while i know exactly what a cam is and what it does and blah blah blah. I have no idea what all the numbers and stuff are representing. Lift, duration, and on and on. lift, i suppose thats how far its lifting the valve, and duration, is how long its up? a brief summary on that would be great.

also, im gona be buying a new cam here in the next few weeks. Im wanting more midrange torque. And that slightly lopy sound. But this is a daily driver so nothing to extreme. Im not tooooo terribly worried about gas as i really dont drive much, but the better the gas, the happier i am obviously. I am aware that more power = more fuel consumption.

 

i may be wrong but I think a 280 duration with a 480 lift would be a s big as I would go if you are only wanting a lopy idle anything bigger than that will require machine work to the heads, screw in rocker studs, stall conv. if running a auto and a lower rear gear.

 

well its got vortex 10:1 compression heads. The whole motor was put in about 15,000 miles ago so its still in great shape. Plus i dont abuse it tooo hard . Im not sure what it has for a cam, but i know itsnot a stock cam by any means.im gona look into it before i make any purchases. Its a crate engine put in before i bought the car so im not sure exactly whats in the thing. But yea i wasnt wanting to make my 350 sound like a 454 at all. Just a little more lopy is all. and more power of course.

also, thinking i should replace the lifters, rods, and rockers... any recomendations?

 

as i stated in another post , you need to make sure you have L31 VorteC heads and not the Swirl port heads people try to sell as VorteC heads. a true L31 VorteC only has 8 intake bolts , 2 in each corner that go straight down. the swirl port heads have the same number intake bolts as a standard SB head but the center 2 on each side are at a different angle than the outside bolts. a true L31 Vortec head will only accomidate a .450 lift cam with stock strings and a .550 lift with LS1 springs, any more lift than that you have to have the seats/guides cut. the swirl ports heads are ok, but nothing more than ok. alot of people sell the swirl port heads as Vortec because they have center bolt valve covers. always look at the inatke bolts , it's a dead giveaway.

 

honestly when u by the cam. it should give u its 'advice' on what lifters, rods, arms, and what not. thats the best way to do it. mixing it all isint good. go with what the company sudgest for best results. be sure to get roller rockers though.

 

no, vorteX with an X. there are vortec, then vortex. These are some sort of race head.

heres the address to them.
http://www.superflowheads.com/products.html

 

according to the site they are "coming soon" so they aren't even out yet....so how do you have them?

 

comeing soon to the site maybe. all i know is i have them and i looked up the specs. If i could i would scan the papers with the motor but i dont have a scanner, try a search on google or something.

 

i did a search and found the above site , and a bunch or vortex heads for motorcycle applications. without knowing what springs are in the heads (unless you get a cam kit with matched springs) and knowing the flow numbers of the heads it is hard to give a exact camshatf recomendation. but generally speaking for a street car with a stock converter and rearend gears i wouldn't go any larger than a 268 or 272 duration camshaft on a 350. any more and vacuum drop and hurt you power brakes and cause stalling with a stock converter (unless you idle it up to 1000 rpm) and that is with a Carb on top, if you have EFI you will need a computer friendly camshaft and custom prom to get the most out of the cam. here is a summary of lift , duration , lobe separation and valve over lap
Lift refers to how far an intake or exhaust valve is lifted off its seat at the cam lobe's highest point. Total valve lift is controlled by camshaft lobe lift and rocker arm ratio. The rocker arm ratio multiplies the cam's lobe lift. Duration is the amount of time a valve remains open. It is measured by the angle, in degrees of crankshaft rotation, that the valve stays off its seat during the lift cycle of the cam lobe. Because airflow past the valve is negligible until the valve is approximately 0.050 inch off the seat, the most accurate way to measure duration is from the point where the valve is 0.050 inch open (off the seat) until it is 0.050 inch away from closing.By keeping the valves open longer, a cam with more duration can increase high-rpm power. Increasing the duration also increases the rpm range where the engine produces power. Increasing duration without a change in lobe separation angle will result in increased valve overlapLobe separation is the angle in camshaft degrees between the maximum lift points of the intake and exhaust valves. It is affected by the placement of the intake and exhaust lobes on the camshaft. Lobe separation affects valve overlap, which in turn affects an engine’s power curve, idle quality, idle vacuum, and rpm range. Duration, lobe separation, and valve overlap all affect each other. Valve overlap is the angle, in degrees of crankshaft rotation, that the intake and exhaust valves are both open. This occurs at the end of the exhaust stroke and the beginning of the intake stroke. Increasing lift, duration, and/or decreasing lobe separation increases valve overlap. At high engine speeds, valve overlap allows the gasses exiting the cylinder through the exhaust valve to help pull a fresh air/fuel mixture into the cylinder through the intake valve. Increasing valve overlap helps high-rpm power, but reduces low-rpm power and idle quality. sorry about the long post , maybe this should be a sticky?

 

after a long night of partying, im gona have to come back to this one after i get some sleep. But it looks to be informative. thanks.