I've been saying this for 2 years now and all I get is dissed over the TR224. It was and still is the quintisential street cam. Patricks 224/228 is mean too but the 224 duration is the key. Total power under the curve. I went with a custom 234/240 hi lift with my new combo because I specificaly wanted to play in the upper rpms but not lose to much down low. I had it spec'ed and ground totally for my needs and combination of parts. I could have gone bigger but I didnt want a total slug of a street car. The Terminator heads are milled to help so it's not soggy on the down low and the 389 gears help with that as well but there is only so much you can do with a big cam.

I totally agree though its sensationalism that sells cams now a days to bug eyed power hungry kids with fresh coin to spend.

There is one combination out there right now that is horrible until you hit 3500-4000 rpms but everyone with a street car and 2 days a month at the track wants it due to the hype. Its not even listed on the fastest cars list as a combo but its hyped up so much that no one even cares.

 

I wonder who sells that

 

At first I thought it was a locked thread because I only saw moderators posting

Awesome thread, makes me eager for the TR230...

-J

 

Great thread, a lot of the same things I have been saying for a few years now, bigger is not always better....

 

Im an A4 H/C/ported fast and have a tr224 cam and put down 417rwhp 407rwt.Not bad for a "small" camwith budget heads in astalled A4

 

i made the mistake with my first cam. i honestly think for a street driven stock bottom ls1, a good range is a intake duration at or below 230. my first cam was a 232/234 112 which didnt give me a good power range for a daily driven car. i recently changed to a 230/232 110lsa 108ICL cam and i think ill be much happier.

i think what has already been said is accurate. young/inexperienced guys want the peak #'s and bragging rights, and buy cams b/c of there sound. you also have to think, how many guys here on ls1tech are actually looking at valve events, DCR, drivability? i know there is probably a lot, but there are also ALOT of guys just wanting big cams for ego reasons and arent educated about motors enough to make accurate decisions on what cam they want. they just see these dyno races and see big duration cams making big peak power and they automatically want it. i think alot of people have different opinions on what is actually "daily drivable" as well.

Jon

 

Of course, thats why there are so many threads asking for the "best" cam.

 

Combination is everything. Small cams work wonders with a 346" motor and factory heads / heads moving LOW 3XX cfm at sub .600 lift. It is all you need to make 430 rwhp all day long in a stick car. You can still maintain VERY nice driveability.

ALSO, tuning has came very far as well to help out with these cars.

But once again, it is the total setup. Let the cam soak up some of the cubic inches. Just like a 24X/24X cam is at home in a 4XX" setup


For example, we are running a 250/255 @ .050 cam in our 500" LS2. It makes over 725 horsepower on pump gas and only has to turn 6,000 rpms. It idles like stock too

 

This thread make me feel happy I went with a 228R.

 

correct...some just wont listen though. they want that big cam so bad there close minded to suggestions or advice on smaller cams they could go with.

Jon

 

dyno (peak number) sell basically. see how many people say how much power will this give me and so on

 

To give you some reference. I bought my first cam a F14 from Futral because I wanted a cam that made decent power and had good torque numbers. My friend Kraest on this board at the time had an F15, which I drove, and found to much for a street car. Having Allan tune his cam made the biggest difference. I daily drove my Z06 with the F14 cam, and later added Dart heads, until the bottom end gave out with cracked pistons. Compared with others I still see my self as having a smaller cam since most people have stepped up their 346s to the size of the cam in my 383. I now daily drive my car with the 383 and a 239/243 cam from Allan Futral. He again tuned my car and the driveablility is great. The car does have some issues, but most are related to the heads (Dart 205s) I plan on changing in the next 6 months.

 

i've had the hot cam since 9kmi, got 50kmi now, i love to have 20-30ft/lbs of torque top and bottom, cu/in is guaranteed relief, done the 1/4 about 80 times,i love my current set up, and will hold my binge in check for now. so a bigger cam with the proper tune is not the answer?

 

Larry at Speed Inc. convinced me to get the "smaller" cam.(228/222) So I wouldn't say all shops are pushing the big cams. And thank you Larry.

 

I still run a old MTI B1 cam and when I tell people that you can see in their eyes they think i am joking or have never heard of it. The large cams are great as long as you can build your combo to work around it and in most cases you will lose a large amount of street manners due to large converters, steep gears and more compression just to name a few.

 

Oh so true

 

will you guys that love your small cams please post up some et's?

i like smaller cams too (thats why i went custom), and i like hearing about guys with smaller cams keeping up with, or beating guys with larger cams.
i need to get tuned and then i'll have some dyno and track times to post up.

 

12.2@116-tr230 only
11.3@122-custom 230/228 and afr's
both 3650+lbs

friends old tr224/ported/polished LS1 heads went 11.6 2 yrs ago

 

I wanted a sleeper mostly. So I bought a Lunati 212/221. You can barely tell there's a cam in there. It idles perfect- close to stock, and little valvetrain noise (roller rockers helped). I got a recommendation from Texas Speed to match it up with their 5.3s. I got exactly what I was looking for- off-idle, below the curve performance. But I still get decent peak numbers as well. Combine all of this with Bassani headers and Magnaflow exhaust and you get quiet and boring- until you get on it. Oh yeah, my BBK intake is in the shop being polished. I'm going to port match it to my heads. Sorry, no et's yet.

 

I just bought the cam in my sig for my LS1 turbo project. It kinda wound up bigger than I meant for it to be, but I am running an 80mm turbo on a 364 so maybe it won't be too much of a bear on the street. I was looking for something in the 230 range but Comp spec'd this one out so I went with it.