Which GM cam to perfect the L31?

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slowburb

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I have the 395 cam in my suburban. It is barely warmer than stock. It was a noticeable improvement, but it is not not a hotrod truck cam by any means. The ZZ4 cam isn't a hotrod truck cam either though.
 

sharpe.trey

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Longtubes, off-road y-pipe, and it'll either be a blowmaster or magnaflow out of the side in front of the axle, dual tail pipes.

Firm answer seems to be the 395 cam and you cant beat the price, if i were going to use anyother cam it would be this one.

DR. BUMPSTICK CHEVY GM 305 350 5.7 HIGH PERFORMANCE VORTEC ROLLER CAMSHAFT 465/470 LIFT

-fits Small Block Chevy engines 1987-2002 equipped with factory hyd. roller camshafts
-1200-5200 rpm range
STAGE 1

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L31MaxExpress

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If I were sticking with a GM cam it would be the SPO 357 HP 350 cam.

The SPO cam has a slightly more noticeable idle and takes a little more tuning to get right. That being said it fired up and ran well on the tune I was running with the 395' cam in my 0411 and was perfectly driveable. From off-idle through about 2,500 rpm you cannot tell a difference. From 2,500 rpm the SPO cam starts to wake up and by 3,500 rpm it pulls very noticeably harder. Where the 395' cam dies at 4,800 rpm the SPO cam screamed to 5,500+. The SPO cam knocked nearly a second off my 0-60 and probably about 2 seconds off my 50-90 times. I raised my WOT shifts from 5,150 to 5,500. Rolling along on the tollway on my way to work I had no issue merging over into traffic running 90+ with the SPO cam. Not that the 395' cam was a slouch but the SPO just ran that much better. As much as the 395' cam is an improvement over stock, the SPO cam is that much again.

For something slightly less aggressive the Elgin E1136 works well.

I put one of the Elgin cams in a 1999 Escalade with BBK shorties, 2.5" offroad midpipe with Thunderbolt cats added and a magnaflow catback. Ported intake base and Volant CAI. S10 converter and stock gears. Ran well on the stock tune but woke up alot more with a good tune. The Elgin cam likes being shifted about 5,250 rpm. Useable power is roughly 1,200 rpm to 5,300 rpm with the meat of its torque curve between 2,000 and 4,000 rpm.
 
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sharpe.trey

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Thank you very much for the response of the SP350 cam I've been waiting for somebody to answer with some experience about it...

Nice to know about the difference when discussing GMPP cams such as the 395 vs. SP350 cams can't thank you enough for hearing some feedback about it.
 

89GMCJOHN

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RAMJET 350 351 hp @ 5,000 rpm 403 lb.-ft. @ 3,600 rpm

246 256 431 intake 451 exhaust 109


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SPO 357 HP @5500 RPM ,407 LB-FT @4000 RPM with iron vortecs ,9:1

Cam specs -... 265 273 .473 .473 108

Camshaft Type (P/N 12677151): Hydraulic roller
Camshaft Lift (in.): 0.473” intake / 0.473” exhaust
Camshaft Duration (@.050 in.): 215° intake / 223° exhaust

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sharpe.trey

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feel like an LT1 fbody cam(maybe 1.6 rockers) while it's relatively stock(injector upgrade)...

if I were to go with some promaxx vortec heads the LE stage II cam looks good, I think that combo would be pretty damn amazing. Just top that off with a marine manifold and I would think that would be a pretty potent package...

on paper the promaxx beat the small port bowtie vortecs while also being cheaper....
 

slowburb

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I don't agree with a lot of the statements made here by L31whatever his name is on this board. It's not worth my time to discuss at length. 1.6 rockers absolutely will not equate to the same performance gain of a 1.6:1 rocker arm swap. The statements he made about camshaft LSA are just not true.
 

Supercharged111

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I don't agree with a lot of the statements made here by L31whatever his name is on this board. It's not worth my time to discuss at length. 1.6 rockers absolutely will not equate to the same performance gain of a 1.6:1 rocker arm swap. The statements he made about camshaft LSA are just not true.

AKA Fast305 AKA Fast355.
 

L31MaxExpress

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I don't agree with a lot of the statements made here by L31whatever his name is on this board. It's not worth my time to discuss at length. 1.6 rockers absolutely will not equate to the same performance gain of a 1.6:1 rocker arm swap. The statements he made about camshaft LSA are just not true.

The statement I made about LSA are completely true. Don't trust what I say look at what the experts have to say.

Also the Marine cam is honestly not worth the time or effort to open up a L31 to change to. Will always say in my experience that 1.6 full rollers make more of a difference than the marine cam. The only reason I ever put one in was I had wiped a lobe on a Comp cast core roller cam, the GM cam was cheap and it was a billet steel roller. I disliked that cam so much that the 395' cam did not stay in that engine a year.

I now run a 205cc intake port aluminum head with a 215/224 @ .050 roller cut on a 110 lsa with a 106 ICl. I make more power everywhere than I did before. By 2,500 rpm I am already ahead of what the old setup did and by 4,000 rpm it already has a huge gain over the marine cam. So it is not a high rpm, overcammed setup by any means.
 
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