It has come to my understanding through research that these are two different cams. In the past my ignornance led me to believe that these were essentially the same. My question is which of the two are people most happy with. I can't remember but I believe most LS6 cammers said they gained 25-30 horses on the dyno. Also am I correct in stating that neither cam needs tuning or valvetrain upgrades?

 

I currently have a Hotcam. It can be driven with without tuning, but tuning would REALLY help things out. The Hotcam sounds bigger than it really is, which can be both good and bad. It's a good nitrous cam from what I hear. When you swap cams, be sure to get new pushrods and at a minimum, use some LS6 springs. That's really the only thing you'll NEED to upgrade, as this cam has been in this car for over a year without any problems

It's not a bad cam, but sounding so tough, it's making me want a bigger cam to get that extra power. The Hotcam is a 219/228 @.050 112 LSA, and I'm wanting to jump to either a 23x/23x cam or a T-Rex. You'll probably end up the same way

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, this was off the first site I found on yahoo:

hot cam = 219/228 .525 .525 112 lsa

LS6 cam = 204/218 .551/.555 117.5 lsa

LS1 cam = 196/207 .479/.467 116 lsa

 

the LS6 cam has a larger lift, but less duration @.050
the Hotcam has more .050 duration, but less lift.

these cams are VERY different... the Hotcam idles more rough, the LS6 will idle just like stock.

on M6 cars it is not essential to have the car tuned... right now my car just runs rich with the Hotcam, but does fine. it is suggested to get a tune with the hotcam.

with both cams it is essential to upgrade the springs.

 

i believe those are the specs for the '01+ cam... i believe the 98-00 cam is alittle bigger.

 

The hotcam will give you better gains all around than the ls6 cam. The ls6 cam doesn't really add power over stock until 4k rpms. The hotcam will give you a lot more midrange power.

 

neither are really worth installing...

 

That's a little condescending, and harsh. Not everyone is interested in max effort, or even strong running cams. Some people like the dependability and the reliability that a hotcam and a ls6 cam bring to the table. No it's not the most powerful and best performing cam on the market, but that's not what it's all about all the time...

IMO anyways
Tim

 

Don't bother correcting him. He's set in his weak ways.

Anyways, the LS6 cam is nice for a jump and idles nicely. Power gains will be top-end. The hotcam produces a nice flat torque curve at the cost of a lumpier idle. The key regarding the lift is that the hotcam was designed to work with stock LS1 heads. Beyond .525 lift the increase in flow is negligible on stock LS1 heads and probably not worth the additional wear and tear for a tiny bit more power.

 

Would you mind explaining, please?

 

What's to explain, seeems pretty accurate to me. Besides having one it has lots of mid-range and like Another User said it was originally designed to compliment stock ls-1 heads which it does and was patterened after the Lt-1 engine which gave a considerable increase over stock. Cams are just a numbers game any ways so like
JRP says theres better cams out there, but the HOTCam is a niche player and works damn good except you need a good idle tune.

 

there are plenty of other cams that fit the bill in dependability, reliability, and driveability. if you've ever read any of my cam posts you'll find im not a proponent of huge max effort cams. but if your not into a strong running cam whats the point in going through w/ the swap? the HC is not plug and play so its cheap factor goes out the window. the ls6 cam is near stock until 4500 rpm so your gain is only in a ~2500 range. yes you can run it on stock tune and its cheap but to go through the installation proccess is pretty pointless for such a relative small gain only in the top end.

 

So, I can understand what he means.

 

Right on JRP. It's a learning experiance for ALL of us and yes I like the HOTCAM, but if
I knew then what I have now I coulda woulda shouda got a BIGGER ONE! "cam that is"

 

over .525 lift is pointless on stock heads?...you learn something new every day

 

why the HC crew continues to believe that the people with bigger and bigger cams will continue to run faster. wheres all the fast et's and trap speeds from the HC.

going by the "over .525 lift is pointless" speil isnt also "pointless" to install an 02+ ls6 cam...

 

Then why on earth waste your time and money on a cam at all? Im positive there are much better choices for cams out there than make better power and run smoother. A few years back the hotcam may have been a great choice for a cam, but we've made tons of progress since then. I wont ever knock anybody's cam decision, but sometimes I think too many people get the wrong impressions about cams. If you arent changing cams for a decent power increase and want you dependability/driveability, spend it on another mod! A cam could be your best bang/buck mod or it could be your worst.

 

some people could easliy just want the lopier sound that the cam offers, and not looking to put out huge hp numbers, i personally see nothing wrong with upgrading to either cam, but if i was to choose b/t the two, i would most likely go with the hot cam b/c of its all around performance

 

There's a lot more to going fast than just the cam ... you know that. Most of the people jocking any of the "400+ rwhp cam only" cars can't get it out of the mid 12s.

For the record I took a hot cam on a set of TEA heads to 11.57@117 in a 1200" DA ...

 

Theres also those cam only cars going low 11s too!