Anyone running a Thunder Racing Cheatr Cam with stock heads? Any dyno graphs available? 1/4 mile improvements? I ran the search but only found posts from Patrick G. Anyone else using this cam?

Thanks,
Mike

 

Jason99T/A put one in his old WS6 with 125k miles. With stock manifolds and cats, he picked up 31 rwhp for a total of 362 rwhp. I'm sure Jason will post up the dyno sheets when he can.

 

What are the advantages to the CheaTR cam? As far as I can see, it'll sound stock, put a lot of wear on your valvesprings, and have average power gains.

 

Advantages of the CheaTR?

Stock idle
Stock sound
Emissions legal
Pulling power down to 600 rpm
Pulling power up to 6800 rpm
Stock fuel economy
30+ hp gain with factory log manifold and cats (not many cams can do this along with all of the other factors above)

If you plan on using headers and off road y-pipe, this is not the cam for you. The gains would be "average" as you say. But if you plan on keeping factory exhaust and want pure stealth, I don't think there's many cams out there that make more power than the CheaTR. It takes tremendous engineering to design a cam to run superbly on choked up exhaust. GM is the best at doing this. Thunder Racing modeled the CheaTR after some of GM's best factory cams and pumped it up in all the right places.

 

Holy ****. I just checked out the specs of this cam. Same exact duration as my custom cam except i'm running .550/.559 Lift and a 118LSA

 

Sounds like your custom cam should work well.

Oh, but don't let the small intake duration at .050" fool you. The CheaTR cam's intake lobe area is very similar to the lobe area of the 224 .560 lobe that Thunder uses. 215 idle with 224 power. That's how the cam can make so much power even with crappy exhaust.

 

Okay, good explanation, Patrick.

One more question:

Why would you WANT to do AFR 205 heads, a cam, an LS6 intake, a ported throttle bottle, a lid, an underdrive pulley, and a catback...and then choke off the motor with stock exhaust manifolds/y-pipe? Sorry, just not seeing the appeal quite yet, but I'm interested in your motive.

 

The appeal?

Anybody who gets in my car cannot tell it's modified. It's like a new car. No rattles, no tinny exhaust sounds, no smelly fumes, no shakey idle. Basically, it's like riding in a new ZO6. My car is like stock except it makes close to 100 rwhp more than stock. No downsides (except for cost). Wouldn't that appeal to you (for a daily driver?).

 

So what else do you need with this CheaTR cam, ie springs, rockers, tune, and anything else you can think of . This HP is very appealing IMO

 

As far as I can tell valvespring life is just fine. I have had the same lobes in my truck for about 30,000 miles now with several long trips uder my belt and the springs are doing just fine.

The point of this cam is decent power gains with a stock like idle. If you are looking for a cam that lopes this cam isn't for you. Also tuning requirements will be none to minimal at the worst. This cam doesn't need nearly the tuning as a lot of the larger cams to work properly.

 

A spring package, pushrods, the cam and maybe a gasket package. You won't need much if any tuning.

 

So what springs would be recommended (looking for DD like reliability, and not have to change them every 10-20k)

 

just run some comp 921's and you will never have to replace the springs.

 

I thought 918s were king of the hill? correct me if im wrong

 

For single springs yes, 918s are the King, but 921s are doubles.

 

Don't wanna hijack, but what are pros/cons of using doubles over singles?

 

Okay, what about the new Comp 915's. They are rated up to .625 lift. While the 918's are rated upto .600. It seems to me that the 918's will be pushed to the limit with this cam.

 

By the way, anyone else using the Cheatr cam?

 

Theoretically, double springs have a number of advantages over singles.

The inner spring helps to cancel out some of the various harmonics of the outer spring, making the valvetrain more stable.
It's easier to get more pressure with two springs than with one.
If one of the springs fail, there is another one that is there to keep you from dropping a valve (theoretically).

Patrick

 

I'm using a custom cam with a different Lift and LSA but a 212/230 Duration. Look at my numbers in the sig.. Stock manifolds.