Cams are a great bang for buck but they are in no sense cheap. Taking the example of the hitech stage II's they are $600 plus the install and the necessary dyno tune.... so you are looking at over $1k easy.
Hitech recommends springs if your stang is over 100k miles. I did my cams w/ the stock springs since I have ~70k miles. I'll tell you from first hand experience that there is significantly more valvetrain noise, if I were to do it again I would probably do springs even with the additional cost.
They also advertise that their cams don't require degreeing, this is not the case however. These cams favor the intake side and there are some reports of piston to valve clearance problems on the intake side- each side of our 4.6L motors can be slightly off from the factory because the stock cams allow this- but w/ aftermarket cams you don't have as much clearance------***make sure you degree any set of new cams.
Other than that last scare paragraph I love my hitech stage II's. No loss of power down low, solid gains in the midrange and top end. A nice flat torque curve, I couldn't ask for much more. I put down 290rwhp on a mustang dyno which should be good for 300+ on a dynojet. But that is in addition to full boltons. With the cams my nitto 555's have a tough time keeping up in 1st and 2nd.
Hitech sells blower/nitrous cams and many other companies do as well. Most NA cams will work fine with nitrous too, just make sure you tune. Take a look at the stage II cams such as the comp 270's, MHS, and hitech just to name a few.
Learn a little about the specs on the cams, watch youtube videos, and figure out what you want from the cams (power, sound, driveability). The majority of the sound that you get from your cams depends on your current exhaust setup / future exhaust setup. An offroad midpipe will get you the most lope. Also don't get the biggest cam out there, really a stage III cam is not for stock heads / daily driven car, you end up losing too much power in the low rpm range.
really long post
i love my hitech II's BUT, i dont think the lope is very noticeable...somedays its heavier than others but i honestly whish i would have went with comp 270's..they have a very heavy lope to them and are very noticeable at idle..
im sure it depends on what exhaust you're running and what your idle is set at also...mine lope nice but i thought when i bought them they would be way more noticeable
Here is my start up, three revs, plus some idle time.
YouTube - 2004 Mustang GT w/ hitech stage II cams
dark your car sounds really freaking good
i wish my car loped like the car in the 2nd vid...id be happy as hell
Some things to think about op:
I would have to assume that with a set of cams, that you would want to have a good tune and not a mail order tune. Need to keep that expense in mind.
I see a lot of people talking about Hitech II's and needing/wishing they had upgraded the valve train. If that's the case, you might want to consider going with a more aggressive cam.
Some things to think about op:
I would have to assume that with a set of cams, that you would want to have a good tune and not a mail order tune. Need to keep that expense in mind.
I see a lot of people talking about Hitech II's and needing/wishing they had upgraded the valve train. If that's the case, you might want to consider going with a more aggressive cam.
Thats a good point, however stock PI heads can only flow so much and cams like the Hitech stg. 2's are right up there at the limit. Any bigger cams would just be a waste on stock heads.
I agree with going with them if you are planning to keep all other head parts stock. However, if you are planning to upgrade valves / springs, why not upgrade to the point where you can add a stage 3 cam?
I have yet to look into any of this, so I have no clue about the cost or flow restrictions of the PI heads. I'm just saying that if you can upgrade the PI head to perform with stage 3 cam, and you plan on upgrading the valves and such, why not go all they way?
Because a 'stage 3' cam is not always the best thing.
First off the duration of these cams make them incompatable with stock short blocks. They have significant PTV clearance issues / there is no way they are going to work with stock pistons and valves. If you want a 'stage 3' cam you are going to have to open up the block and notch the pistons / change the valves or some combination of the two.
Second when you get such aggressive profiles you start to lose low end power and torque in exchange for gains in the high end- and I'm talking not until 4500 rpm +. So for a daily driver you are going to be driving around a car that is more sluggish than if it had stock cams.... For a drag car the stage 3's make sense because you are getting the biggest gains and combined with some 4.56's you are going to have a beast. But for a daily driven car the couple hp you gain in my mind is not worth the loss in drivability.
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