppy and will consume more fuel.

Maybe you should decide exactly what you want and weight it against the known side effects of going with a big cam and all of the nessacary parts required to back that cam up.


For something that is goig to see alot of street time a good healthy cam that can turn 6500 is fine and you can still make good horsepower.

 

I plan on giving this a complete set-up eventually, but I am building piece by piece. This summer I will do the clutch, LCAs, torque arm, panhard rod, etc... Over the winter I want to do heads/cam/3.73. Then, the next year, I want to supercharge it.

My philosophy is a little different than most f-body guys I know. I would rather run a high trap speed, than a low ET (relatively speaking of course). For example, I would rather my car run an 11.2 @ 133 than a 10.5 @ 127. I want to run the best ETs I can by making tons of horsepower, rather than gripping with traction like crazy on the launch.

It is kinda funny, I don't street race (never have, and don't plan to), but I don't like the idea of going to the track, throwing slicks on the car, taking out the backseat, spare tire, etc... I want to run the car AS IS. Whatever I bring to the track, I want to bring to the street. A lot of guys say they have a 10 second car, but that is with their slicks at the track, on the street they are nowhere near that. I think that if I moved my power up high enough, I could get by with DRs since I wouldn't be making a lot of power out of the gate. Ultimately, I want a car that makes a name for itself from a highway roll. I want to leave even the 800 HP MKIVs in the rear-view mirror

I also plan on sticking with the 6-speed. I will modify it as much as needed to handle the increased power. Eventually, I want to run 10s, and I know that with a 3.73 rear, I would need to rev to about 7200 in order to avoid shifting to 5th gear before the traps.

 

What kind of redline and powerbands are we talking about?

 

I think I want to go in the 7200-7500 range. Like I said above, I will build this car to support this cam eventually. As far as the bottom end goes, I am willing to change that as well... if it means I have to save a little longer before I do this mod, then so be it.

Hahaha, see I told you I don't know much about this valvetrain stuff What I was referring to when I said I don't mind if it gets difficult to drive was "surge". As far as the idle and fuel economy go -- I want them to be reasonable. Of course I understand going for more top-end power means giving up some street manners. Remember, I am driving a car with LT headers, and off-road y-pipe on the street. I think that should give you an idea that my definition of "reasonable" is pretty liberal, hehehehe...

That is exactly why I am bringing this up to you guys. I value a lot of the information I get from this board, and I appreciate it immensely. I want to know exactly where that "happy medium" for myself is.

 

If you want to turn rpms, plan on something like this...



If you want to spin and live, you have to pay. You need very good machining, very good parts, and a big wallet.

 

Sorry man, this is a pipe dream ...

What you want is not realistic.. Leaving an 800 HP car on the freeway, I don't care what kinda car, Supra or otherwise -, isn't going to be done with a very streetable fuel-efficient car much less an off-the-shelf bolt-ons style car. Set some realistic goals, or be prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to reach your goal. Look at some of the top contenders who can and do run up in the 130's+ trap speeds, they didn't do it with a heads/cam swap, a blower, and some suspension pieces

 

If you want to see 7000-7500 you can run one of many of the cams that are available now. BUT you wont be making the power that far up. You will see it start to teeter off further down in the 5500-6000 range. IMHO there isnt much reason to spin a motor that high unless you have one wicked cam with a small LSA and some pretty big duration.

From what you described in your "wants" you said you wanted high trap speeds and not nessacarily the fast ET. Long story short, you want a Road Race motor. High RPM's, power way up top. To do this you are better off purchasing a bare block and building that on the side of whats in your car now and not running it til it is completely put together. Building a road race motor can be just as brutal on the wallet as a drag motor, sometimes moreso. And they are a maintainence nightmare.

Your long tubes with an ORY pipe is pretty much the norm for 95% of the people on this board and is pretty much considered "standard issue". Try running long tubes through a boom tube on the street.

IMHO, for the trap speeds your looking to run; you are going to need one SICK motor that you can spin through the roof. And to build a motor like that requires ALL the top dollar parts along with the top dollar machine work and is still going to sound like a NASCAR running down the street and be sucking fuel just like one.

I think you would be pretty happy if you went with a stout cam/heads combo with all the bolt ons. I think you'll be suprised what you get out of it.

I am running a fairly brutal combo on my car that I spin into the 7000 range. It was built to run at sustained speeds in the 180mph+ range. It is ear splitting loud, surges at 50mph, driving in a parking lot sucks, clutch feels like a lead weight, constant maintainence and care, the suspension squeeks like I have mice running through the car, etc etc etc. and I am nowhere NEAR a 130mph trap speed. The other night I tallied up my reciepts.......I almost decided to eat a bullet.

 

you deffinatly need to get a new rear, not just 3.73's. with the power you want to make the stock one will blow easily. if you want to run 10's without slicks i would suggest around 500 rwhp and a set of et streets to get you to and from the track. traping 130 mph is going to require a possible low 10sec car imo. and that is not going to have the greatest street manners as far as idle and gas mileage unless you build a big cube motor that will absorb some of the choppy idle. it will still get around 17 if you dont drive like a complete moron the entire time. if you are wanting to rev really high, you might want to consider staying with a 346, big stroke motors dont always rev to well. i would suggest a well built 347ci with new rods, pistons and treated crank, all well ballanced and assembled. you also need to build up the valve train alot to turn 7500rpms i would have roller lifters,rockers and maximum seat pressure on the dual springs before worrying about coil bind, and of course hardend pushrods. lastly. if you plan on supercharging it you need to have a higher lsa on the cam. like some of the nitrous cams. and a low compression motor to put it on. in that case you would need alot more rwhp to get into the 10's go look at some of the setups in the fi section of the board and see what they are running. that will give you a better idea.

 

Hmm I think I know what you mean... my cam feels pretty mellow under 3.5-4K which is like driving around... But the redline will probably be set at 6600-6700. Thats as high as you want to go I think on your average heads and cam stock shortblock setup. Even that scares the hell out of me. If you want to go 7500 either dig DEEP into your pocket book for new shortblock etc. or go buy a Honda S2000 I think that powerband starts at around 7K