2007 3v cam options

[onefaststang]

Wife has a 2007 GT. Car had a slight miss before putting it away for the winter. Well it's time to get it out again, so I did plugs and it was still missing. Put a set of coils on it, still missing.
Pulled the valve covers and she has a cam lobe that is wiped out.

Are the FRPP hot rod cams the best option? I will be changing the rollers and phasers while I am in there. She doesn't really need anything but factory cams, but it's probably a waste to put stockers back in there.
I have read some threads that say a tune is needed, and others that say it is not.
Does anyone have any real world experience?

The car has jba equal length shorties, full exhaust, CDC shaker and is a 5 speed.

 

[Red_LX]

You definitely need a tune, the car might run with the cams and no tune but most likely it will run like crap and have a bouncing idle. It's also recommended to do charge motion deletes with cams but I don't think it's absolutely necessary, and the best gains with cams come from using them with long tube headers, I don't know about shorties. Just be aware they will soften up the bottom end.

Anyway there are lots of cams out there that are similar to the Hot Rods. I'd say get whatever you can find the best deal on. Mine are from Cushman Motorsports and they occasionally put them on sale, at the time I bought mine I got mine for $600 while the Hot Rods were $800.

The cam swap itself is super easy so it really depends on what you want to spend, considering you don't already have a tuner for the car you're looking at $1000 minimum to go with aftermarket cams (cams + tuner & tunes). For followers and phasers that's another $250 for phasers & bolts if you go aftermarket, $475 for OEM, plus whatever the followers cost. How many miles are on the car?

If you do want to go that route don't go with Bama, my car wouldn't idle right with the tune they sent me after I installed cams.

 

[onefaststang]

I dont have a problem getting an sct, or whatever is used now on these. This will is the first 3 valve I have been in but it looks fairly simple so far.
The car already has the JBA headers, so they are staying.
Car has about 130k on it actually.

I will look into the delete plates.

 

[Bullitt95]

If you haven't already swapped in a CAI, I'd recommend the JLT series 3. Merely doing that plus delete plates and underdrive pulleys will really wake the car up.
As far as cams go, the choice depends on what you want. Just about all will add torque at higher rpm and trade away torque at lower rpm to some degree. If you want a cam that'll give you a ~20rwhp gain with only minimal low rpm torque loss, you could go for the Comp NSR Stage 1 127050. You'll need a tune regardless of which cam you choose so you could bundle all these mods together and do them in one go. Then you'd only need to do the tune once.

 

[onefaststang]

Car has a cdc shaker on it. Cai won't do much good wirth that system. I would rather keep some low end torque, like I said it's my wife's car. I will look into the 127050's. Comp cams says no tune required? Even the 127200 they say no tune required but summit says tune is required.

 

[Red_LX]

The Comp XFI's (their Stage 1 and Stage 2) aren't as heavy on the overlap as some of the others so you might be able to get away with no tune on those, but I'd be surprised. A tune would get the most out of it, the 93 octane tune on a bone stock engine is good for 20-25 hp.

 

[onefaststang]

I ordered the xfi stage 1s today. She doesn't need anything crazy. Only thing I need to get now is new phaser bolts. Going to see what happens without the tuner. If necessary I'll order a tuner afterwards. I'm not doing this to build her a drag car, so I'm not looking for every extra hp. Just a nice driver. She bought the car with all the other mods done to it, so I am not sure if it has a tune in it already or not.

 

[Bullitt95]

The CDC Shaker uses the stock airbox and you only have shorty headers, so you're probably still running the stock tune.

 

[onefaststang]

Cams are in. Idles like factory, at least very close. I believe the LH cam has been changed before. There was black silicone one one side and grey on the other. Passenger side cam shows wear, but none what so ever on driver side. I will drive it tomorrow and see how it runs.

 

[onefaststang]

Cams did not solve the problem. Car seemed to run great until I got about a mile away then it started missing again.

 

[onefaststang]

Looks like I have a sticking vct solenoid. Put 12v to it with the power probe and it smoothed back out.

 

[Red_LX]

Did you check the phaser end of the new cams for metal chips from machining? That has been an issue, the chips can get stuck in the VCT solenoid screen and cause problems.
When I installed my cams, on the first set one of the oil passages was drilled incorrectly on the passenger side cam. Gave me all kinds of fits, I replaced both phasers chasing it down, finally by chance happened to notice something amiss with the phaser on that side when I took it back apart and found that oil passageway. I also found chips in the ends of my cams.

 

[onefaststang]

New vct solenoid and shes running like a top. I am very impressed with how it runs with the xfi stage 1 cams. Seems like it just doesn't want to stop pulling. Feels about the same as it did before down low. No noticable loss. Car runs fine with no tune. I'm sure we could pick up a lot more with a tune but it's not necessary right now.