New Camshaft

[BenKey]

I have been subscribing to a number of magazines (Truckin', Sport Truck, Street Trucks) for a number of years now and have read many articles on what people have done to their trucks.

 

I seem to recall quite a few with the 6.0L engine that they had upgraded the cam in it. I plan to eventually install a supercharger in a year or so, but was wondering what kind of power gains would come from just installing a mild cam? For now anyway.

 

I don't know a thing about them. In the articles, I believe these trucks had been supercharged and had the cam changed also.

 

Does anyone else out there plan to do this with their SS? If there have been other posts about this, sorry. Not much returned on a search. If you do plan on doing or know enough about them, steer me the right direction. Like I said, don't know squat about buying one and what all the specs mean. I take that back, I think I know what they mean, I just don't know how to apply them.

[SSilverado60]

IM going to use an 02 LS6 cam with a power adder of some kind, procharger or turbo. This cam is probably the cheapest one you will find and should be a good cam for a FI application. You could have a custom blower cam made but that will cost a lot more to do

[BigTex]

I'll do a cam change pretty quickly. Actually, I already have the cam, just dont have the truck yet. You dont have to have a blower or anything to take advantage of a cam. Its a great mod, but obviously, you have to break into the engine. That turns off some people.

 

By changing the cam, you are altering the way the motor takes in air and fuel. The stock cam is biased with low end performance, emissions, towing, idle quality, mileage, etc.. It will fall off in the mid 5000 rpms. By installing a larger cam, you can make much more power, usually in the upper rpms, at the sacrifice of some low end. You can get a "mild" performance cam that gives you better throttle response, more upper rpm power and good low end. These will usually scarifice a little of the emissions and idle quality, but not too much.

[Krambo]

If you are a little leary on a cam change, you may wish to look into changing to some different ratio roller rockers. Price will be roughly the same. Although you won't see huge increases in power.

[BenKey]

Personally, I'm not leary about any of it. My wife may be. My problem is lack of knowledge. I just don't know enough about cams to make an informed decision. I would like to do a cam and roller rockers, if they are even made for the truck?

 

I'm sure they do, I just don't really know enough about what I'm looking at when I'm out searching the internet. Unless the results said it were for a LQ9 motor or GM 6.0L, which none of them do, I'm lost.

 

Add-ons are easy, including s-chgrs. But, when you get inside the engine, you gotta know what you're doing. Kind of waiting for someone else in here to do it and see what the results are. Then I'll be able to make a decision based on their experience.

[BigTex]

One of the best sites for learning about the GEN III engine is www.ls1tech.com. Spend some time looking in the internal engine section. They have a truck section thats better than most. The great thing about these motors, almost all parts are interchangeable between motors. A cam made for a LS1 will fit in a LQ9, a 5.3 or even a 4.8. Results will be different per each motor because of the difference in displacement and compression. The cam I have, I bought used and it was originally run in a LS1 Fbody for a while.

[BenKey]

The cam I have, I bought used and it was originally run in a LS1 Fbody for a while.

Are you running this cam in a SS?

 

Thanks for the other info, will have to do some reading.