Cam Choice for Gen VI 454

[Shwoody]

Hello all,

My name is Woody and I'm from Colorado Springs. I recently sold my 96 K1500 and purchased a nice 2000 K2500 crew cab short bed with the 7.4l engine. I love the truck but it's going to need some work.

When I purchased the truck, it had a real faint, slow tick sound coming from the engine. Almost sounded like a solenoid clicking under the intake. After driving it around for a while, the sound got much worse. I determined that it's the exhaust lifter on cylinder 2. I have a feeling the guy I bought it from knew this and dumped some sort of miracle in a can product in the oil and got rid of the truck.

I like the truck enough to repair/upgrade it. I'm anticipating a cam replacement but maybe it'll just need lifters. Haven't pulled the intake yet.
There are a couple cams I'm considering.

Mainly, the Lunati Street Master kit:
Duration (Int/Exh): 264/270; Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 206/213; Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .468/.485; LSA/ICL: 112/108; Valve Lash (Int/Exh): Hyd/Hyd; RPM Range: 1000-4500

The kit is around $850 give or take. The Lunati phone rep said that I could get by without adjustable rockers because it's such a mild cam.
Has anyone tried this cam? I'm wondering if it's so mild that it's not worth the time and money.

The other cam I'm considering is a Howard 120226-12.
Lift: .510 / .527, Duration @ .050: 209 / 213, Centerline: 108; RPM Range: 1200-4400

This one seems to be a little more aggressive. The cam itself is about the same price as the Lunati but I don't think Howard offers an entire kit, you have to buy everything separately.

Appreciate any advice.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

I have a fairly mild flat tappet Lunati Voodoo cam with 1.6 rockers in my 88 350 that's about the same specs as your proposed kit. IMO you'll be happier with a bigger cam and a tune.

 

[Shwoody]

I have a fairly mild flat tappet Lunati Voodoo cam with 1.6 rockers in my 88 350 that's about the same specs as your proposed kit. IMO you'll be happier with a bigger cam and a tune.

Sounds like good advice. I want the truck to still have towing and hauling capabilities but maybe a slightly larger cam would be more worth my time.
That Howard looks pretty good.
Comp has a decent looking one too but their kit is so expensive.

 

[Schurkey]

These are both step-nose hydraulic roller cams? And you'd be using OEM-style hydraulic roller lifters with the dogbone retainers?

Price at $850 for the Lunati kit seems WAY high--as if they were including aftermarket "retrofit" hydraulic roller lifters.






If this were me, I'd yank the noisy lifter out, examine the roller- and the cam lobe-and if they're usable, I'd pop that lifter apart for cleaning and inspection. Hydraulic lifters are tiny oil filters. They fill up with sludge because the oil inlet is plenty large, but the oil outlet is microscopic. Dreck gets in, can't get out. No amount of miracle solvent is likely to TRULY clean-out the bottoms of the lifters.

'Course, if the lifter or lobe is hurt, you're looking at some new parts, and maybe you just want a new cam no matter what.

 

[Shwoody]

These are both step-nose hydraulic roller cams? And you'd be using OEM-style hydraulic roller lifters with the dogbone retainers?

Price at $850 for the Lunati kit seems WAY high--as if they were including aftermarket "retrofit" hydraulic roller lifters.


If this were me, I'd yank the noisy lifter out, examine the roller- and the cam lobe-and if they're usable, I'd pop that lifter apart for cleaning and inspection. Hydraulic lifters are tiny oil filters. They fill up with sludge because the oil inlet is plenty large, but the oil outlet is microscopic. Dreck gets in, can't get out. No amount of miracle solvent is likely to TRULY clean-out the bottoms of the lifters.

'Course, if the lifter or lobe is hurt, you're looking at some new parts, and maybe you just want a new cam no matter what.

I pulled the intake last night. The lifter and cam lobe are both pretty scored up. I was hoping to get away without having to change the cam but I had a feeling they were both toast. Oh well.
Never had a lifter go bad before. I expected things to look smoother but they were worn pretty rough. Guess that's common?

That $850 Lunati kit had lifters, springs, pushrods, timing set etc. Just about everything besides the rockers. Seemed pretty reasonable to me. A similar Comp Cams kit was over a grand. I was comparing the Lunati cam to the stock one and decided it wasn't worth the marginal difference. And the next size up from Lunati was more of a street car cam than a truck cam.

I ordered a Howards cam this morning. Should be here in a couple weeks. I bought the cam, springs, timing set, and push rods from Howards. Comp stamped steel rockers, ARP rocker studs, and OE style Melling lifters. The lifters looked to be about the same as the Howards branded set and were a lot cheaper.
All that stuff and the associated gaskets from Rock Auto cost slightly over a grand. Not thrilled about spending that much but it'll be fun to get some more power out of the truck.

 

[Schurkey]

Step-nose cam?

 

[Shwoody]

Step-nose cam?

Yes sir

 

[ZRoe]

Any updates on the install? I'm interested in upgrading my cam and replacing my lifters as well and was very interested in your results.

Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

 

[Supercharged111]

My truck was the same way when I bought it, but the belts chirped so bad you couldn't hear the cam tick. I went with a Schneider Racing cam, slightly bigger than the Howard cam and I tow plenty with it. These big motors just eat the cam up. You should consider a tune, I can easily get you squared away with that black box or a 411 since I'm in the springs as well.

 

[Shwoody]

Any updates on the install? I'm interested in upgrading my cam and replacing my lifters as well and was very interested in your results.

No updates yet. I stuck the cam in the other day and then decided to just rebuild the whole engine. Figured I got this far, might as well make sure the whole engine is solid. The truck has 155k miles on it and almost everything is original. I'll add my results to this thread when everything is back together. Might be a little while.
I have no complaints about any of the items I purchased though.

My truck was the same way when I bought it, but the belts chirped so bad you couldn't hear the cam tick. I went with a Schneider Racing cam, slightly bigger than the Howard cam and I tow plenty with it. These big motors just eat the cam up. You should consider a tune, I can easily get you squared away with that black box or a 411 since I'm in the springs as well.

Never heard of Schneider before. I'll check them out. That's good news though, glad I didn't go with anything smaller than the Howard's then.
I was going to get a tune from Black Bear Performance. Is a 411 a better choice?