I'm still looking for a cam, and since i'm inexperianced i figured i would ask for everyones opinion. i'm looking for a car that doesnt love to rev, but makes a good amount of power. this isnt a track cam, and will hardly see any track action. i would like to improve my power down low, aswell as up high. i wasthinking something along the lines of tsp's torquer, 231/237, or 231/231, and i believe the MS will want to rev higher than i would like. This cam will be on stock heads (for now) but i might change to some aftermarket heads once i save up a little. any suggestions? am i thinking too big?

also, with these cams will i need new rockers, and are Springs, Titanium Retainers, Seats, Seals & 7.400" Hardened Pushrods all i will need?

 

Since your looking for low-end power, you need to focus on the lobes a little more. Camshafts can be ground on diffrent lobes that have diffrent "ramp rates". Slow ramp rates are easy on the springs, but usaully lagging in the low-end department. A cam with a harsh ramp rate will net good low-end results due to the valve opening faster, but will wear on your springs faster than a slow ramp. You can have cams with similar numbers, but they will be completly diffrent. A way that you can tell how fast a ramp rate is, is to subtract the "advertised" duration from the ".050" duration. The higher the number, the slower the lobe. In most cases you will have to call the person who sells the cam to find out the advertised. Lunati cams like the 231/237 have very slow ramp rates. The torquer cams have better lobes, hence the "torquer name". Then you have your XE-R lobes which are one of the hardest lobes, but tend to net the best low-end and not rev as high. In your particular application, a comp 228/228 XE-R looks to be what you might want. That along with some Patriot or PRC springs and you'll be set for a while. TSP can hook you up with whatever cam you want, but if you want XE-R lobes, you will need to tell them. PM me if you might have some more detailed questions. There are many more aspects of a cam than what I said above. That is just a broad generalazation to go by.

 

From the first day I drove my car off the lot, I felt that it was a dog in around town driving. I had 2.73 gears and figured that was the reason. So I swapped in 3.42s and that helped get rid of most of the dogginess. I still felt that the earlier LT-1s had more snap to the throttle so I decided to try and mod the motor to get that LT-1 lowend feel.

I installed a low lift CompCams 206/212dur 112lsa cam. Expecting it to be very lowend biased, I retarded the cam 2 degrees when I installed it. Even retarded, the lowend power increase is noticeable right off idle. I still improved my 1/4 trap speed by 1 mph, so I didn't lose anything up top. I shift at 6300 rpm.

If the cam was installed straight-up (with the 2 degrees advance ground in) i think this cam would show even stronger off-idle power at the expense of no gain in the top end. One of these days I'll set it straight-up and post the results. Anyway, with the cam & gears, I think I am pretty close to that LT-1 off-idle pull that I was trying to get.

 

How high are you willing to rev the engine?

You say you don't want a cam that likes the RPM, if that really is the case you need to look at some cams with less duration. The more duration you add to a cam, the higher it is going to peak.

Your stock rockers will be fine.

If i were in your situation of looking for a cam, i would call Alan at FMS, or someone at LG motorsports. You can tell them what it is you are looking for, as far as where and how you want the power to come on, and they can custom grind you a cam that is tailored to your individual needs.

 

The TSP Torquer uses an XER lobe design, so that will help low end. And you won't have to rev it super high either. TSP recently posted a couple of dyno graphs here and I think HP peaked at about 6200 RPM. With an upgraded valvetrain this shouldn't be any problem

 

dont forget the in between XE and XE-R lobes

 

its not so much that i'm looking for low end power, but i dont want to go so big that i'm losing power down low. if the torquer peaks at 6200 then shifting at 6500 would be fine correct?

 

They may not be available to everyone Jerami...

Ed