I'm looking for some recommendations/advice.
I have an 01 SS, A4. The car is stock, only mods so far are a lid and cat back.
I plan on putting in long tubes and an off-road Y pipe next spring but was also considering a cam swap. I'd like something that will make decent power with the stock heads but has good driveability and idle characteristics. I will most likely add a good set of heads later on. I know it would be ideal to do both at the same time matching the 2 but I don't think it's within my budget next year. I don't know if it's possible but is there a cam which would work well with my stock heads and with different (bigger) heads later on but without sacraficing driveability ?


Thanks !

 

If you stay with stock heads go TR224 or try a search on "FM13" cam if you want some solid power and plan on heads later on.

 

Give Futral Motors a call (sponsor). I love my cam, it's exactly what I wanted. If I didn't have emissions to worry about, I'd have gone bigger. Give Allen a call, tell him exactly what you are looking for and he'll set you up. Good Luck

 

Get a big stall, You will need for a larger cam.....

 

Anyone using this cam from Thunder Racing:
220/220-114 (.551/.551 lift)

this would be with stock heads.

 

220 is baby nowadays. It will get you about 375rwhp at most.

Look into the FM13 as mentioned above. It's a killer cam.
TSP's 233/233 is another great cam.

If you want a bit less, then TSP's 228R or 225 are other options.

Today's benchmark/all-around cam is pretty much the TR224.

 

I'm new to the LS1 so I apologize if it seems like I don't have a clue here.
Going to a 224 cam from the stock (197/207) cam in my 01' just seems really big. I guess maybe it's my old school sbc thinking that makes me think that a 224 or 230 cam is huge.
My car is not a daily driver and I get to the track on average 5-6 times a year. Since it's mostly street driven I want something that's going to idle nice and not compromise driveability while still giving me a decent low to mid range rpm gain. I'll probably be sticking with the stock heads for a while, when I decide to upgrade I wouldn't have a problem swapping cams again so I'm bascially looking for something that will work well with my current setup which is bascially a lid, cat back, and soon long tubes and no cats. What you're saying is something with a 224 int dur. is normal for these cars and very streetable. Am I correct in thinking I will need a custom PCM tune ? I was considering a Predator programmer, I assume I'll be able to find someone pretty easily who has a tune for this cam ?

thanks
~clueless

 

Since your car is A4, A TR224 on a 114lsa would be a very, very ideal, very streetable cam, with a very slight chop to it.

In most cases, tuning is needed. In all cases, tuning is beneficial.

Predator is working nowadays with mail order tunes customized for your setup.

The best tuning method is LS1 Edit/HP Tuners on a Dyno (most ls1 performance shops offer dyno tuning). Actually the best tuning method is on the street with a wideband, but few people have their cars setup for that.

Many of the reputable shops will give you a mail order tune on your PCM if you send them your PCM- especially if you purchase their proprietery cam. The turnaround is rather quick.

Tuning has come a long way. It used to be that A4 cars would almost need a 114lsa cam, but 112 is common in an A4 nowadays.

Make sure you have at least 3.23 gears out back, and a stall is very, very important.

It seems that the most popular cams range between 224 and 230 in duration nowadays, so 224 is not large by any means.

Anyhow, good luck!

 

im from the SBC world too

for the past two and a half years now, most of my friends have had LS1 cars... im swapping a LS1 into my 3rdgen convertible right now actually.. lol.

from a LS1s point of view, the 224 cam is kinda tiny... its the "RV cam" of the LS1 world.. i have a close friend who just put one in... it idles like stock(almost). if you didnt know EXACTLY what you were listening for, you wouldnt notice it.

on the stock tune with a manual, he was running mid 11s... no tune or anything other then letting the car "learn"

now i know theres power to be had with that cam by simply tuning it, but you can just stick it in and drive around. obviously this isnt ideal, but its possible.


now if this car is NOT a daily driver, but a street driven toy, i would be looking at some slightly larger cams... they will lope a little, and will need to be tuned, but they will still be streetable and give even larger gains.



but before you do any cam mods, i would reccomend a stall... i have another friend with a stock 99... with a 4200 stall and 2.73 gears, he does high 11s.

these motors make so much more power on the top end, that if you use a large stall, you'll drop major time at the track.
with the lockup, it has almost no effect on street driving.. his 99 is a daily driver. and his only car.. its had the stall over 2 years. lol.


anyway, just food for thought.

im going with a TR224 in my daily driven, road trip doing, engine swap.

 

The TSP231/237 in my car is daily driven. It used to be considered a large cam.

There's plenty of TRex/MS3 type large cam daily driven setups here.

 

Take a look at my mods below and youll see I run 224/581/112 with full bolt ons. Im glad I went with this for my first cam, gives great power for our a4 and comes to life with a torque convertor. Its is on the big end of the 224s, but you can find smaller ones such as 224/563/114. My car is very very streetable, some surging here and there at times depending on how Im driving and the weather, but I am in need of a tune I believe because of my torque convertor being installed at a later date. If you want something that really runs smooth as a babies *** look for a high LSA and low duration 220 as you mentioned. MTI makes to great sleeper cams that run very smooth they are Stealth cams one is 220/581/115 and the other is 224/220 581/116. Its all up too you though, sounds like you want a bigger faster car as your saying your going to upgrade to heads at later time you might as well go with bigger cam now. Nothing sounds better than chop of big cam warmin up in the driveway ! Good Luck