How long has your aftermarket cam lasted or not lasted??

[BlackinBlack]

I daily drove a solid roller big cam motor back in '95. It made great power but was a PITA. Partially because it was a solid roller. Hot lashing rockers every 3,000 miles was a nightmare. Waiting for temps to come up to ensure proper lash / clearances before driving was a PITA. Then every other lash check I would check spring pressures and every 12,000 I changed springs if they lasted that long. (Which were not cheap springs.) Damn car valvetrain was cube dollars too. T&D shaft mounted rockers were over $1500 for the set I had which had extra oil squirters to ensure valve spring cooling. On a positive note the valve train was stable to 8500 RPM with a float redline of 9000.

I made it one year of that crap and sold the car. Was so happy to not deal with it anymore. My experience was an extreme case. With mild cams before that I had many many trouble free miles.

[Dmpsix]

Has anyone ever had a GPI VVT cam fail?

Like actually had the full setup, parts, tune, labor, etc. done by GPI and then have the cam fail?

[G701LE]

I wouldn't buy a Comp cam core. But that's just me

[jbrown13]

Originally Posted by Dmpsix

Has anyone ever had a GPI VVT cam fail?

Like actually had the full setup, parts, tune, labor, etc. done by GPI and then have the cam fail?

Yes. Mine failed after 3,500 miles and took out a bunch of other thinks like bearings, lifters, etc. GPI did not do the installation.

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by Dmpsix

Has anyone ever had a GPI VVT cam fail?

Like actually had the full setup, parts, tune, labor, etc. done by GPI and then have the cam fail?

Originally Posted by jbrown13

Yes. Mine failed after 3,500 miles and took out a bunch of other thinks like bearings, lifters, etc. GPI did not do the installation.

Pretty sure yours was a comp core....,

GPI has since switch to cam motion.

[DOC52]

GPI cam motion core 10k miles strong and going, daily driven hard.

[BlaqWhole]

From what I've seen, it really is a gamble. I have seen where the failure came immediately, some came after a few hundred miles, and some after a few thousand miles. I wouldn't feel totally safe until about 5000 miles after. I took some flak for saying this some time ago, but to me, it seems that these engines just don't take well to cam swaps. Across the board, on different forums for different cars of different years, I have never seen any vehicle with as many failures after a cam swap as I have seen with the 5th Gen SS. Heck I've seen more engine failures from cam swaps on these engines than from forced induction. Now don't get all mad at me for saying this. That is just what I have seen. So cams are out of the question for me personally. I teased myself with the idea for some time. But I decided it isn't worth the potential cost of a blown engine.

[jbrown13]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

Pretty sure yours was a comp core....,

GPI has since switch to cam motion.

Not a Comp core, the Cam Motion cam card says it is an "Andrews" core. The box it cam in says Cam Motion on it. It was a bad core and the induction hardening was improperly done and flaked off most of the lobes. Could be one of a kind or a bad batch, but the hardening was defective.

I'm curious as to how you would presume to know what cam I have/had?

[Johnthegreat]

Ive noticed alot of cam failures also. I bought the gpi vvt3 and vvt 2 cams and im afraid to put it in my 80,000 mile motor.

[Dmpsix]

Originally Posted by Johnthegreat

Ive noticed alot of cam failures also. I bought the gpi vvt3 and vvt 2 cams and im afraid to put it in my 80,000 mile motor.

Same

[WHAMMO]

Originally Posted by BlaqWhole

From what I've seen, it really is a gamble. I have seen where the failure came immediately, some came after a few hundred miles, and some after a few thousand miles. I wouldn't feel totally safe until about 5000 miles after. I took some flak for saying this some time ago, but to me, it seems that these engines just don't take well to cam swaps. Across the board, on different forums for different cars of different years, I have never seen any vehicle with as many failures after a cam swap as I have seen with the 5th Gen SS. Heck I've seen more engine failures from cam swaps on these engines than from forced induction. Now don't get all mad at me for saying this. That is just what I have seen. So cams are out of the question for me personally. I teased myself with the idea for some time. But I decided it isn't worth the potential cost of a blown engine.

I agree with you. But LS3 biggest flaws are oil pumps, chain tensionner and lifters ( like all LS). In my opinion, the biggest cure is to run lifters better suit for the higher duration and big lift. I decided to gamble on the lifters and not swap em. If I swap the heads, linked lifters will go in.

So the only thing relates to 5th gen is the oil pump/ chain tensionner. Other than that, its just another LS. To me, staying boltons with the stock oil pump was a bigger risk than running a cam and upgrading the oil pump.

I installed a LS2 dogbone, Melling oil pump (hi-press), new LT1 style timing chain with my TSP 231 236 & PRC 650' lift double springs.

Running strong for 7k miles now.

[WHAMMO]

Originally Posted by jbrown13

Not a Comp core, the Cam Motion cam card says it is an "Andrews" core. The box it cam in says Cam Motion on it. It was a bad core and the induction hardening was improperly done and flaked off most of the lobes. Could be one of a kind or a bad batch, but the hardening was defective.

I'm curious as to how you would presume to know what cam I have/had?

Ouch..so much for quality. It shows that a badluck can happen even if you try to avoid all risk. Its a freaking gamble!!

[Dmpsix]

What are amongst the best lifters out there? Ls3/Ls7 lifters are virtually the same thing, are there any actual BETTER lifters for reliability?

[07-SRT]

I stayed away from Comp and went with cam motion . Replaced the chain, oil pump, double springs and tensioner. Installed the cam just under 3k miles and have put over 10k on since then and no issues.