I was talking to a mechanic the other day that has worked on a lot of ls1 cars. So I started talking to him about my carmaro and changing the cam. He said that changing the cam was a very bad idea, he said that I would be better off just doing bolt ons and leaving the cam stock. He said that he has seen cars run worse after they changed the cam! So I wanted to get some more opinions, because I have heard and seen a lot of people change there cam and get very good results after a tune. I can possible see that I would lose power by changing my cam and not getting it tuned, but if I get it tuned I can't see it hurting performance. He also said that when you change the cam you have to buy 16 maganets to keep the lifters from falling all the way to the oil pan, is this true? Do you guys have any idea what he is talking about?

 

Sounds like a mechanic that acts like he knows everything. If a cam swap is such a bad thing for these cars im sure 90% of the ls1 community wouldnt be cammed.

16 pen magnets? Sure...if you want to do it the costly way. Just buy two, 24'' dowel rods and put it under the lifter trays. The rod won't actually keep the lifters up but if the lifter decides to fall the rod will prevent the lifter from falling into the head. At this point, take one magnet and pick the lifter back up. Much easier than taking the head off to fetch a lifter.

 

It could be you're talking to the wrong mechanic. If he has really worked on a lot of LSXs and recommends only bolt-ons his experience is probably drawn from a GM dealership or a local garage where only service work is done. You need to talk to someone who works out of a speed shop for advice on that kind of thing, not a flat rater. Their job is to get cars in and get them back out again, not performance mods. Don't be scared away by the pen magnet thing. I know a guy who only uses the russian roulette method to change LSX cams and he claims it hasn't bitten him yet.

 

it would be much more to your benefit to do most major bolt ons before a cam, you won't see the best results with an aftermarket cam and stock everything else.

also the pen magnets is just another way to "keep the lifters up" the lifter trays generally do a good job keeping the lifters up though

 

I used to work at a shop that about 60% of their cam swaps lost power from stock!!!! It was the shop's "custom grinds" Makes you wonder if they paid a primate grind them as well as come up with the specs. They were all puss cams from what I could tell.

 

What got me is this guy has two fast cars he built his self. He has a 7 sec and 9 sec 1/4 mi. car, thats what made me wonder if he knew what he was talking about. I was planning on doing the cam after my long tubes, so I think I would have enough bolt-ons to make around 375 horse at the wheels with a cam.

 

With a good cam and a better tune 375rwhp is definately achievable

 

back from the grave---- HP when mitch said this he was referencing the guys who swapped cams and never had them tuned....

yes you will make more power but you HAVE to get it tuned for it to be worth a damn...