One thing I have never done to a car is install a cam. What should I expect If Im about to install a cam. Ive heard I might need to reset my pistons and rods, I need new gasket sets, new rockers and springs are mandatory, etc... And is this a real pro job or should I attempt it. I have tools galore at my disposal, just sometimes not the time. If I would take it to a professional about how much would I be looking at in a city with a lot of auto biz competition for install. Thanks in advance

 

Well its hard to do because you have to tear apart the engine, and have to work through the wheel well.

 

Ok so it is possible to do without lifting the engine, thats great to know. I dont mind too much about having to play tetris with the engine

 

where you locate?

 

El paso, tx

 

never mind i thought you were from the midwest

 

I think this job would be easier to lift the engine out of the car, meaning take the hood off, disconnect it from the transmission, take the motor mounts loose, move anything else out of hte way, disconnect the fuel rails, and just use an engine lift and pull the thing out of the car.

I'll tell you what I told someone else on here. You can't just change one single thing on your engine. So if you change the cam, you change the timing of the engine, but now you need to make sure your heads can allow enough air into the engine to actually get any power in. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. If they don't, and you change them... well now maybe your throttle body doesn't allow enough air in to take advantage of both your new heads and cam, so you change it out. This picks you up some, but not that much! Then you change the intake. Still not much. So the problem must be the exhaust, so you install a set of headers! Now you're making power!!!! Oh darn! The transmission couldn't handle it!! Now you're having your transmission rebuilt! We can take it now! But wait, you took it wide open and as it turns out, maybe your crank couldn't handle that!! So you beat a crank to death (or destroy a harmonic balancer, one or the other), and so you put in a crank kit. But wait! Those rods can't take that much power! So then you sling a rod through the side of your engine block!

I've been to the drag strip many a times, talked to many a guy and seen several cars get destroyed. The only way to really build an engine like this is to figure out how much money you've got and are willing to put into the car, and buy all new parts, pistons, rods, crank (maybe the stock crank is okay, maybe just a different harmonic balancer), heads, cam throttle body, and intake. Make sure each part can handle the amount of horsepower you are going to be putting down, and don't forget that transaxle!

 

Its a fairly labor intensive install- you do it through the passenger side wheel well, but it does involve a lot of dissasembly and such.

Is your car still NA? If so, I'd suggest doing a supercharged L67 top swap first- a little more power gain- but a lot more potential for not much more money.

I have no idea what you mean by 'reset'. You don't touch the pistons or rods in a cam swap.

Rockers are not mandatory- there is no reason to replace the stock rockers, especially looking at the normal cams available. Springs would be a good idea- especially the more aggressive you go on the cam.

I'd budget a full day for your first time. Its really not that terrible, but just in case you get snagged on something. Just make sure you have all the new gaskets and new timing chain before you start.

Thats actually a lot more work- and you end up disconnecting all the fluid lines and electrical stuff. If you just do it through the wheel well, you don't mess with any of that.

Please explain- you can install an aftermarket cam with the same cam timing as stock. Many have some cam advance ground in, but you can buy the rollmaster chain and sprocket setup and put it back to stock cam timing if you wish.

Not all 3800 cams require you to change heads- only the biggest cams truly 'require' it due to excessive lift. There are actually some cams (say the ZZP XP cam) that are designed to maximize performance with the stock heads.

Obviously more mods = more power, but thats the same with any engine. Its not like you wouldn't see any gain with doing a cam but not headers- you just need to map out your goal so you don't waste money on stuff you end up replacing later.

I hate to say it, but this isn't going to happen. If he's NA, even a cam'd setup isn't going to do much over 220-240 hp to the wheels, the stock crank, rods, transmission, and balancer will take that no problem. In fact, he should never have to worry about his stock crank, rods, or harmonic balancer as I've never seen any destroyed on a 3800 from 'too much power'. There are turbo 3800s running triple the power a cam'd NA setup makes, and even they don't have problems with these parts.

I disagree- if a person only had $5000 to spend on mods- the only aftermarket crank and rods for a 3800 is the stroker setup that would probably eat up almost all of that budget alone- and you'd end up with a little tiny power increase over stock. On the 3800s, there is nothing wrong with throwing all kinds of mods at the stock bottom end- especially NA.

 

Great post bumpin. I agree completely with everything you posted.

 

What I was trying to say is that he needs to check to make sure everything can handle the power before just throwing money at one single part. I've never gone internal, I don't know where the weak links to this engine are.... I'm surprised the stock rods can take that though, Chevy must have put some strong rods in this car to take that much power without being modified.... but if you say the stock bottom end is strong enough, then I'll take your word for it.

I didn't think about a cam with the same timing as stock, excuse me! He needs to make sure he gets a cam that has the same timing though!

I still have a hard time seeing a whole lot of power coming from just one single modification though! He may make some power, but in order to make the most efficiency out of that cam, I'd think he'd have to go through alot of the top end!