cammed thoughts

check out VT cams. they make very very good gains on the modular 4.6L. its very worth it to put cams on a n/a car. they have several options for their cams as well

palehorse94 said:

any idea what would be good specs for a average motor?

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Check out the VT site. they have stage 1 & stage 2 cams. ones for n/a and ones for s/c's & blowers. its all outlined very clearly there

Bigger injectors for cams? I would go with stage 2 (thats what I plan on going with). Deffinatly going to need bigger T/B, plenum, and better exhaust. I don't know if the stock headers are good enough for this or not, but an X-pipe and catback exhaust would also be beneficial.

I've been thinking about going this route also. By the time your finished, you're looking at an $800-$1000 upgrade. Hmmmm

3ponyshow said:

I've been thinking about going this route also. By the time your finished, you're looking at an $800-$1000 upgrade. Hmmmm

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More than that. You're also going to need everything to support it. Full intake and exhaust.

I had heard that to do the job properly, that would be the case. It's not something I know alot about. That's why I research as much as I can and listen when guys who know, like you, talk. Thanks.

So, when all is said and done, I'd heard you're looking at maybe 40 rwhp. Does that sound about right? If that's the case, seems to me on top of the 2k I've already got in it, why not just go with the blower?

3ponyshow said:

I had heard that to do the job properly, that would be the case. It's not something I know alot about. That's why I research as much as I can and listen when guys who know, like you, talk. Thanks.

So, when all is said and done, I'd heard you're looking at maybe 40 rwhp. Does that sound about right? If that's the case, seems to me on top of the 2k I've already got in it, why not just go with the blower?

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After pricing it out, I am going to do cams, the big thing to remember is once you decide, thats it. You have to be sure you will never being going the blower route becuase if you get n/a cams and then add a blower it will not be setup correctly. I will be getting my blower cams months before i get my blower and this is fine, i will see gains of probly only 15-20 from the cams while n/a but when i add the blower it will be more like 40-60. If you r going to stay n/a for good then get yourself some custom cams from Tim at T&J's and have him setup something a little more aggresive then stage 2's and get a good tune. Good luck, a blower would be the cheaper route but the cams will give you a nice curve and higher reving.. just my $.02

The cost of the blower should include a new fuel system that can feed it, so don't forget that when you are trying to figure out what is a better route to go. It's also a good idea to get internals, cams, and valvetrain that are specifically set up for the blower. When all is said and done a vortech/paxton blower, when done right, is around $7-8k installed and tuned.

All of that being said you definitely get more bang for the buck if you go that route than doing a N/A build-up...you just have to figure out how much hp and tq you're going for. If you are looking for more than 400rwhp you should plan on the blower setup.

IMHO, I'de save up some extra money until you're able to get the cylinder heads ported and polished, get an oversized valve job w/ stainless steel vavles, competition vavle springs, and then add the cams to that. You might as well do it all since you're going to have to strip the motor down to the heads just to get the cams out. It would be a good idea just to finish off by pulling the heads and doing it all. VTengines is a good place to get cams from as they make the best from what I've read.

Well, there's an aweful lot of "I heard" here so I'll just say this. Give T&J a call www.modularfordpowerhouse.com or Scott or Jim at VT www.vtengines.com and let them know what your goals are. They're (T&J) dealers for VT Engines, Comp, and others and will be able to set you up with what you need so you won't buy things unneccessarily. Whatever shop you use to buy/install parts spend some time on the phone/email with them and find out the results they've gotten with their stuff and go from there. Good luck.

Dark Knight GT said:

IMHO, I'de save up some extra money until you're able to get the cylinder heads ported and polished, get an oversized valve job w/ stainless steel vavles, competition vavle springs, and then add the cams to that. You might as well do it all since you're going to have to strip the motor down to the heads just to get the cams out. It would be a good idea just to finish off by pulling the heads and doing it all. VTengines is a good place to get cams from as they make the best from what I've read.

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For $1100 you can get cams and comp valve springs installed, its true you have to do all that work but thats not just a $20 addition, porting and polished and all that is gonna double costs, the best way to do it is just to install the cams yourself, then it doesn't matter that you have to tear it down to heads... Only reason i say this is becuase you scare people away from doing cams when you say stuff like that, most people can not afford the extra grand to "just do the heads while your at it". But dont we all wish we did..

I guess thats true. If you can do it yourself, then have to it. However, not all of us have the space, tools, time, and skills to do a cam swap. I know I sure dont. Thats why I said its best to do it all at once if you can. However, if all you can afford now is cams, well then hey, have to it.

Dark Knight GT said:

IMHO, I'de save up some extra money until you're able to get the cylinder heads ported and polished, get an oversized valve job w/ stainless steel vavles, competition vavle springs, and then add the cams to that. You might as well do it all since you're going to have to strip the motor down to the heads just to get the cams out. It would be a good idea just to finish off by pulling the heads and doing it all. VTengines is a good place to get cams from as they make the best from what I've read.

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Uh....what? If I hadn't changed my valve-springs, I could have had the cams changed in about 2 hours.

With the AFM cam chain tool:

- remove the valve covers
- move the p/s resevoir
- break the bolts loose on the cams
- remove the rockers, insert the tool
- change one cam
- move the tool to the other side
- change the other cam
- torque cam girdles
- bleed lifters
- re-install lifters and rockers
- install valve covers
- bolt p/s resevoir back into place

I'm sure I may have forgot a step, but changing the cams is not rocket science. You don't have to tear your engine down to get to them or to change them. Changing the valve springs is a PITA. Its not hard, but just takes time and lots of patience. And, YES you can do them in the car with the OTC valve spring tool, an air compressor, and a hose to go in the sparkplug holes. Again, its not rocket science and you don't have to strip the motor down.

As for results, I have Comp Cams XE270AHs. They are what people refer to as Comps "Stage 2" cams. I'm not sure how they compare to VT Engines Stage 1 and Stage 2, but to give you an idea my car has:

- C&L Plenum
- Accufab 75mm TB
- Mac LTs
- Trubendz o/r X-pipe (bent by Ray Charles, will probably get replaced)
- Comp Cams XE270AH cams
- Comp valve springs
- Magnaflow catback w/Spintech mufflers welded in
- Steeda CAI
- Steeda UD pullies
- Dynotune with Pro-M software/chip
- 290hp/~300tq

My car did fine with 19# injectors. I have heard though that somewhere around 300-320RWHP they will "max out" and you will need to go to 24# injectors. It is supposed to be better to have a larger injector acting like a smaller injector than vice versa through the tuning. Also, IMHO (and they're like a-holes everybody has them), I would take a dyno-tune with a good chip or reflash any day over one of those handheld tuners. Take it to someone that has done hundreds of cars and knows what they are doing. It would be fun to learn all the parameters, but I'd rather have the peace of mind that someone that knows what they are doing tuned my car. Not saying you aren't capable of learing it by any means, but how many times is it going to take to get it right? I'd rather be out driving it and having fun instead of playing with my "little plastic box with buttons and a cord".

Cams are the way to go N/A. . . .I'm looking into the Comp XE274's for this summer. I will be doing the install and honestly if you take your time and pay attention it's a pretty simple deal. They are on the aggressive side but with the future mods I want to do they will be perfect.

Nickthegenius, if I were to try to install cams, my car would never run again. I'm positive on it.