How do you like your ASA Cam?
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 69
Likes: 0
From: Houston, Tx
Originally Posted by JBIRD02
It doesnt do either, it just bucks a little @ exactly 1500rpm in a low gear, not bad though. Car drives really nice. It was $500 for a street tune and dyno tune. I'm hoping to do another round of mods soon, and I will be taking it back to them for sure.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 69
Likes: 0
From: Houston, Tx
Originally Posted by GR33N GoblinM6
man... 500$ for a tune?
i paid $150 for mine..
and yeah @ 1500rpms in a low gear it wants to buck a little..
i paid $150 for mine..
and yeah @ 1500rpms in a low gear it wants to buck a little..
dyno tunes are an average of about $500 so if you want a dyno tune you are gonna have to have that ready. you can get a street tune done and not have the highest peak power possible but it will make it much better to drive and not cost as much.
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From: Orange Park/ Jacksonville, FL
Originally Posted by GR33N GoblinM6
man... 500$ for a tune?
i paid $150 for mine..
and yeah @ 1500rpms in a low gear it wants to buck a little..
i paid $150 for mine..
and yeah @ 1500rpms in a low gear it wants to buck a little..
Last edited by JBIRD02; Feb 5, 2008 at 01:48 PM.
The bucking is either too much air getting through the IAC, too much timing, or both. Pull the culprit back some (in the base spark, high octane spark or throttle cracker table) and the surging should go away. 
I thought I would add my thoughts on this cam.
For reference, the car is a 2001 Camaro (M6) with the following engine modifications:
ASA camshaft (obviously)
Comp Cams hardened push rods (stock length)
LS6 Valve Springs
Pacesetter LT headers
TSP OR Y-pipe
SLP Air Lid / K&N Filter
Melling Oil Pump
LS2 HD timing chain
SLP dual / dual exhaust
LS7 Clutch / flywheel
Stock bottom end, stock 241 cast heads
Stock tune (for now)
Pros:
- Pulls very strong, has lots of torque (no dyno numbers yet, but the butt dyno is very pleased)
- Nice lope
- Very quiet (My car is run mainly in local SCCA autocross competition and needs to stay under 96 db at WOT. Its only marginally louder than stock, so I'm not worried about this anymore).
- Completely drivable on stock tune
- Fires right up on a cold start
Cons:
- Slight cam surge 1,500 rpm or lower
- Hot starts (Car has an extreme difficulty starting, and usually needs me to floor the accelerator to get it to start. The car then 'hunts' idle for approx. 30 seconds until it finally settles down).
- ASR goes crazy and eventually shuts itself off when starting from a stop (Weird, but I don't like having ASR anyway, no big deal)
At any rate, I am very pleased with this cam. I hope to get some dyno numbers later on in the summer and see If I am near JBIRDs numbers. All in all, I think most of my 'problems' are caused by the stock tune and I hope to have that settled soon. I wouldn't hesitate to drive this car on a daily basis if I needed to.
For reference, the car is a 2001 Camaro (M6) with the following engine modifications:
ASA camshaft (obviously)
Comp Cams hardened push rods (stock length)
LS6 Valve Springs
Pacesetter LT headers
TSP OR Y-pipe
SLP Air Lid / K&N Filter
Melling Oil Pump
LS2 HD timing chain
SLP dual / dual exhaust
LS7 Clutch / flywheel
Stock bottom end, stock 241 cast heads
Stock tune (for now)
Pros:
- Pulls very strong, has lots of torque (no dyno numbers yet, but the butt dyno is very pleased)
- Nice lope
- Very quiet (My car is run mainly in local SCCA autocross competition and needs to stay under 96 db at WOT. Its only marginally louder than stock, so I'm not worried about this anymore).
- Completely drivable on stock tune
- Fires right up on a cold start
Cons:
- Slight cam surge 1,500 rpm or lower
- Hot starts (Car has an extreme difficulty starting, and usually needs me to floor the accelerator to get it to start. The car then 'hunts' idle for approx. 30 seconds until it finally settles down).
- ASR goes crazy and eventually shuts itself off when starting from a stop (Weird, but I don't like having ASR anyway, no big deal)
At any rate, I am very pleased with this cam. I hope to get some dyno numbers later on in the summer and see If I am near JBIRDs numbers. All in all, I think most of my 'problems' are caused by the stock tune and I hope to have that settled soon. I wouldn't hesitate to drive this car on a daily basis if I needed to.
Last edited by 01badz28; Feb 4, 2008 at 08:52 PM.
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TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (4)
Joined: Jul 2003
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From: Orange Park/ Jacksonville, FL
I thought I would add my thoughts on this cam.
For reference, the car is a 2001 Camaro (M6) with the following engine modifications:
ASA camshaft (obviously)
Comp Cams hardened push rods (stock length)
LS6 Valve Springs
Pacesetter LT headers
TSP OR Y-pipe
SLP Air Lid / K&N Filter
Melling Oil Pump
LS2 HD timing chain
SLP dual / dual exhaust
LS7 Clutch / flywheel
Stock bottom end, stock 241 cast heads
Stock tune (for now)
Pros:
- Pulls very strong, has lots of torque (no dyno numbers yet, but the butt dyno is very pleased)
- Nice lope
- Very quiet (My car is run mainly in local SCCA autocross competition and needs to stay under 96 db at WOT. Its only marginally louder than stock, so I'm not worried about this anymore).
- Completely drivable on stock tune
- Fires right up on a cold start
Cons:
- Slight cam surge 1,500 rpm or lower
- Hot starts (Car has an extreme difficulty starting, and usually needs me to floor the accelerator to get it to start. The car then 'hunts' idle for approx. 30 seconds until it finally settles down).
- ASR goes crazy and eventually shuts itself off when starting from a stop (Weird, but I don't like having ASR anyway, no big deal)
At any rate, I am very pleased with this cam. I hope to get some dyno numbers later on in the summer and see If I am near JBIRDs numbers. All in all, I think most of my 'problems' are caused by the stock tune and I hope to have that settled soon. I wouldn't hesitate to drive this car on a daily basis if I needed to.
For reference, the car is a 2001 Camaro (M6) with the following engine modifications:
ASA camshaft (obviously)
Comp Cams hardened push rods (stock length)
LS6 Valve Springs
Pacesetter LT headers
TSP OR Y-pipe
SLP Air Lid / K&N Filter
Melling Oil Pump
LS2 HD timing chain
SLP dual / dual exhaust
LS7 Clutch / flywheel
Stock bottom end, stock 241 cast heads
Stock tune (for now)
Pros:
- Pulls very strong, has lots of torque (no dyno numbers yet, but the butt dyno is very pleased)
- Nice lope
- Very quiet (My car is run mainly in local SCCA autocross competition and needs to stay under 96 db at WOT. Its only marginally louder than stock, so I'm not worried about this anymore).
- Completely drivable on stock tune
- Fires right up on a cold start
Cons:
- Slight cam surge 1,500 rpm or lower
- Hot starts (Car has an extreme difficulty starting, and usually needs me to floor the accelerator to get it to start. The car then 'hunts' idle for approx. 30 seconds until it finally settles down).
- ASR goes crazy and eventually shuts itself off when starting from a stop (Weird, but I don't like having ASR anyway, no big deal)
At any rate, I am very pleased with this cam. I hope to get some dyno numbers later on in the summer and see If I am near JBIRDs numbers. All in all, I think most of my 'problems' are caused by the stock tune and I hope to have that settled soon. I wouldn't hesitate to drive this car on a daily basis if I needed to.
After having some more knowledgeable guys look at my car, they said the surging could be fixed and have my drivability and gas milage increase as well. They also said that the car actually has more power in it because I'm only running 26* of timing, when I should be running 28* in addition to a few other things. As much as I'd like to have a better tune put on it, I have a set of cnc'd LS6 heads @ home waiting to be installed, so I will wait until then to get a full re-tune and I will post the #'s.
Banned
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,875
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From: Naperville, IL
Why would you install a cam that is made to fit restrictive guidelines to run a certain class when you can make more power with the same money by going with a custom or off the shelf proven grind?
Here's my input. I love my ASA. It does buck @ 1200 to 1600rpms. Nice torque, great sound, lot of attention. I paid 450 for my tune. I'm going back next month with AFR heads, crane 1.8's, and bigger injectors w new racetronics pump. I'm hoping for good numbers. I'm gonna leave my car with my tuner for a few days so he will have time to tune it correctly. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
10 Second Club
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 1,471
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From: Berkeley, California
I'm not an expert but I think that the problem with the ASA cam is its 0.525 lift. These engines love more lift. The rule of thumb for max flow past a poppet valve is that the ratio of lift to diameter should be at least 0.3 The LS1 stock intake valve is 2.00 inches and 0.525/2.00 = 0.2625 Many of the best performing cams have valve lift near 0.600 inches which gives a lift/dia value of exactly 0.3
-Gary
-Gary
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From: Orange Park/ Jacksonville, FL
Well, unless you're talking T-rex, MS4, or similar, who said I'd make any more power with a bigger cam? From what I've seen, my power is right on par with guys running the same size or bigger cams. I didnt want to shift past 6400rpms, so given the custom or off the shelf cams out there that would put me in that range, I doubt I would've made anymore power. I have a lot of power under the curve, and saved a lot of money running LS6 springs and stock retainers compared to 918's and Ti retainers. Plus I avg. 16k mi. per year, and dont want the hassle of constantly swapping springs with a .600+ lift cam. I guess in my mind, I just feel like why bother with all that extra lift and stiffer springs for an extra 5rwhp on a daily driven street car.
I think you should put down good #'s. Other than the exhaust, we have the same mods.
After having some more knowledgeable guys look at my car, they said the surging could be fixed and have my drivability and gas milage increase as well. They also said that the car actually has more power in it because I'm only running 26* of timing, when I should be running 28* in addition to a few other things. As much as I'd like to have a better tune put on it, I have a set of cnc'd LS6 heads @ home waiting to be installed, so I will wait until then to get a full re-tune and I will post the #'s.
After having some more knowledgeable guys look at my car, they said the surging could be fixed and have my drivability and gas milage increase as well. They also said that the car actually has more power in it because I'm only running 26* of timing, when I should be running 28* in addition to a few other things. As much as I'd like to have a better tune put on it, I have a set of cnc'd LS6 heads @ home waiting to be installed, so I will wait until then to get a full re-tune and I will post the #'s.
Any other tuning advice?
I'm curious to see your numbers after the heads, thats what I'm thinking about doing next winter.
I went with this cam for reliability (not having to rev the s*** out of a stock bottom end w/ 70K miles on it along with no spring changes is nice); and above all else, the really flat torque curve. For what I do with the car (its seen the drag strip exactly one time in six years) I'm not that interested in a 'peaky' cam.
Well, unless you're talking T-rex, MS4, or similar, who said I'd make any more power with a bigger cam? From what I've seen, my power is right on par with guys running the same size or bigger cams. I didnt want to shift past 6400rpms, so given the custom or off the shelf cams out there that would put me in that range, I doubt I would've made anymore power. I have a lot of power under the curve, and saved a lot of money running LS6 springs and stock retainers compared to 918's and Ti retainers. Plus I avg. 16k mi. per year, and dont want the hassle of constantly swapping springs with a .600+ lift cam. I guess in my mind, I just feel like why bother with all that extra lift and stiffer springs for an extra 5rwhp on a daily driven street car.
I also drive the car about that many miles, I also make as much tq and hp as the donkey dick cams. I like the power under the curve and personally dont care too much about 1/4 mile times. On the street or highway I know I can hold my own! I will be taking my car on monday for some Harland sharp 1.8 roller rockers and a retune, so we'll see how much I can gain. i have always wanted the ASA cam but the hotcam was free! I know that you ASA guys might also benefit with a set of 1.8's.
And for the people who dont believe in "baby" cams here is a video
http://www.fquick.com/videos/Straigh...tuning___/2636
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 326
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From: Columbus,Ga
anybody spraying with the ASA cam? i have a HSW wet plate (soon to be installed) and thinking about getting the asa cam. how does it respond to the juice? what kind of track #'s are you guys putting down?
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,875
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From: Naperville, IL
i agree with you 100%. there are so many people out there looking down on the GmPP cams. Like they are this ancient design cams. But Hell I'm happy putting 406hp and 378ft lbs on a mustang dyno with the mods in my SIG. And I dont have to worry about changing springs and not being able to run my AC when its hot!
I also drive the car about that many miles, I also make as much tq and hp as the donkey dick cams. I like the power under the curve and personally dont care too much about 1/4 mile times. On the street or highway I know I can hold my own! I will be taking my car on monday for some Harland sharp 1.8 roller rockers and a retune, so we'll see how much I can gain. i have always wanted the ASA cam but the hotcam was free! I know that you ASA guys might also benefit with a set of 1.8's.
And for the people who dont believe in "baby" cams here is a video
http://www.fquick.com/videos/Straigh...tuning___/2636
I also drive the car about that many miles, I also make as much tq and hp as the donkey dick cams. I like the power under the curve and personally dont care too much about 1/4 mile times. On the street or highway I know I can hold my own! I will be taking my car on monday for some Harland sharp 1.8 roller rockers and a retune, so we'll see how much I can gain. i have always wanted the ASA cam but the hotcam was free! I know that you ASA guys might also benefit with a set of 1.8's.
And for the people who dont believe in "baby" cams here is a video
http://www.fquick.com/videos/Straigh...tuning___/2636
And litle88, maybe this summer we can line em up, my cam is a baby 228, but on aggressive lobes. Let's see what kind of difference there is between the 2 cars. You even have a fast 90, I don't even have an ls6 intake! We're both manuals, we can go from a 20 roll if you prefer. btw, I don't worry about AC either, I have t-tops.
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From: Orange Park/ Jacksonville, FL
No one is saying they are ancient design. They are designed to run restrictive classes which no one's car runs on the street. I don't understand how people can say, and believe themselves, that they are making all the power they can with .525 lift and they won't make more with .600 lift. These people just don't understand airflow I guess. Lift is not changing anything drivability-wise. What's with the reluctance to change springs? The stock ones are weak anyway. It's like people believe 2+2 is the same as 4+4.
I guess what I'm getting at is if a low lift cam performs within a couple of hp of a high lift cam, whats the benefit of running a higher lift cam except for the privelege of paying more for springs and retainers and having to swap them more often? In my case, full time college + a full time job + this being my only car, leaves me with very little time and money. I know that lift doesnt change drivability, and in the future I will definately have a more radiacal setup, but for now, I dont feel like the car is being restricted at all.
No one is saying they are ancient design. They are designed to run restrictive classes which no one's car runs on the street. I don't understand how people can say, and believe themselves, that they are making all the power they can with .525 lift and they won't make more with .600 lift. These people just don't understand airflow I guess. Lift is not changing anything drivability-wise. What's with the reluctance to change springs? The stock ones are weak anyway. It's like people believe 2+2 is the same as 4+4.
And litle88, maybe this summer we can line em up, my cam is a baby 228, but on aggressive lobes. Let's see what kind of difference there is between the 2 cars. You even have a fast 90, I don't even have an ls6 intake! We're both manuals, we can go from a 20 roll if you prefer. btw, I don't worry about AC either, I have t-tops.
And litle88, maybe this summer we can line em up, my cam is a baby 228, but on aggressive lobes. Let's see what kind of difference there is between the 2 cars. You even have a fast 90, I don't even have an ls6 intake! We're both manuals, we can go from a 20 roll if you prefer. btw, I don't worry about AC either, I have t-tops.
KEvin I completely understand what your saying about airflow and lift, I also understand about springs and the spring harmonics and valve float. But with my stock heads a 241 i am pretty much maxed out as far as flow is concerned. Now if I had the money for a set of Trickflow or AFR's then a hotcam wouldn't be in my car, an ms3 or cheater cam or something in that ballpark would be in because the heads would flow the numbers it moves. But I think with the hotcam and my H.S. 1.8's RR's and a lift of .556 and the Ls6 springs, are good enough numbers to complement the flow numbers that my 241's will flow. Remember kevin what I do for a living, doesnt make it possible for a set of these heads....YET.
I wouldnt mind having a lil fun!! this summer either, looking forward to it.
As far as from a 20mph start its a lil rice for me
BUT I do that too, prefer it from a dig though.remember I still have a 10 bolt too! how about you?