bortous

Hi everyone.
I was going through my old emails from 2009 and I came across all my correspondence with a member on the corvette forums.
Back in the day this guy had a camshaft which was the one to have.
The claim was that cam only this camshaft making 500rwhp with perfect driveability in LS3 engines.
The specs were 230/234 114 LSA +2
Intake on XFI lobe and Exhaust Lobe on XE-R lobe.
I saw a dyno sheet which was sent to me saying how good it was in an LS3 and me not knowing any better I thought it was great too. Lol
Can anyone recall this period time?
What do you think of all that compared to now in terms of camshaft specs?
To me it now, it was nothing special and I never believed the power numbers were accurate.

G Atsma

I can't see "perfect drivability" out of a cam with those specs. It would be a bit ratty. To quote(sorta) Croc Dundee, "You can live with it, but it'll run like ****".

bortous

I agree.
Dyno sheet was nothing special either.
Narrow splits with LS3 heads dont do well after 5000rpm.
I guess back then the knowledge was just not there.

64post

iTrader: (5)

Are you basing that on all those LS3 builds you’ve done?

G Atsma

As far as YOU know, yep.
One does not need a shitload of builds to know how a cam will run in a certain size engine. But if YOU do, it is what it is....

64post

iTrader: (5)

Please do tell, tell me about some of your builds and actual tuning experience, I’ll listen.

G Atsma

No you won't, so I won't.

cam

iTrader: (9)

Spinmonsters cam was 230/246 and there was some VERY quick cars running it

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

230 intake won't be that bad on a 6.2 LS3. That's close to a stage 2 cam in an LS1. Pretty livable except stop and go traffic jams.

cam

iTrader: (9)

A bunch of us spent a TON of time trying out different 6.2L square port cams. One of us tested over 20 in his own ride. Quickest of the bunch was approx 222/232 iirc. Its been a while now but we were surprised the smaller cam went quickest. He was also running ultra light valves, retainers, every gram he could save on valve train weight was taken advantage of. Made a big difference

Jason at TSP was developing VVT grinds and set records with SBE VVT 6.2's on his grinds. I cant recall the specs off hand. Then I kinda fell off keeping up with it, takes too much time to stay right up on the latest and I was very happy with what I was building. Still running an EPS cam in my own car, love that thing.

As for Spinmonsters cam there was some 500ish whp builds on that grind

bortous

You are incorrect.
Spin monster was against wide splits in any application.
It was a 230/234 114 LSA as stated.
however I do believe a 230/246 would be faster at the track as it would hold up on top better due to the earlier EVO however you would need a least a 3000rpm stall to get maximum performance. On a 114 LSA with 3 degrees of advance it would work well.

bortous

A smaller camshaft would run quick, however a larger camshaft set up correctly with gears, and appropriate hardware is quicker.
Although the smaller stick would have better driveability.
A lot of people don't know if you are running a big stick using high rpm short travel lifters makes a big difference in performance.

99 Black Bird T/A

iTrader: (4)

Spinmonster from the Corvette Forum?
He seemed to do a lot of testing and tweaking.

Depending on the dyno & operator, sure I can believe there was a graph floating around showing 500 whp with a 230/234 cam in an LS3. The real question would be could the car trap the mph for the 500whp at a track to back that graph up.

Hiossilver had a bolt on LS6 with over 450+ whp.
Big Hammer has mentioned max effort bolt on LS1's hitting 405-410whp

We're only talking 50 whp more for cammed LS3.
So yes seems credible when looking at the bolt LS1 & LS6 mentioned above.
The bigger 4.065 bore, rectangular heads and the and 30 more cubic inches.


If the Spin Monster cam car used all the bolt on's - it seems possible.
Seems unlikely to be easily duplicated.

Spin picked an XER exhaust lobes ...bet a lot of folks didn't like the tick tick

bortous

Those xer lobes were notorious for ticking and causing premature vavletrain wear if you didn't have a very stout valve train.
A lot has changed since then with smoother lobes making more power while running quiet.
I think the main comp lobes used now are lsl lobes on the intake and lxl lobes in the exhaust.

And I agree, with bolt ons, there may be a chance to hit 500rwhp if you have a manual transmission.
I doubt it though.
The exhaust opens too late for the ls3 head to carry high enough to make that kind of power.
Brian tooleys 229/244 camshaft has a better chance of hitting this number.
I wonder what spin would say to Brian Tooley about narrow splits vs wide splits.
Brian has done a lot of testing and has posted results.

Jenson

iTrader: (32)

There were several different iterations of the spinmonster cam. I think the last one he did ended up using LSL lobes. Peak speed still sells his grind specs too. If you wanted to do one now I'd go with LXL lobes though, really nice lobe, Ive only got to use them twice but I like them almost as much as HUC lobes. I was tuning a BTR stage IV LS3 cam recently, seems pretty tame for 15* of overlap and a 2800 stall. His trans took a dump before I could even make it out of the parking lot though. For a stock intake it doesnt really matter IMO but the BTR will sound better which is all people seem to care about these days.

bortous

I heard there was but the most famous of all was the original spec.
The BTR stage 3 has 10.5 degrees of overlap, not 15.
The transmission probably took a dump because it could not handle the power of the BTR cam. Haha.
We use them all the time down here in Australia.
They make really good power and make great low end too in an LS3.
Stage 3 being the most popular.
We used to all use narrow splits down here in the beginning but for the last few years most have switched to the wider splits for these heads.
They work better while keeping the low end in tact.
You will notice cams with narrow splits always fall off in the top end in ls3 engines. Why would you want the camshaft to drop off earlier than the stock cam??
Doesn't make sense to me. You need to get a camshaft that at least matches the stock camshaft's 6500rpm red line.
I see it all the time where they make more power but drop off power 3 or 400rpm earlier than stock.

99 Black Bird T/A

iTrader: (4)

Ran a XER 224/224 for 15 years & 132,000 miles. They definitely like fresh valve springs & hardware regularly I was so used to the tick tick, it stills seems natural.

bortous

I think it's time for you to enjoy the silence of a cam motion lobe and also the longevity of your valvetrain.
The time has come. Submit yourself to this request.

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

Solid lifters have the shortest travel

99 Black Bird T/A

iTrader: (4)

Lol but it won't sound right to me not going tick tick

The new set up is a lot quiter.
Next project Cam Motion will probably be the cam company of choice