Is It Worth It?

rangerboy101

Active Member
Oct 11, 2011
310
20
28
Inwood, WV
Right now I'm running a TF Stage 3 cam with some 1.6(or 1.7 I honestly forget) rockers and GT40's. This cam is just too much for my liking. I wanted more of a street car, while this cam makes it unbearable to drive in town and only makes power on the top end which is useless to me. Is it worth my time to switch it from the Stage 3 to the Stage 2 and have a cam with more mid range power? I shouldn't have to do anything other than just swap the cam right? Or will I have to do some spring swapping? I honestly have no clue if it has different springs in it or not. I'd assume it does because of the rockers/cam. Also, I'm not stuck on the TF Stage 2 cam. I've just heard good things about it.
 
Untouched GT40 heads....I'll assume stock intake since you didn't state otherwise? I'd drop all the way down to a TFS Stage 1 cam (or equivalent) if I were you. Especially if in town driveability is your main concern. You aren't gaining any of the benefits of a larger cam than that with those heads and a stock intake.

Just straight up swap the cams. Don't worry about springs. It's better to have too much spring, than too little.
 
I love my TFS stage 1 with my P heads and ported Explorer intake. It has a nice lope at idle and the power band is great, but drives like the stock cam. I've received many complements on the idle sound, even from Chevy guys:nice:
 
I'm thinking I'll do the Stage 2 cam. I've been liking everything I've been reading about it. And it looks like it'll work with all of my other equipment.
Again….too much cam for your set up, but it seems you’ve got your mind made-up despite what you’ve been told, so good luck. I hope the choppy idle is compensation enough for all the low speed driveability you're going to loose and high end power you aren't ever going to realize because the rest of your top end won’t support it.

Harsh…maybe, but it doesn’t make it any less true. :shrug:
 
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Lol your attitude doesn't help any. I'm new to all this stuff(obviously). Why the Stage 1 over the Stage 2? What's the limiting factor with my setup that makes the Stage 2 too much?


Ignore Brian, he's our resident angry Canadian. Picture being born on the border of Canada, staring across at what could have been and pinning at the fact God seems to hate you.

Moving on, to benefit from an off the shelf cam as aggressive as the tfs stage 2 you would need a much freer flowing setup i.e. heads and intake. When choosing a cam imagine it as the heart of the engine and you wouldn't want a heart that is too small or too large or you won't function properly.

The lift and moreover the overlap of the stage 2 is too aggressive and COULD hinder performance. The stage 1 would benefit you some, but in all reality it is a perfect compliment to the whole top end kit that trick flow puts out which is heads, cam an intake. Meaning its good for a 300+ RWHP combo... Not a 230+....
 
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Lol your attitude doesn't help any. I'm new to all this stuff(obviously). Why the Stage 1 over the Stage 2? What's the limiting factor with my setup that makes the Stage 2 too much?
lol....if you thought that little bit I just gave you was attitude, you'd better turn off your computer now. This group in here will eat you alive. :D

That cam has too much lift and duration for stock heads and intake. Great for a choppy idle and top end pull (with the right top end components), but it'll feel lazy on the bottom end with what you're running. Not much better than the Stage 3 you're running now. Sure you'll experience decent pull in the mid range until your car falls on it's face up top because you again run into issues with to small head/intake combo that won't allow the cam to stretch it's legs like it was meant to. You'll run way out of engine before this cam even starts to want to make power.

This cam wants compression, gears, heads that flow 170cfm or better and an intake that'll flow well over 200cfm. Heck...even a little added displacement would do that cam some good.

Let me ask you....why "don't" you like the idea of going with something more reserved, that's better suited to your engine? Are you under the mistaken old hot rodder belief that the rougher a cam idles, the more power it makes? Are you afraid you'll leave power on the table? You do realize that overcamming an engine is as bad, if not worse than undercamming one, right?

Comp makes some nice grinds too. But again...keep it small.

Just to give you and idea. I just bought a Comp XE274HR for the engine I've got on the stand. It's feeding a 10:1 331, with ported GT40X aluminum heads and welded/ported Explorer upper and lower intake....and even those are a little on the small side for that much cam and engine. And it's very similar to the Stage 2 in profile.
Ignore Brian, he's our resident angry Canadian. Picture being born on the border of Canada, staring across at what could have been and pinning at the fact God seems to hate you.

I see what could have been and thank my lucky stars which side of the line I was born on. All that inbreeding....all the cholesterol generated from having "biscuts n gravy" with everything….Obama did this to me…Obama did that….Whaaaaa. No thank you. I'll settle for just pounding cold ones and throwing yellow snowballs at you from the comfort of my igloo thank you very much. :canada:
 
Let me ask you....why "don't" you like the idea of going with something more reserved, that's better suited to your engine? Are you under the mistaken old hot rodder belief that the rougher a cam idles, the more power it makes? Are you afraid you'll leave power on the table? You do realize that overcamming an engine is as bad, if not worse than undercamming one, right?

It's not that I don't like the idea of going with something more reserved, I just don't want to leave any power left out. I don't want to go through the troubles of changing cams and end up putting in a cam that's hurting performance. Not to mention, I'm only 18. I don't know anything about cams! Haha which is why my purchases are based mainly on what I read and what you guys tell me.
 
With gt40 iron heads, the cam selection is only going to affect you a couple of hp either way.
What's the difference if the car makes 265rwhp or 260rwhp?
Me personally, i like the E for mild setups. But the stage 1 should be just as good.
I certainly would not be putting the stage 2 in, unless you want to do this project a 3rd time.