I need some cam selection suggestions please. My 94 LT1 pretty much stock except for larger cat-back system and air hog filter. It has a 4L60E auto trans, untouched mass-air and throttle body, and a stock ECM. It's a daily driver and I don't want to lose to much of the gas mileage during normal city driving. I'm basically looking for a cam that will work with my stock ECM (no reprograming), but still give me more power between 1500-5000 rpm. Possibly a little lopey to turn a few heads. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

You can talk to the people at Crane Cams or Comp Cams, tell them what you have and what you want to do, and they will recommend a cam to suit your needs. You could also use the LT4 hot cam from GM. There are several versions of this cam. One that will work with your stock rockers and one that need the LT4 roller rockers. Which ever you choose you will probably have to change your valve springs, and in some cases you will need a hevy duty timing chain and sprockets (available from GM). Check the cam specs!!!

 

Keep the stock cam for now. You will see better gains from things like long tube headers, underdrive pulley, intake manifold than if you were to just put in a cam. The cam needs other supporting mods to be a real benifit. If do choose to go with a cam like Pete said the LT4 cams are pretty good, but don't look for more than 10-15 hp gain on an otherwise stock motor. The lopey sound you refer to is due to the amount of overlap ground into the cam, generally increasing overlap will require a re-tune of the ECM, it also shifter the power higher up in the rpm band.

 

Jon makes a good point. In order for a hot cam to be effective it needs for the rest of the engine to breathe better. A hot cam can't do much if the intake and exhaust are restricted, Improve the exhaust system first, and any follow up mod such as a better intake, etc.. will produce much better results. Also. if you use a cam that will move the power band up, you will have to go to lower rear end gears. For two reasons, bottom end torque will be less, and you want to allow the engine to rev up to take advantage of the high end power.

 

good pointers guys but I would like your input on one more add-on I was also thinking about. I think the stock rocker ratio is 1.5:1 right?....would going to 1.6s work with my stock computer programming? I am considering headers and a good cat-back system for better breathing first. I quess I'm looking for a little more performance without tearing into the engine, and installing higher ratio would be the easiest for me. Would I have a valve to piston interference? would it broaden my power range or just move it up? I don't really know to much about reprogramming so I know I'm limited in mods.
Thanks in advance again,

Mike

 

I would do the following in this order: It should be good for mid 12's all day
Headers and cat back
Underdrive crank pulley
Some type of cold air intake
Drag radials
Lower control arms
4.10 gear
Higher stall
LT4 intake manifold
reprogram the ECU

 

That would make a big difference, i would do the same

 

if u were looking for one cam that works good with a pretty well stock low compression engine, a friend of mine at the track had a carbuerated small block 400 just stock, the only thing he did was put a crower 420 lift cam in it, and it turned it into a completely different motor. the only thing is, u might have to put some lower gears in it, that cam is good from 3250 to 6500, now by the sounds that's a little more than what u want to do, would probably lose some of ur driveability on a daily basis, but man, that baby had some pull, how much performance do u want? it had a nice rough idle also, sounds sweet.

 

Iwas also looking for the same thing as my car is a dd. Since my engine is getting rebuilt, I went with a small cam from comp cams and the rpm range is from 1200-5200. It's not done yet so if your intersted 9and have some time), I'll let you know how much lope is noticable(I wanted least as possible) and how it performs when it is finished.