Stock 304, Guide to choosing a camshaft

[greenfoam]

great thread....i just bought a cam to put in my 5l, so i can get some sort of power gain until i can afford the stroker and manifold...seems i got the right cam for a stocker, 214/214 and 112LAC with springs to suit, my question greenfoam, will it be ok to drive with the tune i got from you a few weeks back or will i need another tune??
cheers

I should drive OK I'll adjust the tune for you for not much once you have it run in so it's right

 

[ryno_vrx]

hey greenfoam what cam would you suggest for my 304 i'm keeping the stock manifold, atm i'm keeping stock pistons or as close to the stock ones as possible ( blown the budget .. ) but compression is getting raised to 9.2:1 and i'm waking on a raptor sc .
its my daily driver and gearbox has a 2500 stall and i dont want a aggressive cam
please help

 

[jimmyd17]

Thanks Greenfoam, I enjoyed reading this thread. Has definitely given me some things to think about, as I am ready to get a new cam, and plan to get one this week. (My engine is in pieces at the moment while I put new seals/gaskets everywhere, so its about to go back together with a new cam).

I really like the sound of the Wade 963A961A10 cam. I have pacemaker extractors already, and other than a cam, I have no plans for future mods. Keeping in mind, my car is running dual fuel (1 year old mixer setup), would this cam be suitable? As it stands, I get very good economy for a V8, which is good seeing as I do some highway trips. I don't want a cam that will put a huge dint in fuel economy. I am not so fussed when it comes to 1/4 mile times or dyno figures, but am interested in a good all round cam that can deliver good drivability with a stock stall auto, decent performance gain over stock cam without losing too much economy.

Also, will I get away with keeping my old rockers & pushrods? I numbered them all so I can put them back where they came from. I'll get new lifters obviously.

cheers,
James

 

[greenfoam]

James yeah if you were never to do another mod and plan to drive the car around alot that's the cam (or one similar) I would be getting. It would have a real good chance of better economy than stock. Whatever one you get make sure you paint it with some of that moly spray and also use some cam run in grease and even some crane oil addatives if you can find some, make sure the lifter bores are clean and that the lifters spin good etc. The first start up is pretty important

 

[jimmyd17]

cheers, thanks for that. i'll talk to wade this week and see what I come up with. I'm 99% sure i'll go with the 963A961A10. Today i removed the old camshaft and lifters. The cam didn't seem to wanna budge no matter which angle i turned it to, so I just turned the engine upside down cos I had it on a stand, so all the lifters would fall out of the way with gravity. then it came out!

broke my oil pump trying to take it off but a new oil pump cant hurt lol

 

[victtor]

good fourm 304 efi

HI Greenfoam this is a top post starting how to get more grunt out off 304 efi im in new zealand lot people dont seem to have much to do with the 304 5litre anymore due to ls1 gen3 getting more plentiful, & cheap keep up good work we like, the true good old 304 injected 5 litre powerplants
victtor
oamaru
new zealand

 

[jimmyd17]

I ordered my cam from Wade Cams today. I quoted the "963A961A10" as the part number and checked the specs they have on that. Its actually 204/214 and they are doing it at 110 LSA for me. I'll get it within the next couple of days. Planning to put the engine back together on the weekend I am looking forward to seeing what this cam is like. I am still learning the basics of different grinds of cams, so I think this will be a good learning experience. I'm planning to retain my old rockers, pushrods and valve springs, but i'll get new lifters for the new cam.

thanks again for the writeup Greenfoam

 

[greenfoam]

I'd go for some LT1 springs on that cam but you can do that at a later date if you decide you want to rev it a bit. But I've total confidance it'll be a good cam for you look forward to hearing how it goes too. The specs in the wade catalogue add up to 203.5/213 but I guess it can be 1 degree different if they want. On Wades cams the A10 in the part number means 110 LSA too. You could ask for 963A961A12 and have it ground on 112 LSA for example. If at all possible grab a can of that molyspray I have a picture of in my thread and spray the lobes and (base only of the lifters) and let that dry before you install them. Also grab a bit of moly lube off Wade. When you start it up run it at 2000 ish rpm so it has enough revs to splash oil on the cam aaaaaaand if the headers get red hot your timing will be too retarded so adavnce that up till they stop getting so hot

 

[grnvs]

Hi Greenfoam, I was just after a little advice, I have a vs manual with a crow stage 3 package (4503 cam). Its stock apart from 3.7 diff gears and you can notice the loss in low down torque but it goes good with revs up of course!

I want to rebuild the engine, but i havnt decided on my exact combo yet. I want to build the engine so that it has good low down torque (at least stock or better) for off the mark acceleration, but still be able to rev nicely up to redline (5500rpm, no need to go higher) and i want to put a 3.08:1 diff back in because i do too much highway driving.

I was thinking either the 4503 cam with 10:1 comp at 304, or even perhaps same deal but 355? But I was a bit worried the cam might still be too big with stock banana's would a crow 4502 suit better for what I'm after,

Cheers.

 

[greenfoam]

I did some tests, 10:1 will definatly give you back same or better than stock down low. But I'm a little concerned it will ping before you get full timing at full throttle so the potential might not be all there, It'll be a close call. But for sure at light throttle and so on it would be just great. The cams a little over the limit for the banana but going back to the 4502 and 9.5:1 is more or less the same result up to 5500 so since you allready have the 4503 might as well keep that one. It would suit a 355 better than the 4502 also. Are you running the crow memcal? there's alot of power left on the table with those too