cam selection

[Forsaken502]

Yeah unless the block is a 5.3L Vortech block from a late 90's or 2000's vech you can't run the GM factory hydraulic rollers in it, there's no place to bolt the spider down to keep the lifters from rotating in the bores.

I think your best bet is to call Comp Cams or Edelbrock and see what they recommend. They know a lot more about cam seldection then some of the people on this site, myself included.

Personally, I think this cam is pretty wild for a street machine. With that much lift running flat top pistons you might end up having the pistons slap the valves, but they will be able to tell you for sure.

 

[monte olrac]

You will need the complete retro roller set up lifters & cam, you can not use the 305 lifters unless you want a really exspensive mess on your top end. remember you you will need a composite or brass gear on your distributor also, i would go with the composite since it last much longer and make sure you get the right cam button and wear plate. I just put a howards retro roller set up in my car and i can't keep the tires from spinning and i love it, so the moral of the story is research research research! get the right parts the first time and you'll be happy with the out come. with that cam you should pull pretty good from 2000-6500 rpm

 

[megaladon6]

just a double check, this is a 327 block right? not a 350 that's been destroked or something like that?

Yeah unless the block is a 5.3L Vortech block from a late 90's or 2000's vech...

.
but isn't the 5.3 an LS block? which would preclude you from using anything but the LS style lifters.

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

As was stated earlier, you can not use the factory roller lifters in a non-roller block. Many good machinist have tried but it costs more to adapt them than a roller style block would cost, if it could even be done. Lifter bores are taller and you'd have to somehow mount the spider that holds them in.

The Camaro in the youtube clip isn't mine (I wish it was!!!) but I have emailed him. He said it runs just fine as a daily driver. Remember, that cam, which is smaller than your's, is also in an engine that is 56 cubic inches bigger than your's. It would absolutely sound good but you'd also need some better gear to keep it in the power band. If you wanted to run the TPI it could be done but not in stock form. PCMforless.com can do some wild tuning for LSx motors and they said they can tune my combo. I'll get a safe start-up chip from them but final tuning will be on my shoulders. I might suggest running the carb while you do some research on EFI. You can check out www.thirdgen.org and there is alot of info about both TPI and tuning/chip burning.

Another note on roller cams. A cam cut on a billet core will need a differant dist gear. You want the dist gear softer so you wear it out and not the cam gear. Comp Cams presses on a cast iron dist gear so you don't have to mess with changing out the dist gear.

 

[custom442]

I'm very concerned that your mechanic doesn't know what the hell he's doing. 175cc vortecs are maxed out at .5 lift, even if you have the 206cc intake runners, it maxes out a little above .5 (which I'm nearly positive you dont). So you've not only overcammed yourself but you've done so by about 2-3 cams over where you should be. And yes this cam would help on the top end, problem is you cant use it (at least very long) with your stock heads, even if retro-fitted. The other problem is you'll need an 750-800cfm + carb, large full length headers, some real nice flowing heads (i.e. not vortecs) and a single plane manifold - perhaps ported, to even see any real life results with this cam. Otherwise, stepping it down a few notches will give you more useable tq much better for your application. Check out something with no bigger than a .510/.520 lift and 230/236 duration @.5 lift. This would mean a cam in the 270s. Hope this helps