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So i've been running back and forth in my head forever and you guys lead me in the right direction when it came to chosing my stall so id like some advice on this i've talked with TSP and talked with brian but cannot pull the trigger lol im stuck between the MS4 and BTR STG4 I know ive bugged alot of people on the forum about camshafts but need just a little more opinions
My car 99 trans am has 1 7/8 LT, 3in x dumped, fast 92 intake, 92TB, 98FTP lid and a 4000 yank ss and side note I do not want to spin my car passed 7k, and I see the ms4 makes peak hp at 6300rpm but have been unable to find graphs of the BTR4 I would like to make this choice by the end of the night so I can order a cam and be done with it as I have a set of 243 heads sitting around waiting to go on and am not tearing into it till I get a cam
The peak hp of any cam will depend on intake used honestly...meaning runner length and plenum volume. Port size on heads and cid of the engine affect that as well.
I stick by what i said with the ms3 though.
Ms3 on a 5.3l flat tops, 243s and nnbs intake.
From the tsp site.
As you can see the cam ia big for a 5.3l The odd dip is from the water brake on the dyno. They use hp tuners and a gm computer for running these on the dyno and def dont wring every ounce out of them. Pretty salty anyway. Not a direct comparison but close to what youd expect.
You really have a stout stall that will support the cams your looking at I didn't see a mention of rear gear. If you are still running factory 3.23 or 3.42 gears I would look into a set of 3.73's with any of these cams especially if you are wanting to street drive this thing. I would also look into milling the heads and what not to get compression up because you are going to loose some bottom end and stall can't make up all of it. There is a reason smaller cammed cars will eat over cammed cars lunches redlight to redlight. So first determine what is the main use of the car if it's 90 percent street go with a smaller cam that will give you more under the curve power and a higher flatter torque curve don't bleed off so much Cylinder pressure with a high overlap cam. Then let your stall and a good rear gear work for you.
Youd def need at least 373s. Milling the heads any without recessing valves would be super close on any of them unless you have valve reliefs or want to flycutt.
I currently have 3.42's in the car and after the cam I did plan on going threw the rear and checking it out sense I have noticed some noise coming from it, but the use of the car is more street than track but when I do race I don't do red light to red light I do full 1/4 mile cops in my area don't take drag racing too lightly and will have no problem impounding the car and making sure you collect a few points on the license and my insurance finally went down so I don't really want to mess with that again lol
Also sorry if this is a dumb question but what is a water break? I've seen that graph a couple times and always wondered what that huge dip is from when other graphs I've seen of the ms3 and 4 tend to shoot more upwards
Also sorry if this is a dumb question but what is a water break? I've seen that graph a couple times and always wondered what that huge dip is from when other graphs I've seen of the ms3 and 4 tend to shoot more upwards
I doubt they recommended the ms4 and btr4 to you with that setup. I'd restall to 3600 and call them back and heed their advice. They can only help ypu if you are honest with yourself and your goals. If this car will be driven 5k+ miles a year and only 2-3 trips to the strip, dont settle for a high strung strip cam its not worth it. You wont be winning any championships anyways. That being said if your still unsure, just step down one size and pull the trigger. Ms3 or btr3. Better to step down then overcam.
A water BRAKE is a type of dyno that uses a water turbine for the load.
Amazed the hell outta me when I worked at a racing engine shop back in 2000-2001 and the water brake dyno was used to load the engine/bog it down for about a half hour or so. This "forcing" the engine to work and build heat causes the rings to force into the cross hatching. They seal up faster and more effectively, specially in limited compression ratio classes, and actually make more power/torque.