Cams or Nitrous?

BurningRubber said:

100 shot and call it a day.

Spray is too convenient and doesn't affect dive-ability or gas mileage when you aren't spraying. People do run a 100 shot on a bone stock tune. The biggest thing is using 1 step colder plugs (2 steps for a 125 shot and up is suggested), and keeping a clean fuel filter. As long as your engine is internally healthy as well as your fuel pump, a 100 shot won't be too hard on the car. I highly suggest a wet kit.

Cams are good and all, but for the price to gain ratio, it's pretty small. Figure $600 for cams, $220 for new springs, $xxx? for install, plus a tune, and without longtubes you can plan on 20-30rwhp depending on cam... but your choices are limited before you run into piston to valve issues on larger cams.

I wanted to cam my car, but nitrous is a cheaper initial investment and provides instant, very noticeable gains. I pay $32 to fill my bottle and when your just playing around with it, it'll last a while. Yeah, if you make a lot of track passes or spray it every day for the hell of it, it adds up, but so does using gas in that manner...

I'm running a bare bones 100 shot on my car. Using a wet kit, PSI gauge mounted on the bottle (within reach and view), no purge, no window switch, just one switch to flip to arm the system, and the rest is hooked up to a WOT switch mounted on the throttle body. No one knows I have spray if they aren't under the hood or in the trunk. I have the line covered where it peeks through the carpet and the arming switch would pass for some kind of audio or neon switch... Got my kit on sale, brand new for $416... add $32 to fill the first bottle and I instantly gained 75rwhp. Now I'm on the 100 shot and the car pulls like it never has before.

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BurningRubber said:

Take your time with cam selection. It's an expensive purchase only to realize you aren't happy with your final choice.

Comp 262's are a baby cam. They do make some power, but they have very little lope if that's something you're going for.

The Hitech stage 2 cams make GREAT power on a stock head, bolt on vehicle. They are among the few cams that can crack a 2v over 300rwhp without ported heads. However, they are fairly tame at idle as well, but definitely more noticeable than the 262's.

Keep in mind possible future plans for the car, as well as if you're willing to change out valve springs for the swap. Don't buy based on how a cam idles. If you did that, you'd end up with a Comp 278, have zero power below 4k and crash your valves into your pistons.

Also, whatever you do get, you really, really need to have the cams degreed to ensure they perform to their full potential, and even more important that they don't have piston to valve clearance issues.

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