Cams
You're not gonna get
much more than generic information on this page...I must apologize.
I didn't do my own cam work :)
My engine was burning
oil like mad and I didn't know what part to suspect. While talking
to Tim84NA, I was offered (by him) to trade my old heads to him
in exchange for his heads which had low use upgraded cams and
lifters. His engine builder did a valve job on the heads for $100
and I paid Tim my old heads and $150 for his set of heads
(w/cams/lifters).
After tearing apart my engine I sent my heads off to him and I
simply slapped in the "new" heads and thats my story.
My engine is not broken in quite yet, so I can't give you a really
good idea of what kind of power/redline I have now, but I'll get
to it someday...for now I can't hit the gas hard.
You should generally
replace many things along with your cams. Motorsport Auto suggests
(also to make money of course :) that you replace lifters, springs,
and lash pads...in fact, they void your warranty of their cams
if you don't.
The cams control the
timing of many critical engine operations, including valve timing
(exhaust and intake duration). Upgraded cams effectively change
the duration of these strokes and allow for higher redline and
higher HP. I am not too savy on all the reasons why, so I won't
attempt to explain it until I know a little more about it. From
what I can see, Motorsport has the cams, which are a regrind.
You must turn in your old cams at a core charge of $350...basically,
you're paying $169.95 to have a stock set of cams reground to
the new specs. You can purchase three grinds (and many others
from other performance sellers): 260, 270, and 280. 260 is a very
mild regrinds, 270 shifts your redline up considerably (about
500 rpm for every 10 degrees of extended duration can be
expected...stock
cams are 252/252. So you can expect a redline shift of about 1000
from 5500 to 6500 for the 270 grind (which is what I have).