reverse split pros and cons?
Nice graph, however your comparison has a few issues. First, the difference in the cams is very small. a 224/232, vs 232/224, and a 228/228 would be more interesting. Second, the 230/224 has a smaller lsa...significantly? Is the intake retarded 6 deg?
I think a better way to look at this is to ignore the exhaust (constant in all cams in this graph) and look at the intakes. More intake on the same CL just increased power. Presumably their would have been some loss of dynamic compression at low speed. Probably not enough to notice with 3 deg additional with 8 deg, that would be noticable.
Presuming the change in LSA with the 230 intake came all on the intake, it would have the same dynamic compression as the 224 intake (intake valve closes at the same point). However, it has more overlap, and the intake wouldn't come into its own until the intake flow could overcome that. This is above the 5000rpm torque peak.
You didn't list the lift. Intake is very sensitive to lift. Exhaust less so. If these are .530 lift, a change to 224/224 .59-.6 lift would probably beat all of these curves. And run better.
I would like to see a 224/224 vs a 224/230 like thunder did for the reverse that would give us a good idea of what a traditional split would do.
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There are interesting approaches toward cam design, that counter yours. Many that are on this forum. They offer a good read.
All we came to know is that his heads didn't like reverse splits.
X1 in he 10's with stage 2E's, my Stealth II (cam only) in the 10's with nitrous, 11.64 N/A,
So where does reverse split suck???
A comment like that is utter ignorance
Instead of such blame comments why don't you give examples of combos where different patterns work.
I'm sorry Gomer, but i think you are too wrapped up in dyno queen racing numbers.
A cam is chosen to complement a certain combo (intake/heads/exhaust). Not because of it's pattern.

How can you say that your car wouldn't run even faster with a traditional split without trying one? I don't see how ANYONE can give an educated answer without data. I have dyno data on my car with several different setups and a traditional split cam has consistantly made more power than the reverse splits I have ran. How much data do you have?
Last edited by gomer; Jan 17, 2005 at 01:04 AM.
The same may not be true for someone running stock 98-00 heads and full boltons. As was said, cam choice is both setup and application specific.
What's to big going the other way, if only a tiny reverse grind can be used?Gotta factor in how much boost you are using, and if you are only using a small shot. If you're setup calls for an intake crutch and you spray a small shot, that doesn't mean you can't use a reverse split anymore.



