PRErequisites for CAMS?

for the price of trick flow heads and cams and all the other little crap you could get a used vortech kit, and make lot more power..

CatmanJJ said:

What about Trickflow heads and a set of cams? What kind of power are people with this setup putting down? I thought they had a matching intake manifold as well.

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I'm also curious what kind of power one could make with the TF heads, cams, and TF intake manifold.

dvtr-, are you wanting to do a built shortblock? The best way to make a lot of power NA is with a lot of RPM, which a shortblock will allow for. If you don't want a built shortblock and a blower is off the table, how about nitrous? Anything up to about a 125 shot is relatively safe.

As far as which cam you select, you really need to match it to the set of heads you go with. A set of cams that gives great results on a stock set of heads is not necessarily the right profile for a ported set of heads or a set of trick flows. Your ideal LSA, duration and ICL will change dramatically depending on the flow capability of your heads, so do your research and choose wisely. Know this, cams give dramatically better performance on ported heads compared to unported heads.

Also, springs go hand in hand with performance cams, I cannot stress enough the need for high performance springs. Just because a cam doesn't need an aftermarket spring, doesn't mean you shouldn't get one. Keeping a stock spring on an aftermarket cam can be disastrous, you are changing the net lift and the lift rate the spring must undergo after who knows how many cycles in the stock profile. This is a huge shockload and is certainly the most common cause of stock spring failure on aftermarket cams. One thing most people don't know about valve springs is that they can actually contribute power, especially power after the peak by eliminating valve float.

As far as bolt-ons, the only things that make any significant power are full length headers, intake manifold or plenum, and exhaust mid-pipe.

CAI, Throttlebody, MAF, and mufflers really make no SIGNIFICANT power at anything near stock levels and will gain you nothing but a lighter wallet except (MAYBE) at all out extreme NA. Anyone telling you differently is selling something. The stock equipment really is that good despite the reputation it sometimes gets saddled with.

Technically gears make no power, but they are undeniably the BEST performance bang for the buck you can put on your car. People will say this ratio is best, or that one is best, you need to do your own research and figure out according to your mods, and a dynograph which sets of gears are best for you. Generally it will be between 3.73 and 4.30 but may be something else.

Hopefully this will put you on the right track. If you need any other assistance, just post up.

^^^ great info.. thank you.