my father just bought an all original 69 z28 and he is looking to do a cam change on it. he wants something that has a good lopey sound to it but will allow him to keep the original manifolds on the motor. he does not want to have to do a lot of valvetrain changes, he's really just interested in doing a camshaft change and, if necessary, maybe a lifter swap. can someone give me some insight on what would be a good camshaft selection? or maybe can someone give me a good first gen reference? he is not looking for a camshaft to make the car some sort of ball bustingly fast car, he really just wants the sound. thanks!

Nick

 

If he just wants the sound, its real tough to beat the original Z28 camshaft. With this particular engine, you have to be very careful with the cam selection. It has a 3" stroke and not a lot of bottom end torque if any. The 302's forte is RPM, and lots of it. It was designed specifically for this purpose and needs to be cammed accordingly.

If it were me, I would buy a reproduction 302 Z28 cam and lifter kit from Crane.

On another note - where was his Z built? Norwood or Van Nuys?

 

You could go radical and put in a Stock Eliminator cam. Low lift (<.500), massive duration, won't idle below 2000 rpm. Definitely give that rump, rump sound.

 

do you guys have any good 302 online references youd like to share? also who makes the eliminator cam? it sounds like the eliminator might be a bit much if it wont idle below 2k. whats the duration on that cam? around 240?

he wants a GM camshaft by the way. forgot to mention that, woops!

 

Check out www.Camaros.net it's the best 1st Gen F-body forum on the net. Here's the link to the forums:

Camaros.net forums

 

You don't want a stock eliminator cam for the street. They are *really*hard on valvesprings because of the near 'square' shape of the lobe. They are specialty cams ground that way because in SE you cannot run more valve lift than the factory camshaft for the engine/year/application you are racing. Typically they are over 250 @ 0.050" but ground on 104-108 lobe seperation angles and have zero manifold vacuum at idle. They also don't last very long because of the aggressive lobe design, but then again they are trying to get every nth of HP out of the combo with limited valve lift. Idle speed is around 1800-2000 as 87iroc posted. Not very streetable.

Use the stock GM Z28 camshaft. It was designed for the 302 and its 11.5:1 compression ratio. If you do not understand camshaft design and its many variables along with the unique nature of the 302 engine, you will run into some serious problems getting the engine to run properly if you select the wrong cam.

 

There was also the GM 'offroad' cam available, which my 302 has. Want a choppy idle and one sweet sound go for that if you can find one. It really only increased torque on a stock motor slightly, but hp gains were decent and it is a GM cam.