should i buy the e cam?

quesion.................who here has gone to a higher lift cam and NOT lost some low end power? Is this not what comes naturally with adding more lift? My old 93gt had E303, old style Performers, GT40 intake, 1.7s, exhaust, 24lbrs, 73maf, and 4.10s.....it went 12.60s with 1.60 short times(consistantly). I loved the E cam on that mild combination, and I don't think that anybody can say that the E cam doesnt sound great at idle. Gaskets are cheap and changing a cam in one of these cars is a breeze.....I say go for it and form your own opinion, it's not like you'll put it in, not like it, and pull it back out. If nothing else, I garantee you'll love the idle.........IMO
 
speadfreak said:
quesion.................who here has gone to a higher lift cam and NOT lost some low end power? Is this not what comes naturally with adding more lift? My old 93gt had E303, old style Performers, GT40 intake, 1.7s, exhaust, 24lbrs, 73maf, and 4.10s.....it went 12.60s with 1.60 short times(consistantly). I loved the E cam on that mild combination, and I don't think that anybody can say that the E cam doesnt sound great at idle. Gaskets are cheap and changing a cam in one of these cars is a breeze.....I say go for it and form your own opinion, it's not like you'll put it in, not like it, and pull it back out. If nothing else, I garantee you'll love the idle.........IMO
I understood it is not as much the higher lift as long duration that hurts the bottom end torque.It moves peak power and torque higher.The stock cam has 204 degrees @.050 and the E cam has something like 220 degrees(intake and exhaust).That's a big part of the reason the stock cam helps delivers great low end torque.My Comp Cam XE258 custom grind has .512 lift (with 1.7rr's) and 206/212 duration and it preserves virtually all of my bottom end but gives me a little more top end.

Usually by now the alphabet cam haters would have flooded this thread by now.I think they are getting tired of answering this question.
 
speedfreak - go here ( http://www.wighat.com/fcr3/ ) open all tabs and read if you want to understand how cams do what they do.

First, the custom cam gurus would likely tell you there's not much that you can generalize about when it comes to cams. Having said that, I think they'd also tell you that, no, you generally will NOT lose torque by increasing lift with no other changes.

Topdown has an example. My engine is another -- I run a VERY mild custom cam similar to topdown's with slightly steeper ramp rates. My peak lift with 1.7's is .535". My goal - and we achieved it - was to make better than stock torque/power from 1500 rpm all the way to the power peak (4900 on my set up). That's what we did. Extremely torquey down low - the car will pull from 1100 rpm in 5th gear UP HILL without hesitation and routinely gets 25-27 mpg on the highway w/3.73 gears.

By itself - bigger peak lift isn't a guarantee of more torque or less torque -- it's all about the entire combination.

And I grew VERY weary of the idle of the E when I had it in mine. But what do I know -- I'm old for crying out loud. Actually I had exhaust system limitations, and the E was a very poor choice for my set up and my performance desires. Buddy Rawls did a custom which works wonderfully and achieves what I wanted. I sold the E -- and the fellow that bought it has since also sold it and gone with a custom. I'm convinced there's just one E cam which everyone passes around. Looks like it's gmohanva's turn....
 
Stock 91 bottom end, Y303 FRPP heads, 1.7's, 73mm ProM w/19's, 65mm FRPP t/b, Explorer intake, FRPP shorties; 2.5 duals w/H-pipe, no cats, no egr, no air injection and very mild Buddy cam.

Have to laugh - everyone else is posting about 60' times, peak HP, trap speeds, etc, and when I'm ordering the cam from Buddy I'm like 'I want a smooth idle at 700 rpm with at least 20" of vacuum, can't have peak torque any higher than 4000 rpm, can't have peak power any higher than 5000 rpm, has to have gobs of torque as low as 1500 rpm, trying to get really good gas mileage, etc.' Peak power? Ahhhh - I don't care about peak power. I just want a big ole flat, wide torque curve. When I take people for a ride -- I don't get on it in all 4 gears. I take it down to about 1400 rpm in 4th gear - and just mash the gas.