97 C1500 5.7

[Erik the Awful]

You currently have a roller cam with roller cam provisions. The Melling 22301 is a flat-tappet cam. That's a bad recommendation. Same for the L-79 cam.

Call a cam company. Tell them what you have and what your goals are. They can spec you out a cam that's far better than rando interweb cams.

I called Lunati for the cam in WCJr, and it's an excellent cam for my purposes. It was not a cam I would have found - I think it was in their back catalog.

 

[best97obs]

Alright how much would one of those cams be?

 

[best97obs]

And I'm also willing to change out the hydraulic lifters if I do get s flat tappet cam

 

[Erik the Awful]

If you want cheap, stick with your factory Vortec cam and put 1.6 self-aligning rockers on it.

A good roller cam is $300, but that extra $200 buys an awful lot of peace-of-mind when flat-tappets are pooping the bed regularly during break-in.

But if you're looking for a cam recommendation, all I'm willing to say is call a cam company.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

And I'm also willing to change out the hydraulic lifters if I do get s flat tappet cam

You're running a roller cam now, right? STAY AWAY FROM FLAT TAPPET CAMS LIKE THE PLAGUE!

 

[L31MaxExpress]

And I'm also willing to change out the hydraulic lifters if I do get s flat tappet cam

I would not recomeend a flat tappet cam for any build now unless one uses the $$$ GM hardened foot lifters. The lifters are over $200 a set now if you can find them. Then you have to change the timing set and pushrods as well.

The cam I am having ground now, Lloyd Elliot and I worked together to spec and have ground. His knowledge far exceeds the typical cam help guys. Call Lloyd at Elliot Port Works and he can get you set up with what you need. Personally I do not run the stock springs now even with a stock cam. The stock springs did not have much valve spring pressure when they were new and they lose a lot of spring pressure as they age. Go with a Comp 787 retainer and LS6 spring at a minimum or better yet a Pac 1218 spring. It is not expensive to make the Vortec heads handle 0.500-0.550 lift without machine work.

I have a pair of Vortecs with maybe 60K miles on them, that I can open the valves to atleast 0.450" on with my bare hand, because the spring pressure has dropped off so much.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Yup. I put the LS6 springs, 787 retainers, and umbrella seals on WCJr's heads and was able to handle a .515" lift cam. Without that setup a Vortec is limited to .480" lift. Note that your factory EFI might not be able to handle that big of a cam without tuning and injectors.

 

[best97obs]

Alright thanks yall. I'm willing to call a place to get a cam but my budget for all this right now is about $400 I can maybe go over a bit. I was just looking to get some good power with $400.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Then don't go down that road. Put some 1.6 lifters on it and call it good. Buying a thumping cam leads to all kinds of stupid expenditures. I ended up having to ditch my TBI and go to a Sniper, and that $#!+ sure ain't cheap.

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[L31MaxExpress]

On the shoe string budget, will get more power out of adding 2.5" pipes into 2.5" thunderbolt metallic core cats and a magnaflow dual 2.5" in/single 3" out muffler than you will a cam. The stock long block is capable of making 300-320 hp the way it sits but it is choked by the stock exhaust, stock log exhaust manifolds, and intake systems. The order of mods on a Vortec in terms of bang for the buck. Complete Exhaust, Headers, Volant intake, then Tuning. A hotter cam needs a higher stalling torque converter to take advantage of the new torque curve and that typically leads to the rabbit hole of having to rebuild the 4L60E. I would not add a cam until after a torque converter. A good converter will give better gains in acceleration than changing the cam.

Just slapping a cam in a stock engine with the restrictive factory exhaust and intake is not going to gain you much other than a lighter wallet, less average power and less fuel mileage.