Cam question: Need Advice
 

Is it uncommon to do a cam swap on a camaro with over 80k miles? I have 85k miles on my car, and knocking on the door to do a cam but I wanted to be sure that I'm not making a mistake.

I would suggest pulling the heads and changing the lifters with that amount of miles and also changing the oil pump, timing chain, and chain tensioner as a precaution.

Feel free to contact us at Lethal Racing. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. We do tons of camaros from Houston!

Nick

I'm camming mine next week. 75k. Replacing all lifters tensioner springs seals seats chain blah blah. No reason not to.

Be careful on the cam isn't to aggressive in lobes, can cause harder wear n tear on the valvetrain.

Thanks for the info I had everything on my list to change minus the lifters. I'm very aware of you guys and the high quality work you do but I'm going to be doing the install myself. I'd imagine if I have to pull the heads to do the lifters I'd need new head gaskets. Anything else I'd need?


Awesome as stated above I wasn't aware of the lifters needing to be changed.


Thanks:thumbsup:

I do want to add that I have a ls3. I've read the ls3 lifters are better than l99. Will that make a difference or do they still need to be changed?

Its no different than any other LSx motor with the exception to the collapsible AFM ones in the L99 and other AFM LS motors.

Its more so a precaution, a "might as well" for good insurance.


Keep in mind, Ive personally seen PLENTY of 'cam only' swapped LS motors in fbodys, trucks and other GM performance cars reuse the stock lifters when only changing the cam shaft with 100k+ miles. I'm not saying to do it..but you could.

Most people who go Heads/Cam replace the lifters.

I've heard of 4th gens do that as well. If I could get away with not having to do them I would rather it that way. I've saw a few people do a motor flush and carb cleaner to "clean" the lifters then do a oil change right after that but idk if that's a good idea or not. I've been looking around for a DIY on how to change the lifters but haven't found anything.

Like I said, the LS3 is no different than the previous renditions before it for how to remove the heads and change the lifters, etc.

I can't find a 'how to' guide for 5th gens, but their are PLENTY for 4th gens. So you can read one and skip all the 4th gen car specific stuff and read the parts about unbolting the heads and removing the plastic lifter trays etc that's what is relevant.

CLICK HERE AND READ from LS1howto.com


My personal opinion, if you can afford to due the lifters, do it. But at 85k id pull the cam inspect all the lobes for abnormal wear and pitting. If it looks MINT Id reuse the lifters, but thats just me.

Very good point. I didn't think about that. I'll definitely just pull the cam and inspect it, and go from there. I don't have any lifter noise so I'm hoping everything looks ok once I get there.

Thanks for the advice and for the how to link.

Anyone else car to comment?

We've seen guys with 130k + do cam swaps on ls1 engines so your by no means crazy in mileage. You could swap oil pump & lifters if you want but honestly if it was mine I'd do the cam swap first. Changes are at some point you'll wanna do cnc porting on the heads. At that point you'll be at the lifters & then the change costs you very little difference in $$$.

The TSP camshaft packages were dyno tested & spintron tested with L99 (heavier) valves to insure valvetrain is exactly what its suppose to be.

http://texas-speed.com/p-249-tsp-ls3...t-package.aspx

For example the 231/236 & 235/239 dyno side by side on the engine dyno!

http://texas-speed.com/images/media/231236VSBIGGER.jpg

Thank you that makes me feel a lot better my plan was to go ahead and swap the oil pump and timing chain since I was already there. I honestly didn't want to bother with the lifters yet if I didn't have to.

True.

Hydraulic roller valve trains do not establish 'wear patterns' in the way that the old flat-tappet valve trains did. Hydraulic roller lifters aren't imprinted to the old cam.....they are good to go with a new cam.

But like any hard part, they do eventually wear out.....and the 'jury' is still out on when that point is (75K miles? 150K miles? 200K+ miles?) I've seen 300K-mile LT1's that never had a valve train maintenance except new springs. So.....there's that.

The bottom line is, how much are you willing to replace and what are you willing to 'cheap-out' on?

Lifters are one of the last replacements I'd choose to make on a cam swap.....but at some point, you have to do a 'cost/benefit analysis' of what you have and what you can afford and maybe, come to the conclusion that another couple hundred bucks for new lifters beats the he11 out of footin' the bill for a new engine.

KW