I did a search, and found about a million threads about the hotcam, but didn't find all the answers I needed.

I'm going to college so dont have a bunch of money-plus just did about $1,000 worth of work improving my car (repaint front bumper, ls1 brakes, and soob eibach pro kit w/bilstein hd's)

Is it worth it to do the LT4 hotcam if I dont do long tube headers? How much difference will I see in gas mileage? And is this a good cam for a daily driver? My car only has about 50k on it right now-but I'm am putting approximately 300 miles/week on it now

thanks for help,

Erik

Edit: the point about me being broke is b/c I know at this point I WILL NOT have enough money to do both this and long tubes

 

Sure it's worth it. You won't take full advantage of the cam on stock manifolds, but there will still be a significant gain.

With a good tune you will see roughly the same MPG values for daily driving. Maybe 1 or 2 miles less.

 

You certainly don't have to have LT's for the Hotcam to be worth doing but I would recommend going with any type of header first before doing it, weather they are shorties, mids or LT's. I would bet you would see about the same hp gains by just doing a good set of shorty headers as you would installing the hotcam on stock manifolds. I've read about several people who were really disapointed by the hotcam while still on stock manifolds.

Also you could pick up a good set of used shorty headers for anywhere from $200 - $400 here. You are going to spend at least $700 when it's all said and done just installing the "$500" Hotcam kit, unless you really cut corners on the install like reusing the timing set and not getting any programming.

 

Agreed, get your exhaust figured out first. Then do the cam.

Of coarse, you can to the cam first, but the exhaust will hold it back significantly.

Dan

 

Don't forget that the real benefit of the HOT cam is with the 1.6 rockers so if you don't have those already, then add that to your expenses list.

 

I really appreciate all the replies. Looks like I'll start saving-if I'm going to do it I want to make sure its done right