I'm also in college, have a 96 Z 6 speed, just did k&n cai, pacesetter lt's, hotcam+valvetrain, true dual w/x-pipe dumped bullets, and a hurst billet plus, when i was driving it around last weekend testing, I didn't notice much of a mpg loss, bone stock i got 18/27, now i get about 17/26, that might add up to like 50$ extra gas $$ per YEAR of driving. honestly man it seems you are in the EXACT situation i was, do it, you wont regret it, its a nice cam that makes it sound better, perform better, and isn't radical enough to kill your mpg's or driveability. i love mine

 

I am a college student to and have had a hotcam in my car for almost a year now, gas mileage is about the same no big difference. My car was on the dyno on sat and put down 288/307 with cutout closed and 297/317 with cutout open, but the car is in need of a tune badly it has a tune in it now that is WAY to RICH, so I will be getting a new dyno tune soon. All my mods are on my cardomain.

 

the hotcam is a great cam for what you are wanting. But the milage on the car is high on the car. Big CHANCE you will spin a rod bearing or a cam bearing after install. I got about 15 miles out of my bottom end after cam install and it spun the rod bearing and it only had 105,000 miles on it and well maintained.

 

I hate stories like this. It's what has kept me from putting a cam in for a long time, but I'm finally ready to say, what the heck. A cam is going in this year.

I have 92k on my motor, maintained extremely well since new, and figure that if it has an issue after 11 great years, then I have reason for a nice FI motor with forged internals. It still would suck to have it happen though, so sorry to hear that.

Dan

 

Changing a cam with the kind of mileage you have would be a crapshoot on the bearings, regardless of how the vehicle was maintained.

I did the cam at 90,000 miles and changed my lifters and timing set. After inspecting the original lifters, I could have probably just re-used them they were in such good shape (same for the timing set), but I had new stuff so I threw it all in anyway. At 150k, I would definitely change your lifters and timing set. Roll the pushrods across a flat surface as well and see if they're true. I had a couple that had a hairline wobble to them so I changed them out also.

 

im not trying to discourage you from the cam swap. just letting you no that there is more of a chance to spin bearings on the higher milage motor. I indstalled new lifters and timing set also but it still let go. Yes on the bright side i did build a all forged motor now.Just think you should be aware of all the possibilitys if you should decide to do the cam swap. If you have a 2nd vehicle deffently go for it. If not i would wait until u have one or the money for a rebuild if the unfortanate happens.