i found a few different cams between milzy and wot-tech that have peaked my interest. my question is, is it worth it to cam a 3400?? the one im heavily considering is the "strip performance" cam from wot-tech.com. but if anyone has any input please voice it now

 

its not worth that heavy of a cam unless your doing other mods, the street strip or MPG cam are good for a stock motors more less, springs and pushrods may need to be changed too, however, you wouldn't see the full potential till you did exhaust and TB. if you want even more getting your heads ported will free up more power. you may also need a slight tune to the street strip, mostly just increasing you on throttle full map. if you have any other questions, 60dv6 is the place for your answers.

 

just looked at the specs, the cams are pretty similar, not much lift, but as you can read, there is a large improvment over stock, so you will see a noticble difference, and you will or should probably change your LIMG anyways, so whats throwing in a cam? and a timing chain? its good measure Email Ben @ WOT-Tech and ask what he thinks, and whats reccomended to be changes for both cams. I would imagine you would be pushing the HP from 10-25 at the crank from the cam, and when your motor is rated for 175 HP, thats alot lol

If you go with the MPG cam, you wont need to do exhaust and TB. but if you put in the street strip, theres no point if you dont upgrade other things.

 

I know the guys on the 60* V6 sites would poop a brick to hear this- but I really don't think so. I've only seen one 60* V6 make any decent power NA (outside of a 3.4 DOHC engine which is obviously a totally different ballpark)- just like the 3800 NA engine's.

You're super limited in that you have very low displacement, 2 valve heads that aren't really designed to be performance oriented, and an engine that has never really been designed for big NA power in any aspect (exhaust manifolds, intake manifold, etc).

Personally, doing all the work of a cam install for 10-25 hp at the crank, just to get you to a stock 3800 NA level seems like a big waste of time. Personally, I'd say if you're looking for a big power boost- I'd be looking at boosting your engine, or doing an L67 swap.

Because I know if the 60* fans see this, they'll flip- here is my disclaimer statement- the 3800's don't do any better, even with crazy NA builds- many of them still put down little more than a stock boosted 3800 (L67) does. I'm just trying to save you from getting into a money pit like a lot of the 3800 NA guys got into- they'd do a wild cam, realize they need to get the heads ported to match, stick in stronger springs and a better timing chain due to the higher rpm levels, do the intake spacer and ported TB to get the air in, stick on some headers to get the air out, get a full pcm tune due to all the major changes, realize that the cam pushed their powerband up a good bit and have to stick a higher stall converter in so the engine is more peppy out of the hole- and then look back and realize how much money they've spent and how they're only putting down an extra 10-20 horsepower at the wheels over a stock 3800 supercharged engine. I imagine its even worse for the 3100 guys starting at 160 hp and the 3400 guys starting at 180 hp- you're talking about gaining 20-40 horsepower to even get to where the 3800 guys were starting at.

 

agreed^^^ for the work your going to do your better off saving the cash and swapping for more cubes and some boost or just some boost.

 

Theres a guy running 275 WHP on almost all stock internals with boost... just cam and springs are the most parts changed. of course everythings ported.

If he's looking for just a little more pep out of the car, a cam is worth it, if you see doing a CAI and exhaust and getting potential power gains, spending the $700 on parts for a sweet sounding car, and 25+ hsp, not to mention better fuel economy, its worth it.

i'm going to be spending around 2 grand on my motor with a goal of 280 crank hsp. and with the parts i'm adding for extra strenght is because i dont want to ever pull the motor out.

But i'm not arguing, you guys are more so right. it is a money pit, but what car isnt? maybe all you need is one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9XAC...layer_embedded

 

That's why I said NA, and was saying he needs to either boost his current engine or do an L67 swap for a drastic power gain. What is the highest WHP for a 60* V6 naturally aspirated? As I said above, the record for most 3800's NA- even in the most heavily modded setups were barely above a stock L67, and less than a basic bolt on L67.

But a CAI and exhaust can be done for dirt cheap- $700 on a cam, not to mention the labor difficulty is no small thing. Not to mention, $700 could almost buy you a L67/4t65HD swap. I paid $1500 for a complete totalled 98 GTP years ago (whole car, powertrain and all). I imagine it could be done for $1500 today as well, if not cheaper (especially if he already has a 4t65e and just uses that- so just buying the engine and wiring). So you're talking a $700 cam adding 25 horsepower, or for just over double that adding 60 horsepower and having the ability to add 120 horsepower (300 total at the crank) with just minor bolt ons for well under another grand.

 

There was a member here who was very active about 2-3 years ago named David (Z34Phoenix) who made power in a 3400 DOHC with out a supercharger set up.... he was the only one who really ever made good power out of one. It can be done, but the easiest thing to do is build a 3800 and a good transaxle to go behind it and put that in!

 

i was more or less trying to gain a few hp. i have the means to do it i just wanted input from the mcf staff......as usual . not sure what the plans are yet. i contacted ben from 60dv6 and he told me just the springs, pushrods, and cam need to be replaced for that particular cam.

 

Thats a different engine IMO- the 3400 SFI that the OP has is more similar to the 3800's in that it only has 2 valves per cylinder, and a single cam in the block.

I definitely think the 3.4 DOHC's could make good power NA- but there was never really the aftermarket to back them up and GM canned the engine pretty quickly too which didn't help the aftermarket either.

I'd love to see a ported heads, bigger cammed DOHC engine with a much higher rev limited, then adding some custom tubular log manifolds feeding a nice single turbo. I bet that would be a blast to drive...