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Btr truck cam with a manual?

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Old Aug 5, 2020 | 08:36 PM
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Default Btr truck cam with a manual?

Hello, i was wondering if it would be ideal to run a btr stage 3 cam on my 5.3 with a gto t56 behind it. The motor/trans is in a 1988 Rx-7, Will the cam will affect the drivability with a t56?
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Old Aug 6, 2020 | 06:48 AM
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Sounds like a cool project.

Can you tell us more about the car like its other mods and planned mods? Likewise how do you plan to use the car? What sort of goals do you have for the car?

That sort of info is always helpful
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Old Aug 6, 2020 | 03:47 PM
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It'll work but if you're putting the setup in a car I would put a car cam in it instead of a truck cam, unless you already have the cam and need to reuse it
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Old Aug 6, 2020 | 05:55 PM
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Originally Posted by 00pooterSS
It'll work but if you're putting the setup in a car I would put a car cam in it instead of a truck cam, unless you already have the cam and need to reuse it
What do you see as the downside of using the BTR Stage 3 truck cam in his application? Not doubting you, just curious...
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 06:29 AM
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I have a 221/226 115+3 600 lift in my 92 silverado with a 5 speed and i can do 1200 rpms in 5th without any bucking. Drives great everywhere. You shouldn't have any problems.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 11:46 AM
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Originally Posted by G Atsma
What do you see as the downside of using the BTR Stage 3 truck cam in his application? Not doubting you, just curious...
It's on a 110 LSA (real early IVC) for max low end (for trucks) and 550 lift. If he went with a little more duration, opened it up to 112 or so and went to 600 lift it would make more power, and over a broader range, and a lot more up top which in almost all cases will help the car be considerably quicker since you can run out the gear further, and land in the next gear at a better rpm. It depends on which trans he is going with but a few of the standard issue transmissions (in particular the 4L60) has a horrible jump in ratio from 1st to 2nd gear and really needs to be wound out to 7k ish to not bog in second. A big converter helps with that and gears, and that's all the more reason to run more cam. Also going to a "car cam", it can help with traction too by not bringing everything in as low down, which will also help it be faster.

With the truck cam it should have way more than enough low end, be snappy and fun, but if you want it to go faster (especially ET wise) I'd go for a little different cam.

I'm in no way saying the truck cam won't work. It absolutely will.


Edit: forgot he said he is going with a T56. The same principals still apply but since I went off about 4L60's and stalls I figure I should at least note that I acknowledge he is running a T56 lol
Double edit: the only reason I said anything at all is because he asked if it would be "ideal". No the truck cam isn't ideal, but it's far from bad.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 12:01 PM
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If it's a 5.3 with 706/862 heads, they don't flow enough to support .600 lift. .550 is about the max, if that. 243's, yeah. Larger valves, ports a bit bigger.
If you can, catch a video called "How to Properly Select a Camshaft" by Myvintageiron7512. It goes into how not to get too big a cam for the heads being used, and a lot more.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 02:43 PM
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If it flows best at 550, you want more than 550 lift so that it spends more time up in that area, if they max out at 550 and you only give it 545 to 550 then it just touches max flow then goes away. If it flows best at 550 and you give it 570 it goes past 550 twice....

That's the cliff notes. There's plenty more about it out there


And also, Texas speed has posted a bunch graphs and overlays comparing their truck cams in stock 5.3 truck motors with 550 lift cams and 600 lift cams and the 600 lift cams make more power everywhere than the 550 cam does, with ALL other specs being the same. Pretty sure that was ran on a 706 headed motor IIRC
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 06:21 PM
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The problem with too much lift is reversion when flow stalls.
Unless I'm mistaken, TSP's tests were on a Gen IV 5.3 with 243/799 heads which do flow more than 706 heads. I'll check and edit if needed.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 08:19 PM
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Originally Posted by G Atsma
If it's a 5.3 with 706/862 heads, they don't flow enough to support .600 lift. .550 is about the max, if that. 243's, yeah. Larger valves, ports a bit bigger.
If you can, catch a video called "How to Properly Select a Camshaft" by Myvintageiron7512. It goes into how not to get too big a cam for the heads being used, and a lot more.
G, ive been involved in testing regarding this very topic. Way back in the day, NHRA super stock rules mandated a stock Oem head casting, and the best sbc castings stalled out at .450 to .500 lift. We found huge power gains going to .650 to .750 lift solid rollers. The casting would not support the flow in theory because heads get tested on a flowbench which really is a poor way to test a cylinder head. Heads get tested at 28” water and most race engines see 70” to 80”...maybe even 100” at high rpm. Yuge difference. There is a phenomenon called Flow Dwell Time, which is exactly what Pooter was eluding to. At .450” to .500” lift Camshaft, the engines only sees Max lift for a couple of degrees. Yet you move camshaft lift on up to .650” to .700” and your Flow Dwell Time is drastically increased, so the engine is seeing the .450” to .500” for many, many more degrees of duration.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 08:27 PM
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Originally Posted by G Atsma
The problem with too much lift is reversion when flow stalls.
Unless I'm mistaken, TSP's tests were on a Gen IV 5.3 with 243/799 heads which do flow more than 706 heads. I'll check and edit if needed.
Reversion is a byproduct of duration, not necessarily lift. Truth be told, every internal combustion engine ever built deals with reversion issues to an extent, due to differences between cylinder pressure at the beginning of the exhaust stroke and atmospheric pressure.
To add to this, port stalling found on a flowbench is going to move upward in lift once intake manifold is bolted on, due to the intake slowing the air down from restrictions not found on a flowbench.
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Old Aug 7, 2020 | 09:21 PM
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Che70velle, you make a lot of sense. I based my theories (NOT facts... ) on what I'd heard, plus the video referenced in Post #7 above.
I have a feeling somethings you mention were not considered in the video.
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Old Aug 8, 2020 | 01:10 AM
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Originally Posted by G Atsma
The problem with too much lift is reversion when flow stalls.
Unless I'm mistaken, TSP's tests were on a Gen IV 5.3 with 243/799 heads which do flow more than 706 heads. I'll check and edit if needed.
My understanding is for the ~.550ish lift truck cam is the lift is kept around .550 so that stock valve train parts can be used. That's to cut cost of doing a cam swap. Lots of the smooth lobe low lift truck cams are marketed as allowing LS6 valve springs and stock valve train parts.

Lower lift isn't really about reversion. Reversion is more about large duration and LSA selected. I used to have SBC with a 240/250 @.050 on a 110 with barely .510 lift that had massive reversion.

If concern with the stalling for a certain lift one would want to test the heads on the flow bench and test the heads with the intake manifold in place. The manifold runner can affect the stall point. Sometimes making it lower and sometimes raising it to allow the heads to hold on longer.

The intake port can back up on the flow bench with more lift but that's mostly because the heads aren't set up correctly to support the cam. My understanding is often there is an issue with the short side radius and or valve job etc. To some degree those nasty flow bench events aren't quiet so bad in a running engine most of the time and that sort thing isn't much of issue. Ie head stalled at .570 lift and you have a .580 or so lift cam.

BTW - If the intake port in a LS head is stalling after ~ merely .550 lift - you can be sure the port work and or valve job in that cylinder head are suboptimal. Two outstanding head porters ( Darrin Morgan was one of them) told me that if the port work stalls under 1 inch lift its not a correctly optimized port/ valve job.


Last edited by 99 Black Bird T/A; Aug 8, 2020 at 01:26 AM.
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