You can see my mods in my sig, and by spring I will have LT's + orp. I want to get a cam but I don't know much about them. I'm thinking about a hotcam, because I have no plans on doing any head work and I don't want to go with to radical of a cam. Is this getting a cam a good choice or could my money be spent better elswhere?

 

A friend of mine (Bluestreak on this board) did a hotcam kit a little while ago and he has had great success with it. When he did the swap, his interests were alot like the ones you mentioned. The kit came with all of the hardware (LS6 springs, etc.) and it was very well priced. You can still get the kit if you are looking in that direction. Personally, I think you'll be more than pleased. Do a search here or ask around; I guarantee you'll find even more happy people. There are some people that really don't care for it, but in my experience I think it's a perfect fit for your desires. Good luck!

 

I have a hotcam and am very pleased with it. For something to add a little power without being to radical its a good choice.

 

Speak of the devil and who shall appear... <img border="0" alt="[evil]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_devil.gif" />

I am extremely pleased with the results from the cam. Results in the sig... and there's more to come as Superchips isn't done tweaking the PCM for me... I just need to get my diagnostic logs to them for interpretation and get the new program uploaded. I'm expecting around 390+ (hoping for 400) on the stock heads. The hot cam isn't radical, but it sounds it... it's very street friendly and it won't break the bank either... I got mine on a GP in the kit in March 2001 for a steal. Bang for the buck, it's a good way to go. Many people will tell you it's not... and, well... if you're looking to eek out every last horsepower from your engine, it's not the cam for you. If you're looking to gain some power, and have a streetable cam that's fairly conservative and very daily-driver friendly, then the HC is for you.

All in all, I give it two thumbs up.

 

Somehow I knew you would materialize! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

Thanks for the reply's, If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for the kit and would it be a good idea to get better roller rockers at the same time?
Tim.

 

I like that cam, I almost got it but decided to go bigger because I'll have heads with double springs. Check the sponsors for pricing ---->
I think SDPC GM Performance sells them cheap. The stock rockers are fine.

 

VERY pleased with the Hotcam! On stock heads/intake/MAF I'm trapping over 115mph with mods in sig. And you get that wonderful lopey idle as well! As others have said, this cam won't give you the all out dyno "numbers" some others will, but for stock heads it's hard to beat once you factor in price and real world performance, and with it's relatively low lift, is easy on springs to boot.

 

I paid $385 for the kit on GP in March 2001.

 

One more question, What should I be looking at spending for the installation of the hot cam kit? I have no Idea what is involved with installing a cam? Also, I will be having headers and an off road pipe installed at the same time, the shop I normally take my car to will not be able to tune it.......will I need to have it dyno tuned to run to its full potential?
Thanks, Tim

 

dyno tune is great but not manditory.
I have the hotcam+lid+SLP longtubes kit+catback
and passed Dallas TX OBDII inspect, ( new improved
strict $40 instead of the $12 last year ).
I have a M6. I have drilled my throttle blade to
15/64" and added a .022" shim to the stock setting
of the idle set screw. ( that way I can change things and always get back to stock ). The shim and
drilling was to cure idle problems with idle with AC
on during the summer.
Performance, the car can be scarey above 3000 rpm.
I use this car on vacation. July 2002, latenight
crossing lousiana at 75mph cruize with AC on
29.3 mpg at at 200 mile run. The majority of trip
is was more like 25 ish.. City .. mostly 13-17
depending on your bad habits.

I have 20K miles on this setup and im happy.
There are stronger setups, but I belive with
performance you degrade reliablity, so find
something your comfortable with..
Regards
Terry <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />

 

I agree with Terry. With overt gains in performance, you do degrade reliability and the hot cam is a good candidate for a stock replacement while gaining a good amount of power and retaining reliability. My cam was swapped in on a bone stock engine, right down to the exhaust manifolds, and I picked up 20 RWHP and 16 RWTQ.

You do not need to reprogram for the cam. You will from time to time receive an SES light if you allow the car to idle for periods longer than 90 seconds. If you find yourself idling for long periods of time, a simple "blip" of the throttle to 1,000-1,200 RPM's will confuse the PCM and prevent it from misdiagnosing the cam's lope for the P0300 "random misfire code". After the first month of having the cam, it became second nature to blip the throttle to prevent the code from popping up. If you do get the SES light, it will go away in a couple of starts and does not degrade performance whatsoever. I pulled data logs using Vehicle Explorer (an Autotap like program) and saw absolutely no performance degradation due to the P0300 code whatsoever.

After finding out what the speed shops around here wanted for cam installs (they ranged from $350 for an "under the table" deal to over $700+) I bought the Helms manual ($120), a spring compressor from NAPA ($49), a 3-jaw puller from Discount Auto ($20), and did it myself. It took me 13 hours to do with some buddies and a whole lot of time spent bullsh!tting. If you're mechanically inclined, patient, and even mildly know your way around an engine bay, you can do it yourself. I downloaded a couple install documents from LS1.com in August 2001 when I did the swap. They had all the information I needed, but the Helms Manuals were useful for supplementary information as well as documented torque specs.

When I fired the engine up, it started right away. It found rock solid idle and had no problems whatsoever, and has been an extremely healthy motor ever since.

Since doing my cam, I've done about a dozen installs (and made some $$$ doing it) and can now perform the cam swap in just under 7 hours.

If you're not mechanically inclined, or are bad at reading or following directions, find a reputable speed shop and invest the cash. You can expect to spend at least $600 to get the cam in there.

 

Thanks for the info, it sounds like exatly the setup I'm looking for. I've owned 5 f-body's but never owned one for more than two years so I don't want to tear into it to much, so this sounds perfect.
Tim.

 

You will be pleased with the Hotcam.I personally think it gets a bad rap.I had the cam in my 99 Trans Am and it made great power.With Hooker longtubes, off-road y-pipe,and a Flowmaster exh the car made 358hp and 353lb/ft tq at the wheels.This was with a stock program in the computer.