Have been looking for a cam for my car for a little while now, and heard about something and was curious if it was true. I bought a set of springs from a guy and we were talking about our cars. He told me that its possible to put an electric water pump on your car and do a few other mods to run a regular sbc cam. I know the valve trains are similar, but was wondering if there is any validation in this?

 

For your unvented optispark, any SBC cam would work fine. It's the vented opti where you need the deeper/wider pilot hole for the opti and a longer dowel pin (easily modified).

 

Pretty sure it needs to be step nosed too. 87+...I think, don't have that stuff infront of me.

-Dustin-

 

How does the retainer plate fit over a Gen 1 cam, without the step?

 

OK so what I'm hearing is that I could run a cam for say a 95 Silverado and it would work with no other mods than a water pump? I got an email from a guy about it and he was talking about cam thrust? Just curious if anyone has any hands on experience with it i guess?

 

Not sure why you would want a cam from a Silverado to begin with...

A different water pump wouldn't be necessary unless you are completely changing the timing set to not have the water pump gear provisions. And if you are doing that you are probably getting rid of the optispark as well, which sounds a little more in depth than what you are going for here.

IIRC- any cam for a factory roller SBC should work since it should have the 'neck' on it for the factory thrust plate. Since you have the dowel driven opti and not pin you shouldn't need the longer pin.

 

Sorry I should have specified. I already have a cam for a truck. Its a 268 adv. duration and 214 at .050'' intake side. Not sure about any other specs without looking them up though. I was going to run this cam and it would fit that year model truck.

 

Don't sound right!!! Check the specs. of these two cam. before you do the swap. I can't imagine that there would be any noticeable difference between the stock cam. and the truck cam.

 

Why you would install a stock truck cam instead of something specifically engineered for the LT1 is completely beyond me. Something tells me you aren't replacing valve springs or doing a tune either...this must be a backyard build. The reason you don't see people doing this kind of thing is because there's NO benefit to it and it's a complete waste of time.

 

That's what I'm trying to say is that it is not a stock truck cam. I bought it for my truck, but then found a cheap motor and put that in it. It's not a stock cam, sorry for the confusion.