Well I spent 15 hours this weekend swapin my cam. Wasn't a bad job. the springs were a pain in the back cylinders. But otherwise went pretty well. Car started right up, instant oil pressure, everything was fine. (knock on wood)

I broke it in as instructed, sounds amazing. Just what I was looking for. You can barely tell it's in there, by the exhaust note. But still idles pretty smooth.

I know with the 116 LSA I wanted , it'd move the powrband up. But tonight was the first time I hammered on her and honestly It wasn't what I thought it would have been. Before she pulled hard all the way. It feels like a picked up a few ponies. Not what I thought. Have yet to up the rev limiter, she stopped at 6k or so.

And yes I did get the timing marks 100% dead on. I checked about 5 times after installing the chain. Turned the motor over by hand a few times. It drives great, can't tell the cams in there. Just not to impressed by the gain I'm feeling.

We have Hptuners, and I still have to buy a wideband to tune it with. But even without a tune shoudln't it feel like more of a gain? I think my UD pully I put on a few months ago felt better.

 

116? Should've got a 110 or 112!!

 

thats odd......i guess look over everything with the software and then try again.

 

 

TRack is the true test....i thought my cam was a dog right after i installed it....it felt so slow to me for being cammed....went to the track and the results showed i was a full second faster, i just couldnt feel it.

 

i like my 224 got the dyno in my link .

 

Agree with GTGriller.

I bet it is much faster. Get a tune too. LSx have such a long powerband it's sometimes hard to tell how fast it is. I have been in LT cars that felt faster than mine cause the torque hit early and hard but actually won't hold a candle to my LS. Not knocking you but I would have gone with a much lower LSA to bring it in sooner and peak earlier. If you want to keep it advance it and you will pick up on the bottom. To hell with stealth

 

get a tune for sure then judge the speed. I put my cam in a and when i drove to the tuner it felt the same if not worse but after the tune it felt like a rocket ship lol

 

You LSA needs to be a 114 at least to get that power range back down some. It has to be the LSA b/c I don't see a UD pulley feeling like a bigger mod than a cam on the ol' butt dyno. With that 116 LSA I bet your power isn't even comming in until like 3500 RPM or so is it?

Also you gotta remember this cam is now on the small side compared to alot of the new cams. But it is a proven power maker. Many 224 cam cars have seen low 12's & 11's. Take her to the track after it's tuned & see what happens.

 

X2 on the LSA. Unless you did that for a supercharger later on down the road. But if you changed from a stock cam to a 224, it doesnt matter what LSA you have. You should have felt a big difference, especially with the lift.

Im not knocking you, but double check the cam you pulled out and make sure its not the new 224 cam. I know sometimes **** can get confusing, especially when you do it all your self, that you might had put the stock one back in. ...again, not knocking you, just double check.

 

Surprisingly when I put in my TR224 cam, it didn't feel like much of a gain in the power band.

Prior to the cam, I had full bolt ons and had around 340ft/lb average with a spike to 360ft/lb at 4k rpm which held to 5k rpm. then slowly tapered off.

I could "feel" the 4-5k pull like a sweet spot. Dyno confirmed it.

When I put the cam in, the sweet spot was gone. Felt pretty much like stock again. Stock had a 315ft/lb FLAT torque curve up to 6krpm pretty much. So I thought I lost it but I knew that a cam had more power I just couldn't feel it.

Know what the dyno said? 360ft/lb AVERAGE with a small spike to 375ft/lb at 4200-5000rpm then a gradual fall off to still have 350ft/lb at 6300rpm...

So while you may be "hunting" for that spike in power, the torque curve is quite linear. Think of it like how a plane accelerates. It doesn't feel that fast after the initial speed up that puts you in the back of your seat, but if you look out the window you are accelerating at an incredible rate. That's kind of what happens with your cam when it becomes a linear flat curve.

The evidence in the traction I've lost though is pretty apparent. My stock 245 tires are useless on the street, going 1/3 or more throttle the tires don't hold at all. Even my 315's on the street give the feel of breaking loose from flooring it just after the car starts rolling. I almost thought my posi was shot but the 2 strips I lay down even at 2k clutch dumps are fine and start dead even.

 

^^Agreed. this cam isn't gonna have big spikes like a cam in the 23x/23x .6xx/.6xx range. Once you get it on the dyno & see the curves, you'll understand better. The 224 cam will make power & give you a very nice ET for the size of cam, but the curve isn't gonna look like a mountain side, it's gonna be a steady gradual increase thru the entire range.

 

Interesting thread. I'm a little confused about the LSA. The 224 is a good midrange cam that works well on a 112 lsa. It seems like moving the powerband up wouldn't be the way to go with it. But you really can't tell what you have without tuning. You will probably pick up quite a bit once tuned and I really wouldn't drive it much until I knew where the AFR was.

 

well if I didn't want a smooth idle I would have gone with a lower lsa for sure. Down low it feels stock, not really a difference. I know it's running alittle lean, not much my brother says. So I know a tune should help her.

 

Flat TQ curves.. To add to the deceptive nature of a flat Tq curve is. My small block nova made 426 hp at the wheels with a 4800 stall... My buddies small block with vortec made 610 (manual trans). To ride in both cars, you would swear his car was a full second faster. Not because on the gear ratio, becuase when he hit 6000rpm, it pulled like an SOB.In my car, you never felt a dramatic burst. I ran 10.2's at 128 he has stayed in the 10.6 range at 130. We both dynoed at the same shop, his graph looked like mount everest, mine was a steady increase, void of any dramatic pronouned peak. The dyno operator told us at the time that my car would et better, his would mph the same if not better. His rationale.. my average HP & tq was greater.

 

well i drove it again tonight. And after reading what some of you have said I do understand. It does pull like crazy. And I think i'm feeling the "flat" tq curve your talking about.

Just gota up that rev limiter, it's hurtin me. It should be ok to rev it to 6500 with these springs?

 

JW.. did you upgrade your pushrods when you did the swap? I see that you said you did your springs.

FWIW I had that same cam in my car on .581" but 112 and it pulled hard. Get it tuned when you can and then take it to the track!



tick..tick..tick..boom!

 

Thats weird your a little lean cause I'm pig rich on my combo without a tune. I have been driving mine around for a full year now without a tune & have had several races also. Not a single issue.

Alot of people forget when these 224 cams came out back when the LS motors were new to the scene they were considered "big", but not by todays standard. Also at the same time they are a cam most can install & drive without a tune especialy if you had a 6-speed, unlike some of these cams now days that you can't hardly get to idle without a tune.

 

You might not even need to spin it that high. I'd almost be willing to bet that cam is gonna make peak power at about 6300 RPM max. I could be wrong, but most the time on a 224 cam set-up you don't have to spin real high to make max power.

Now on some of the bigger cams with higher lift & some high flowing heads the extra RPM might be needed to make it to the peak point.

 

No, the pcm is stil stock tune so the afr is all out of wack.