has anyone done this? I've heard of it being done before but just curious what everyone else thinks. I've heard it's a decent swap if you're just wanting a cheap cam upgrade but not chasing after every ounce of hp for a fun street driver.

also, after browsing here just recently i've thought about maybe upgrading the valvetrain to spin the motor to the 7k+rpm range. Is the ls7 cam a decent cam for this?

before anyone mentions it, I can see that if you're going to upgrade the valvetrain to spin to 7k+, you may as well just buy a new cam at the same time that takes advantage of that rpm range. I'm just curious about the ls7 cam in an ls3 as this was a setup I was thinking about doing before a few minutes ago.

 

If I'm not mistaking, The LS7 cam should work perfectly fine with your stock LS3 valvetrain. Slap it in and go

 

The Ls7 cam is the same as the LS9 cam bit with a tighter LSA. Most of the power advantage of the LS7 comes from better flowing heads and larger displacement. To really see more than 30h HP or so you would need to ad 1.8:1 rockers and even then you wouldn't see much more. Maybe 40 more even if you did spin the motor to 7k.

 

40 more and the ability to spin it to 7k seems like it would work good in a ls3.

 

If you go to the trouble of building the valve train up to handle it sure. But at that point you might as well get a better cam that is purpose built for your combo.

 

I wouldn't bother personally. There are better cams out there for a street car. Just call Martin@ tick for one of his grinds.

 

There was an article awhile back in GMHTP with that swap on the 6.2 trucks and they picked up 40 rwhp with it. It was an L92 truck though.

 

The LS7 has a factory redline of 7000 rpms in a 7.0L motor. I don't see any reason why the LS7 cam wouldn't be able to do the same in the smaller 6.2. If your doing the labor yourself, I would say it's worth it. I just saw an LS7 cam in the classifieds for 70 bucks. Talk about cheap horsepower...

 

Because the ls7 has a better valvetrain and lighter valves to handle 7k rpm. A stock ls3 valvetrain is not going to like that high rpm for very long. With some upgraded springs, it would, but like mentioned above, if you're going that far, you may as well get a cam designed for the engine, and not a different engine.

 

Ls3 heads are already are already equipped with pretty big valves and ports as well as hollow valve stems so as long as you use some hardened pushrods and good springs I would love to be able to tell people "yea it has an ls7 cam" lol

 

The 6.2l truck cam is a lot smaller than the stock LS3 cam so you won't see 40hp, vette guys generally see about half that in gains. It works fine with stock exhaust and doesn't require a spring swap, but of course for a little more money you could see a bigger gain with an aftermarket grind.

 

The LS7 heads are ENTIRELY different than the LS3/L92 heads and require MUCH different cam treatment.

 

The l92 cam is also dod and vvt, so it's a totally different animal all together. That's an apples to oranges comparison.

 

You'll get at least 20hp and it'll rev higher.

I've had an LS9 cam in my LS3 for over 20,000 miles with stock valvetrain and the limiter set at 6,800rpm with no issues. It peaks lower but the power hangs in there and doesn't drop off quickly.

Idles at 600rpm!

 

Andrew (Project GatTago) is running one in his L92 '70 GTO and loves it. He did say to check the pushrod length.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/12492498-post337.html

Optimal? Depends on what you want. It should be as reliable as OEM.

 

I just found this thread because I was looking for something related.

The LS7 may not be optimal for power, but it pulls strong and the drivability can't be beat. In my 67 Cougar project I put the ASA cam in my 5.3L and it is getting annoying now. In fact, I ran across this thread because I was looking if anyone used the LS9 cam in a Gen IV 5.3L...

I trapped a best of 115 MPH in my GTO on a cool October day and trap consistently at 113mph on hot days. The car is right at 4000 pounds with me in it, so you can make your own guesses about the power it is making.

Andrew

 

Andrew, Have you thought about a CamMotion drop in for the 5.3?

https://ls1tech.com/forums/dynamomet...hp-22rwtq.html

They have a bigger one:
http://store.cammotion.com/60l-truck...-compression-2

 

Lamar,

Thanks for the links. I've seen that post before and it's certainly impressive. If I went down the road of a custom cam, I'd have one speced out for a turbo build. I want to eventually put the 5.3L from my Cougar into my GTO with the new Holley turbo log. Then drop the 6.2L from the GTO into the Cougar and maybe use the ASA cam in it, making it basically a LS3/525...

But looking at those drop-in cams, they look turbo friendly.

Andrew

 

Hi, I too love the LS-7 camshaft including cost.
I too agree it was built for the truck head, the LS-7 head.

MY reason is the WIDE L/C that the high "low lift" flow LS-3 head likes, THE "Hendrick" head.
The application IS a "street" car, ones every day driver.

My reason is that I LOVE A HIGH C.R. engine ability, as we all know.

Lance, BTW a stock LS-2 will rev OVER 7500, even higher as Dino stated.

 

The best overall cam i have seen for the 5.3 is the 212/218. If you go to the truck forums it is the most popular cam for the 5.3. I had one in my 5.3 then decided i needed a bigger cam 222/226. The 212/218 was a better cam.

I had a 2005 gto M6 with headers,corsa, cai and a tune ran a best of 12.42 @ 115 on a cool day at englishtown.