Cam Vs. Cam Vs. Cam

[My First Camaro!]

So, What does everyone think? Any likes/dislikes? I'm not sure what I'm going to go with yet.

LS Hot Cam http://www.superchevyperformance.com/category_s/125.htm
"Stage 1" P/N 88958733
"Stage 2" P/N 88958722
"Stage 3" P/N 88958723

Vs.

Comp Cams http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/Browse.aspx
"Stage 1" P/N 156-400-13
"Stage 2" P/N 156-401-13
"Stage 3" P/n 156-403-13

Vs.

All the other custom grinds that are out.

[Jason 98 TA]

We will be doing engine dyno testing on a LS3 engine very shortly to do camshaft development work. I always welcome customers to send in camshafts they'd like to see run. One thing I can promise you is if you can sit back & give me a few weeks to try different things I'll put together a line of LS3 camshafts that will make you smile! We'll probably run from 20-30 different cam designs across the engine dyno before we settle on a list of TSP camshafts.

Any shop can spec a camshaft & guess what it'll do. The engine dyno allows us not only to develop new products, it also allows us to test competitors claims. I'll work hard to provide you guys with the best possible camshaft selections & provide you with side by side data to make a educated camshaft choice!!

[caverman]

Look forward to hearing some of the different cams. Please include some video/sound clips once you find some good combinations. I want to hear it lope!

I won't do a cam right off the bat because of the warranty but I don't think I'll make it 5 yrs (maybe 2 or 3). I get as many compliments about the sound of my '69 as I do about the color. Mine sounds a lot meaner than it is which is fine becasue I don't really street race or anything but I do love to drive slowly through car shows and in parades.

[Crowley]

Originally Posted by Jason 98 TA

We will be doing engine dyno testing on a LS3 engine very shortly to do camshaft development work. I always welcome customers to send in camshafts they'd like to see run. One thing I can promise you is if you can sit back & give me a few weeks to try different things I'll put together a line of LS3 camshafts that will make you smile! We'll probably run from 20-30 different cam designs across the engine dyno before we settle on a list of TSP camshafts.

Any shop can spec a camshaft & guess what it'll do. The engine dyno allows us not only to develop new products, it also allows us to test competitors claims. I'll work hard to provide you guys with the best possible camshaft selections & provide you with side by side data to make a educated camshaft choice!!

Please keep us all posted Jason ! Any chance you will also be doing any type of blower cam testing?

Crowley

[Dutchman427]

Give Mikey @ Rapid Motorsports a call. He can spec you a cam that will make power.

[Tillman Speed]

Comp Cams you can never go wrong. Look at the cars making the big power, somehow they always end up having comp grinds thrown in.

Another great option:
http://www.mastmotorsports.com/page....ackages&id=114

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by Tillman Speed

Comp Cams you can never go wrong. Look at the cars making the big power, somehow they always end up having comp grinds thrown in.

Another great option:
http://www.mastmotorsports.com/page....ackages&id=114

on both accounts.

Mast motorsports has been making some bad ass leaps and bounds in the LS motor world. their work is top notch and they have a great selection of upgrades for the new camaro

[FTI-EDC]

Mike from New Era Performance Parts in Rochester New York will be doing a lot of valvetrain testing on his shop's Camaro. They were the only tuning shop to perfect the G8GT combinations so their Camaro project car will set the bar for others to copy...

Give them a call and get the straight scoop, without the hype.

[calbert1999]

Originally Posted by My First Camaro!

So, What does everyone think? Any likes/dislikes? I'm not sure what I'm going to go with yet.

LS Hot Cam http://www.superchevyperformance.com/category_s/125.htm
"Stage 1" P/N 88958733
"Stage 2" P/N 88958722
"Stage 3" P/N 88958723

Vs.

Comp Cams http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/Browse.aspx
"Stage 1" P/N 156-400-13
"Stage 2" P/N 156-401-13
"Stage 3" P/n 156-403-13

Vs.

All the other custom grinds that are out.

I have these discussions all the time with my performance installer. It's so re-assuring working with this individual and his staff because they evolved from a racing heritage. The company had a number of top level racers as their customers, so they're used to working on cars not simply to upgrade them to whatever will give TQ / HP, but they know the pros-cons, and they do their homework specifically for what you want currently, and what you plan to do with the vehicle in the future.

We've had tons of discussions around Stage 1, 2 and 3 (I call this stagearisms), and my conclusion is what one vendor will call Stage 1, 2 or 3 another vendor will call Stage 3, 2 or 1.

None of this crap matters, it's personal preference on TQ vs HP, vs sound and your future plans, and engine "safety". Additionally, no shop owner is making his own CAM, they come up with some spec. for their specific Stagearism offering, and ask Comp Cams to grind down some stocked part # for them, I belive it may cost a few extra dollars, but can be done for some special requirement or to match up a specific lift with a specific LSA or duration for what they're calling a Stage 1, 2 or 3 CAM.

Tell your installer (vendor) what you want, and ask him to help you decide on the best CAM you should get for your needs and future plans and engine safety (trunion kit, new rockers, spacing, etc....)

ie - My CAM doesn't match any of your Stage 1, 2 or 3 specs. but my installer refers to it as a Stage 2, based on it's specs. (could have went bigger and this would have been considered Stage 3). The CAM we selected, has bigger lift than all your cams somewhere in the .6xx (large, but well within tolerances), and an LSA of 113 (safe for future SC installation), the intake / exhaust is in the I: 23x E: 23x range, which means the intake / exhaust durations are matched for the vehicle not some other BS that's going to start banging things around inside your engine like a mis-matched I: .230 E: .246 or something stupid (risky) like that just for a few extra HP's at the high end RPM range. Of course this doesn't mean something else wasn't done to other folks engines that get these weird specs., it just means the engine has certain tolerances, and if you don't stay within them or do something else like stroke the engine, or different rods, springs, cylinder heads, etc... you might have issues in the long run.

So, do your homework, but make sure you speak with the pro's, and find an awesome "professional" to work with that won't mind taking a few hours to speak with you (of course over time), check out the shop, and make sure he has several years of experience with "race cars", not just some guy that puts the same parts in Corvettes all day long.

My vendor has several vehicles in his shop, that he works on for his residual customes regulary, they range from 196x Camaro's and Vettes to modern Camaros' / Vettes, Challengers, crated engines, and race kit cars. He can do CAM's, gears, nitrous and meth kits, suspension / brake setups, super-/turbo-chargers and complete re-builds / reburbished vehicles. So, being able to see his work (some of it custom) on these vehicles I know these guys are not just your average mechanic dudes browsing the threads to come up with a package they'll put on everyones Camaro simply to make a fist full of dollars, and then when shit goes wrong they'll just say you must have been driving too aggressively. A good example is a buddy of mine uses another vendor, who had to lift his engine (tons of work, and dis-connetions from other things like the tranny) to do the CAM install, my vendor plans to simply remove the radiator and slide in the CAM. So, you can see the level of experience with the vehicle vs some dude who does vettes all day. Additionally, he ended up with 1 3/4" headers on an LS3 (not 1 7/8"), and crappy 2.5" mid-pipes (not 3"), with a crappy (I won't mention vendor) cold air intake vs one of the better brands he could have gotten for a few extra pennies. For sure, his vehicle puts down some extra power, but he doesn't know how much power because they sent his ECU to the US for a canned tune and never gave him a Dyno chart to see before / after results. What's up with that? The sound is also better than stock, but is close to a ricer sound with a cherry bomb installed with a hole drilled into it. I would be , but he thinks it's a good job.

It took his vendor 2 weeks to do his vehicle, it's gonna' take my installer 3days. and, it's going to cost me less money.

So, do your homework, take your time, spend several hours on the threads, see what others are doing, and discuss with your vendor so you don't end up spending tons of cash, being to the point you just get . Better to be with the car and your vendor.

Hope this really helps.

[Slowhawk]

Cams are a very long discussion. Luckilly for Comp they have vendors that do most of the testing for them before they market them to customers.

I've tested a few already. Mine isn't just about power but drivability plays a big part.So far we have 3 Cams we use all the time and like them. Wish we had an engine dyno,would be quicker.

[BowlingSS]

Originally Posted by Jason 98 TA

We will be doing engine dyno testing on a LS3 engine very shortly to do camshaft development work. I always welcome customers to send in camshafts they'd like to see run. One thing I can promise you is if you can sit back & give me a few weeks to try different things I'll put together a line of LS3 camshafts that will make you smile! We'll probably run from 20-30 different cam designs across the engine dyno before we settle on a list of TSP camshafts.

Any shop can spec a camshaft & guess what it'll do. The engine dyno allows us not only to develop new products, it also allows us to test competitors claims. I'll work hard to provide you guys with the best possible camshaft selections & provide you with side by side data to make a educated camshaft choice!!

Any testing completed yet? Would love to see the results.

Bill

[SC2150]

Originally Posted by calbert1999

I have these discussions all the time with my performance installer. It's so re-assuring working with this individual and his staff because they evolved from a racing heritage. The company had a number of top level racers as their customers, so they're used to working on cars not simply to upgrade them to whatever will give TQ / HP, but they know the pros-cons, and they do their homework specifically for what you want currently, and what you plan to do with the vehicle in the future.

We've had tons of discussions around Stage 1, 2 and 3 (I call this stagearisms), and my conclusion is what one vendor will call Stage 1, 2 or 3 another vendor will call Stage 3, 2 or 1.

None of this crap matters, it's personal preference on TQ vs HP, vs sound and your future plans, and engine "safety". Additionally, no shop owner is making his own CAM, they come up with some spec. for their specific Stagearism offering, and ask Comp Cams to grind down some stocked part # for them, I belive it may cost a few extra dollars, but can be done for some special requirement or to match up a specific lift with a specific LSA or duration for what they're calling a Stage 1, 2 or 3 CAM.

Tell your installer (vendor) what you want, and ask him to help you decide on the best CAM you should get for your needs and future plans and engine safety (trunion kit, new rockers, spacing, etc....)

ie - My CAM doesn't match any of your Stage 1, 2 or 3 specs. but my installer refers to it as a Stage 2, based on it's specs. (could have went bigger and this would have been considered Stage 3). The CAM we selected, has bigger lift than all your cams somewhere in the .6xx (large, but well within tolerances), and an LSA of 113 (safe for future SC installation), the intake / exhaust is in the I: 23x E: 23x range, which means the intake / exhaust durations are matched for the vehicle not some other BS that's going to start banging things around inside your engine like a mis-matched I: .230 E: .246 or something stupid (risky) like that just for a few extra HP's at the high end RPM range. Of course this doesn't mean something else wasn't done to other folks engines that get these weird specs., it just means the engine has certain tolerances, and if you don't stay within them or do something else like stroke the engine, or different rods, springs, cylinder heads, etc... you might have issues in the long run.

So, do your homework, but make sure you speak with the pro's, and find an awesome "professional" to work with that won't mind taking a few hours to speak with you (of course over time), check out the shop, and make sure he has several years of experience with "race cars", not just some guy that puts the same parts in Corvettes all day long.

My vendor has several vehicles in his shop, that he works on for his residual customes regulary, they range from 196x Camaro's and Vettes to modern Camaros' / Vettes, Challengers, crated engines, and race kit cars. He can do CAM's, gears, nitrous and meth kits, suspension / brake setups, super-/turbo-chargers and complete re-builds / reburbished vehicles. So, being able to see his work (some of it custom) on these vehicles I know these guys are not just your average mechanic dudes browsing the threads to come up with a package they'll put on everyones Camaro simply to make a fist full of dollars, and then when shit goes wrong they'll just say you must have been driving too aggressively. A good example is a buddy of mine uses another vendor, who had to lift his engine (tons of work, and dis-connetions from other things like the tranny) to do the CAM install, my vendor plans to simply remove the radiator and slide in the CAM. So, you can see the level of experience with the vehicle vs some dude who does vettes all day. Additionally, he ended up with 1 3/4" headers on an LS3 (not 1 7/8"), and crappy 2.5" mid-pipes (not 3"), with a crappy (I won't mention vendor) cold air intake vs one of the better brands he could have gotten for a few extra pennies. For sure, his vehicle puts down some extra power, but he doesn't know how much power because they sent his ECU to the US for a canned tune and never gave him a Dyno chart to see before / after results. What's up with that? The sound is also better than stock, but is close to a ricer sound with a cherry bomb installed with a hole drilled into it. I would be , but he thinks it's a good job.

It took his vendor 2 weeks to do his vehicle, it's gonna' take my installer 3days. and, it's going to cost me less money.

So, do your homework, take your time, spend several hours on the threads, see what others are doing, and discuss with your vendor so you don't end up spending tons of cash, being to the point you just get . Better to be with the car and your vendor.

Hope this really helps.

VERY well put! All cams we do are a custom grind for just that reason....no names like the "crusher, Crasher, Composter" etc. Just the science of 35 years building race & performance engines of all types and running race teams with a collection of divisional, National, & World Championships.

There is no "one size fits all", you have to know all the factors & components of the build & intended use & customer goals.

I will add that I have had customers bring in their own from TSP, Thunder, etc. with very good results....but we win and loose by 1-2 thousands of a second on the drag strip (some times ten thousands of a second!) and getting the combo just right is an art.

[8aStang]

X2 on what SC2150 said.... Speaking of that Tracy when you want to grind me a cam?