Cam options

[whitetrans95]

I have a pretty stock 95 trans am with an Lt1 in it. im wanting to swap out the cam but wasnt sure on what a stock engine could handle or what is the best type to go with. Any suggestions?

[R3DLT1]

**LT1 Camshaft/Valve Train Selection Guide**

**LT1 Camshaft/Valve Train Selection Guide**
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[FastLT1]

Need some more info on what you're wanting to do with it. Daily driver? Track only car?

[Justin Hover]

Your gonna need a complete full bolt-on exhaust before you even think of buying a cam. A torque converter if your an auto<<<this is a must.

[DUDBIRD113]

Basically ur gonna wanna do full bolt ons then the cam to maximise it

[steveo]

eh i disagree, you can throw a mild cam behind stock exhaust and intake and gain plenty of power

the cam swap is the hard part, might as well do that first

[KW Baraka]

Originally Posted by steveo

eh i disagree, you can throw a mild cam behind stock exhaust and intake and gain plenty of power......

Agreed.

KW

[Justin Hover]

- Can a cam be your first mod; yes. Should a cam be your first mod; no.

1) Cams NEED to breath, that means a complete intake and exhaust setup. The bigger the cam the more prevalent those mods become..Right from the stickys. I thought this was just common sense. Of course you don't have to, but call and spec out cam and I'm sure any sponser will reccomend the same. (complete a full exhaust)
Throw a cam in on a stock setup, all your doing is choking the shit out of it. It has to have a dyno tune, then when you do add intake/exhaust, your air/fuel ratios are gonna be outta whack and your going to constanly have to either re-tune/mail order to for that same cam to be efficient. Do it right man.

[steveo]

so the stock airbox and manifolds are so restrictive, where it's actually a bad idea to do a mild cam only lt1 while you're saving up for full exhaust and an air filter?

see, you're just guessing at this point. i've done a cam-only lt1 and ran it like that for months while i was waiting for parts. these engines can totally rip on stock manifolds and airbox.

of course you wouldn't tune it until your build is more complete. that goes without saying, and of course it wont reach its potential without those things, but acting like you're doing harm or doing a shitty job by not doing it all at the same time... well.. i have to disagree.

[Justin Hover]

It by no means will do any harm. It's just kinda the opposite of what is suggested in installing a cam. Complete a full exhaust first. It's kinda like getting a mild cam..and running the stock stall on it. Sure you can do it, but it will run like a pig, and nowhere near it's full potential. Cams need to breath is the bottom line...so why not spend all the money you'd dump into a cam package/swap&dyno, when all that money can complete a full exhaust? If your months out from doing everything than go for it, but most of us can only afford to do a few things at a time/year.

I'm not sure why I'm defending my comments/catching heat for this shit. It's common knowledge/sense to complete a full bolt-on car before doing a cam swap. I'm not disagreeing on the fact that you can do a cam first. Imo, it's just bad advice to give someone who really doesn't know the "suggested" order of which to do so.

[whitetrans95]

Thanks guys. I'm going to put a full exhaust on anyway and now I know which to do first. Any recommendationson what headers and exhaust to get? I was thinking hooker shorties and magnaflow from there

[steveo]

problem is you haven't talked about your goals for the car, and how fast you really want to go, and what you use it for, it's kind of important

magnaflow catback is awesome until you delete your cat(s), then there are mixed opinions about how it sounds. if you're keeping it emissions legal, it's a great choice

shorties will be ok on a street car, will be easy to install, and keep your emissions stuff intact with no playing around. the only power you gain from shorties is from the size of the tubes, and straighter exhaust flow

mids or longtubes will make more power and support bigger cams, but unlike shorties, they wont just 'drop right in'. you'd need o2 extensions, poly engine mounts, y-pipe, and you'll lose ground clearance

[whitetrans95]

I want to keep it a street car. I'd like to get as much power out of it as possible without making major modifications everywhere else. If its necessary then so be it. Thinking 400 horsepower range

[steveo]

that's a reasonable goal for sure

but you have to realize in that range of power, so many things will become a weak point

to build for 400 flywheel horsepower range (or worse, 400rwhp), if you want a car that'll hold up, you have a lot of stuff to consider:

- some suspension upgrades, incl. subframe connectors
- transmission & torque converter/clutch
- professionally ported stock heads (or aftermarket castings) w/ new rockers, springs, pushrods, lifters
- larger cam that will sacrifice a bit of low end torque
- bigger airfilter system of some kind
- longtube headers & full exhaust
- tuning

you can do it on the stock bottom end if you don't beat on it, but it'll be on borrowed time. thing is, something that makes ~400hp usually has to spin a lot higher rpms to make power.

or if that sounds like too much work, you can dial back your expectations a bit

if you aim for more like 340-350fwhp, the rest of the car might hold up a bit better, and you can do what people usually call a 'cam only' build. keep the stock heads, do cam, rockers, springs, intake, exhaust, tune and it'll be alright (still need a different torque converter if it's an auto, though)

so now think about all that, and you can start thinking about what cam you want. ends up that everything is built around the cam

[steveo]

just for an example, my car is a total budget build, which might be more what you're looking for

used midtube headers, cold air intake, compcams 'roller tip' rockers (the cheap ones), cheap comp cam beehive springs, and a mild lunati cam.

everything else is pretty stock, and if you drove it, it'd "feel" twice as fast as your car on the butt dyno. it smokes the tires effortlessly, and pulls hard in any gear, at any rpm

you can do that shit for like a grand if you spend your money right and hit ebay for some stuff

but you'll still have a high 13 second car, 'cause it wont put the power to the ground, and it wont make enough power at high rpms

does that matter for a street car? some people think it does