Cam Question
 

So I just bought a '99 Z28 in almost spotless condition for a lot less than it was worth, but the catch was that the previous owner put a new (used) mild cam in it without knowing the specs on the cam. He didn't have it tuned and it idles low and will stall on start without some throttle and will sometimes stall at a stop. My knowledge on tuning is limited so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Also, he said that pcmforless would listen to my exhaust and tune accordingly, is this a good option?

I think it would be smarter to pull the came and determine the specs or replace it. Who knows what else may need to be changed to run that cam.

that's what i was thinking, but he insists it was small enough that nothing needs replaced.

Are you willing to bet your motor on that?

Pull it and put what you want in there. That way you know all parts can work together. Better safe than sorry. If you wanna stay relatively small, looking into the TSP 228r. I had that in my 98z and loved it. If you wanna go big, look MS4.

No definitely not, I'm trying to pry some info out of him right now, but are there any obvious indicators that something is amiss? I'm going to read the pcm* soon when I get my scanner, is there anything I should look for? If I kept the non-stock cam as opposed to putting the stock back in, would I need to get new headers, torque converter, intake, etc to avoid damaging the motor?

I've never done a cam swap before, what all would I need to change alongside the 228r?

Push rods and possibly valve springs.

Well my situation is that some people seem to think that with a mild cam, you don't need anything replaced to include springs, headers, rods, blah. If I decided to get this thing tuned with the mild cam that's apparently in it, what would I gain? (hp? mpg? smoothness?) Or if I put the original back in, would it be likely that I would even notice the difference (other than in mpg) since nothing else was added?

ls1tech.com will be your best friend

Tuners don't have to know what's in your engine to tune it....its great to know and have a baseline to start from but not necessary. They do it based on the computer readings while the car is running.

You can take your car to a dyno tuner and they will tune it without knowing the specs.....or do a mail order tune PROCESSS through tampa tuning or janetty (both use different devices)....But its a process....you data log, they configure, you data log, they configure.....several iterations....tuning.

Stay away from "tell me your specs" and send me your PCM (computer).....thats just a guess and seldom right.

Be smart about this, pull the cam, find out exactly what you have- and go from there.

+1, if he didn't change the valve springs it's only only a matter of time before a failure.