Floorman279

iTrader: (11)

this will be long, and descriptive.

so i have a cam already, and im happy with it, but changed a lot of my setup so there may be something more optimized and this is kinda a feeler. i just added some psi 1511s so the pain in the *** part of the cam swap is done. im sure we may have learned ways to tweak the cam a little more since then to make more power. also when my buddy did the cam swap for me, i was young and stupid and didn't replace the oil pump or upgrade to the ls2 chain. im trying to decide if the aggravation of pulling the balancer, and reinstalling the balancer is worth an extra 10hp from a more optimized cam and the benefit of a nice pump and chain.

so its a stock weight 2000 camaro, t56, 9 inch rear with 3.89s. stock bottom end. has old dynatech headers that are 1 3/4 stepped to 7/8. into a flowmaster 4 inch merge dumped. current cam is a vengeance racing comp grind from 5 years ago, the vrx5. if ur unfamiliar with that cam, here are the specs

.601 int, .605 exh gross lift
duration @ .006 tappet lift 285 int, 287 exh

valve timing @ .050
open: 6 int, 51 exh
close: int BTDC 50, exh BBDC 7

@.050 236/238 duration on a 112 lsa
99.9% certain these are XER lobes

couldn't get a pic of the cam card but thats everything on there.

with stock 241s, and a stock ls6 intake i made 395. i put a link to the dyno graph


https://ls1tech.com/forums/dynamomet...ads-fbody.html


what i like about the cam, seems to really pull hard once we hit 4000 rpms all the way to 6300 where it feels like it starts to slow a little bit, but the dyno kinda says otherwise. im almost dead certain those are the 241s being maxed out. it sounds great, perfect lope, i can deal with the under 1500 drivability. i am definitely happy with it.

however, im minimally concerned with the reliability of the older comp grinds, but more importantly, since then i have installed a fast 90 and ported heads so an off the shelf grind may not be as ideal as a customized one since so many variables have been changed. and i believe that we could definitely get some more out of the setup with a cam matched to the fast and more importantly the heads.

the heads are the wegner nascar 799s, i believe they are ported to 229s. i am running them in nascar form, the stock size del wests, and the psi 1511s. i believe they are the .625 max lift springs. also running new morel 5315s.

the car is a street car, no race use. i believe my shift point will be about 6700. do u think its worth swapping? whats ur opinion on the XER lobes? how will those work with the psi beehives? honestly tho, i know the current cam is gonna LOOOOOVVVEEE the heads. people say the early ls1 oil pumps aren't good, but i also haven't seen many ppl talking about failures.

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

My first impression is to say run it if you're not having any real problems.

The benefit to good heads is you can do just as good or even better with less cam. At some point you will probably decide you're wanting a change cause you're bored or something and you'll pull the trigger then. But until then, see how it does with just the heads upgraded.

Floorman279

iTrader: (11)

That' kinda how I feel. Only thing making me consider it is the oil pump dilemma. Im no cam guru, but I figured keeping the exh at 238 is good, but bringing the intake down to like a 232 or 233 would open up the low end just a little more.

ragtopz28

iTrader: (57)

I'm no cam guru either but I think a wider split, say 231/242 would get you some noticeable gains with that H/I combo.

Floorman279

iTrader: (11)

I've read that extra exh duration is mainly there to just help hold the power after peak. since my plan is to shift at 6700 or so i figure that extra would be useless. im not chancing stock rod bolts.

cookseyb

Run what you got till you get ready to boost it or go race only, sounds you got a good combo...

Floorman279

iTrader: (11)

nobody has commented on my oil pump concerns.......

David@Vengeance

iTrader: (2)

That camshaft is essentially the same as our VRX5 on a different LSA. It should make great power especially with the upgraded heads as mentioned. I would definitely do the oil pump and chain upgrade for your plans with the car, but I would not consider swapping the camshaft unless there is something specifically you do not like about the current setup, or you're making a drastically different change in the cam profile to make it worth changing. FWIW we run Melling 10296 pumps in all of our builds with excellent results, and the LS2 chain is a great budget upgrade to keep away from spending the $150 on a C5R unit.

If we can help on any of your parts feel free to message/call/email me. We have a sale going right now and can help save some money on the project!

- David @ Vengeance

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

I would not worry about it unless you are seeing problems. Like oil pressure dropping under load, etc. If you're getting 70+ PSI at red line, I'd just leave it be. The old "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

Floorman279

iTrader: (11)

good point