im looking at a car right now with a XE 227/233 cam w/ hardened pushrods and 1.6 rr. The car has 73k on it and i was wondering how that cam would effect the cars engine durability? The car seems maintaines great and running very well. DO you think having a cam like this would effect how many miles I could get out of the engine? Think it could make it past 120k or so? thanks !

 

after reasearching a little bit mroe i guess this cam is fairly popular for having a bascially stock engine (heads,intake) because it will still work pretty will the stock engine. and its a cam that makes a lot of power in the lower rpms correct? so as long as the rpms are kept low the engine should be fine for higher mileage, does that sound right?

 

thats the right thought process..that's a relatively calm cam, so i am sure that you are fine. Do you know if the person replaced the lifters while they were in there?? Having a little bit lumpier cam will put some more stress on the lifters, so it would be good to know if they were replaced. Even if they weren't, i still wouldnt worry about it. As long as the oil pressure is where it should be and the motor is relatively quiet (the 1.6RR's will cause some more noise) i'm sure you are fine..enjoy her man!!

trav

 

thanks for the response thats what i was hoping to hear. im not sure about the lifters i will make sure to ask him, thanks again!

 

Low rpms are the key. Check sig. Along with frequent 67xx/68xx rpm revs mine lasted uhmm.....not long. Not sure how high you can spin that cam but mine was still makin' power at those rpm's. If you have the self control to keep the revs down you should be ok. but for every 100 rpms you go past redline you are increasing the load on your engine bearing significantly, especially the rod bearings. Many high mile motors just can't take it for long if you are beating it.

Good luck.

 

luckily my engine with 85,000 miles on it has withstood a few 6,800 rpm passes at the drag strip. There have been a few times where i lost control and accidentally let her get up that high, other than that i try to keep my shifts to 6500 or so...although my cam will happily spin all the way to 7,000 if i were to feel so inclined. Basically, keep it under control and you will be fine. You may not be as lucky as me.


trav

 

My 96SS has had an LT4 HOT cam, good heads, and several mods since around 15k miles. Car now has 112k miles and still runs pretty darn good!

 

Depends on the use, I have a 544/555 lift cam and the springs are shot after two years. In fact they went out earlier than that just not to sure when. These are the Comp Cams 987's. I do alot of bracket racing and no street action at all. The car is constantly reving in the 6400-6500 range. I would suggest checking the springs at least once a year to make sure everything is still in order. What you do want is to have the valve bounce on you and destroy the valve seats because the spring lost it's seat pressure.

 

If the oil pressure is where it should be (45ish warm cruise, 55ish WOT), that motor will be fine if you take care of it. You are taking a chance though in buying a car with that big of cam in it. Not that the cam is that big, but it's enough to spin the motor to 7000 and still make power, so the previous owner could have very well done that many times or none at all. If you buy it, run a couple treatments of www.auto-rx.com through it and switch over to Mobil 1 0W40 oil or Castrol German Syntec 0W30. Both of these are about the best oils for LT1's and have yielded the least wear in oil analysis samples. If the motor is in good shape, you should be able to get it to 120k and past and still be able to spin it to 6800 or so if you're **** about maintenance and get a good dyno tune for it. Quite a few people have 100k+ LT1's with big cams like the 306 that are holding up. Be smart about the way you drive it, and it shouldn't take an early crap on you.

Jason

 

yup that was my concercn as well, but the cam has only been in the car for 2k miles. yes valve springs were replaced. passed emission which i think is quite an accomplishment. so i think things sound very good.