Can you put a new cam in a mostly stock car without repurcussions? If so what are the restrictions and such I should stick with? Thanks.

 

Sure you can, but if you go too big you will have to change valvesprings (which I would do anyway) and get it tuned (which again I would do on anything other than maybe a gm cam). The only downside is you won't see full potential if you don't do the right mods. What do you mean by mostly stock?

 

By mostly stock, see sig.

Could you specify what you mean by "right mods" ? Thanks.

 

Well mostly freeing up the intake and exhaust which it looks like the only thing you would probably want to do to help it out is headers. If you get headers get some lt's or mids because shorties won't really help you much. The fipk does a good job of letting it breath since you already have the ls6 intake that is an advantage most don't have, and the cutout frees up the exhaust. So the only thing that would be a significant mod would be headers and of course a y-pipe to bolt up to them.

 

What kind of gains am I looking at after doing the cam with the mods I've got?

 

Well it really depends on how extreme you go. You wouldn't see as much of a gain from lt's with gm's hotcam as you might from say the TRex. If you have an idea about what most people make with a particular cam (most guys don't do a cam without headers) just take that number and subtract 20-30 and you will have a good idea about what you would be making at the rear wheels (those numbers are not from personal experience but based on research done on this site as well as others).

 

OIC. The search is on then. Thanks.

 

Just get the TRex and call it a day.....400+ rwhp on a nearly stock car.....drooool. Might suck *** as a daily driver though.

 

Why would it suck ***? Too easy to turn sideways...

 

Thats a HUGE cam. It wouldnt suck, but could you imagine rush hour traffic with that....that would suck.

 

I probably wouldn't bother until you can sink money into headers.

But as a recommended minimum for me and a SMALL cam, valve springs and reprogram, injectors I'm a tad picky about as well. So to me there is no half way, not saying you need shaft mounted rockers but bandaid mods looking for power just dont work IMO.

 

With an automatic and no other mods? I doubt it.

 

Yes, yes you can. I was one of those people that was told not to bother with a small cam (LS6) and that doing a cam without headers was pointless.

Without any tunning whatsoever and thru the stock manifolds my car picked up 28.4rwhp/8.1rwtq following the cam/spring install. The car idles like stock and picked up 3tenths and 3.3mph in the 1/4. Headers would greatly improve the cam gains but they aren't allowed in CA. With your mods and a small cam (LS6 or GT2-3) you would probably see better gains than I did (~30rwhp/10rwtq).

If you are not restricted by emissions you can go with bigger cams, but as mentioned before the bigger the cam the more important your exhaust setup becomes. You will also need to get a tune for your car.

 

'Preciate all the help guys. Im pretty new to engine mods and any help is appreciated. Its looking like Im gonna go with a Pacesetter LT setup along with a mid size cam. Im guessin that'll do the trick. Then its on to new gears and a stall.

 

Check ou tthis months issue of Chevy high performance. They have dyno runs with 3 or 4 compcams with 4 diffrent intakes(ls1,ls6,lsx and a truck). I was seriously impressed.