Hey guys, im back on the forum again with my 3rd Camaro. this time i picked up an 01 ss with a little work already done but the bad thing is it was all done by the original owner at 19k miles or less and im the 3rd owner at 55k miles. the second owner neglected to tell me about 70% of the parts on the car because he was simply clueless about all of it. i was told it had a cam and that was it, plus he had all the stock parts still. the car has internal work listed below and also has slp LT headers, 3"y pipe, 4" mufflex catback with the 4" mufflex spintech box muffler. not sure of tail pipe size but ill check those out later. they are def less than 3" which if you ask me seems like a very stupid and inconsistent exhaust setup.

anyways theres the background on the car and here is what im wanting to know. (im asking because after some searching im not finding any of the same setups and my car runs a little strange after 2500rpm more on this in a bit)

ok the cam i have is a comp cam with these numbers: (as on the box)

adv duration: intake 278 exhaust 285
duration @ .050 intake 231 exhaust 237
valve lift intake .589 exhaust .595
lobe separation 112.0

SN# D6449-04
ls1 3725r HR112 +2


it has manley valve springs (as on box)

1.290 Double
Inst. 140lbs @ 1.800"
Open 385lbs @1.150"
Coil Bind 1.100"


Titanium Retainers

+.050 installed height


manley spring cups


Futural Motorsports Chromoly Pushrods

5/16"
7.400" .080


car has custom tune by who knows who on who knows what but it made 380 hp and roughly 380 tq

Ok my questions are

1. is this more of an all motor setup or is it one that would be good with nitrous or boost? i need to know so i can develop some future plans for the thing

2. Is this even considered a big cam? ive had guys tell me my car sounds like it has a huge cam in it and i honstly dont know if it is or not. but its borderline not daily drivable. or i suck at driving one, which is a big possibility lol

3. Im new to the whole cammed car thing so for me its a little hard to drive at times and usually dies if the ac is on at redlights. it idles around 900 and the car runs really smooth until about 2500 rpm. once i pass that it doesnt really miss but it just looses the smoothness. it pulls fine but acts like something could be choking up a little or something. kinda like an older chevy truck would do with straight pipes when it begins to make that annoying popping noise out the exhaust. def not a miss but def not smooth either. leads me to thinking that it could be my exhaust setup possibly. but after 2500 it def acts like its not running efficiently. any ideas if this could be an internal or external problem? ive had a bent pushrod in another car before and it was a steady miss and not something that would be only noticable at a certain rpm. idk if they can cause an issue like mine or not.

Sorry for the long winded post but i wanted to be as detailed as i could. thanks in advance for any help.

 

I would look over the valve springs real good after I replaced them.
+.050 retainer? adds .050 to height? I'd check that too does not sound
right.

 

Who said anything about replacing valve springs? Are you awake? lol

 

While that cam is by no means huge; it would be borderline streetable if just
thrown into a stock compression ratio LS1 with only a mediocre tune. Most of
the success stories with cams that size usually involves milled heads or 243
castings and thinner Cometic MLS head gaskets in order to raise the comp-
ression ratio to 11:1. Then with a solid tune (drivability) not just a max dyno
reading you could expect decent street manners. The other alternative would
be to just swap the cam for a smaller 220-224 range and live with less peak
power but a more cruiser friendly car.

 

i see. thanks for the info. id say it wouldnt be hard to swap it with someone wanting to go bigger or maybe just buy some heads. ill get back to this tonight, thanks again for the info!

 

If the valve springs are over 36k miles old they could be weak and causing issues up high with valve float. That is at the higher end of valve spring life for a cam like that. The 4" single exhaust is in my opinion the best option for an f-body. Your only other option is true duals which have their drawbacks as well and the only one I know of that goes all the way out to the back is 2k dollars plus the kooks 1k dollar headers.

 

Is 36k miles a rule of thumb kinda thing for them to be worn out?

 

Some wear out in 15k with a cam like that. You can take one off and have the pressures checked. You just said that it had 55k and mods were done at 19k.

 

I would have it retuned to make sure the air/fuel ratio and timing are good .look at the rocker arms for any slop from missing bearings,and check the push rods .new springs would be a good idea .

 

Well one good thing is i know the second owner and he def wasnt the type to beat on it or do much hell raising with it so id guess the springs would be on the longer side of the life span but you guys bring up good points. Ideally id like to just find some 243 heads for it but worse case i can grab some fresh springs and go for a tune. i talked to a guy tonight who mentioned a good place to take it thats at least in the same state. i wrote the name of it down but it escapes me right now so ill give them a call and get some numbers. im sure its not going to be a cheap job but the thing really needs a check up and touch up on the tune it has

New question. if i replace the springs should i go with the same dimensions i listed above on the ones i have or is there a set that would be better suited? This might be a "Call Comp" question.


and as for the comment on the exhaust. i think its over kill for this car esp with the way its done. the y merge is 2 3" pipes that go into another 3" for about 4 or 5 inches then it jumps up to a 4" all the way back. it would make more sense to me to merge the 2 3" pipes to a 4" and mate that to the 4" that goes on back. i feel like its a choke point the way it is

 

Buy a flowmaster y merge for the y pipe and that will make it 4" right away and is cheap

 

Im either gonna do that or make one. the flow master one looks pretty efficient to me

 

one more question.. will this thing like nitrous? i know there are some variables here but with the exception of the tune info you can see what the car has done in the first post. i just dont wanna add the squeeze to this thing if its more of an all motor fitting cam. id like to make double sure im not gonna harsh the ol gal before i make that step and even if i do it will be a small shot at that. a 100 shot at maxx