Budget ls camshaft

There is so much information on ls camshafts, but I would much rather trust the experts here than random googling.

I am looking for a good camshaft to put in my 2005 lq4 6.0. the motor is in my 1987 supra with a t56 transmission. I want to use the existing rockers, springs, and pushrods. What is a good budget aftermarket camshaft that will keep the low end torque while giving a boost in power?

Sloppy Stage 1, 2 or 3? $260 and the dyno charts look good from everybody I've seen. From what I read you don't want to go much above .550 lift with stock rockers/springs.

Pretty sure the Sloppy stage 2 requires upgraded springs but it's probably one of the best performing all around cams available. 

There is a guy on the Sloppy Performance FB group that will regrind a stock cam to SS2 specs. Buddy of mine got one from him and it saved about $100 vs going with a new SS2.

I'm running a Summit 8719 in the 5.3 in my truck. 209/217 duration .550" lift, bought it in a kit with LS6 valve springs and new valve seals for a little over $300. Pulls strong from down low, idles fine at 750rpm with just a hint of lope, and pulls really strong from around 2500 or 3k rpm. Haven't adjusted shift points at all yet in the tune, so it's still shifting before peak power at 5500 rpm or so. I'm happy with it so far, it's pretty mild mannered. I intend to keep using my truck as a truck and wanted a cam with minimal compromises in drivability and low end torque. 

That being said, I think I'd go a bit more aggressive for your application, in a lighter car with the 6.0 and a T56. I think Texas Speed and Brian Tooley both offer stage 3 and 4 "truck cams" which are something like 216/220 and 220/224 duration, respectively, at .550" lift. I'd look at something like that.

In reply to untchabl :

I think pretty much anything worthwhile is going to require at least LS6 springs. I'd just budget for that, they're something like $60-80. 

What matters has already been said above.  Much of the advantage of a non-truck-specific cam is the extra 1000 or so RPMS you get out of it; stock truck cams go to like 5700 or so, then have nothing.  With stock springs, you'll likely get valve float with more RPM, which is not a performance improvement.  Additionally, consider the reality that you're going to have to change the tune in the PCM to get reasonable function out of different cam specs.  With a relatively light car, there is no reason to go sideways with a cam that won't make power to at least 6500, unless you plan to create part-time work pulling stumps with your Supra on the weekends . . .

I wonder if Sloppy is still in his IT job or if he hung it up to do LS's and social media full time.  

In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :

That's the cam I've ear-marked for me. Did you drive the truck before and after? How is it with the stock torque converter?

A 401 CJ said:

I wonder if Sloppy is still in his IT job or if he hung it up to do LS's and social media full time.  

Still doing IT. Has the time to do the rest because of the hours he works.

I have the tfs version of the stg 1 and it sucks on the stock stall converter in my suburban. I need a better converter. I also upgraded to the pac springs at the same time.

I dont know how much benefit youll get running stock springs.

If you decide to change stock springs, it opens it up. I like to stay under 230 duration on the intake and exhaust for a street car (maybe a little bigger because you have the 6.0). Ive seen over .550 lift on stock rockers and mostly without problems. I say mostly because one did spit its needle bearings everywhere. Just found them all and threw another stocker on it. The trunion upgrade is cheap piece of mind though.

If you are looking real cheap, you could always go the ls6/7/3/9 route. Last I looked some of them are super cheap through GM. IIRC there was a comparison dyno done with the stock cams in a 5.3 and peak torque never changed that much with all the stock cams, It just moved it upwards and resulted in way more hp. One of them was almost a 100 hp up over the stock 5.3 cam. You could probably find all the deets on google.

Definitely, definitely, definitely want to do valve springs and upgraded trunnions if not outright replacing the rockers.

You don't have the budget to NOT do them.  Valve float leads to some spectacular failures when a valve loses a head.

I have a stock LS3 cam if you want to pay for shipping.  It's a single bolt cam gear rather than the 3 bolt style though.  I will also have the cam coming out of my car at some point this winter.  It's 232/240 @ .050 on 110 LSA with .615/.615 lift.  It would be cheap.

I would suggest picking the cam first to suit your needs, but the chances that stock springs will be a good match.  Once you change ramp speeds and RPM ranges, it's hard to expect stock springs to do the trick.  If peak power with your new cam happens at 6000 and your valves float at 5700, you're not netting any benefit.

The LQ4 is also not quite equipped with the high compression to go too far with cam, but you have some breathing room.  I do know that an LQ9 with nothing more than Z06 cam and springs will do a pretty easy 425-430hp and still idle at 750.  Torque peaks a little higher than you might like, but it makes a very broad torque curve so there is more than enough from 2200-up.  Keep in mind that the LQ4 and 9 only differ in pistons/compression ratio.  They both have great heads.  They are actually LS6 ports with a larger chamber, so you have good flow to play with.

The Z06 cam would require springs, but the thing I'm not too keen about with the Z06 cam is the super-wide LSA at almost 118.  It's a 204/218.  I would think if you could find something in the 200/215 area with a slightly narrower LSA... say, maybe 114, you would have a wee lope at idle, but it should pull super strong from 2000-5000 and put peak power around 6000.  I would imagine it would also put you at or above 375, maybe 400hp.  It will require minor tuning.  It will keep trying to idle at 600 among other little fights it will have with known parameters.

Lots of folks rave about this Summit cam for about $250.  They gave it more duration, but basically kept a stock lift and slowed down the ramps a bit.  It is a compromise, but it lets you keep the stock springs.

Pick the cam knowing that you might have to budget for springs as well.

Factory rockers are super-rigid and totally fine up to 550-600hp, so no worries there.

Patientzero said:

I have a stock LS3 cam if you want to pay for shipping.  It's a single bolt cam gear rather than the 3 bolt style though.  I will also have the cam coming out of my car at some point this winter.  It's 232/240 @ .050 on 110 LSA with .615/.615 lift.  It would be cheap.

Thank you for your kind offer on the ls3 cam, as I will likely end up paying someone to at least help me install the cam, I only want do it once with my "forever cam"

I am interested in your take out cam, please shoot me an email when it comes out and if I haven't gotten one by that time I may be interested. Dream easy at gmail (no spaces).

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I would suggest picking the cam first to suit your needs, but the chances that stock springs will be a good match.  Once you change ramp speeds and RPM ranges, it's hard to expect stock springs to do the trick.  If peak power with your new cam happens at 6000 and your valves float at 5700, you're not netting any benefit.

The LQ4 is also not quite equipped with the high compression to go too far with cam, but you have some breathing room.  I do know that an LQ9 with nothing more than Z06 cam and springs will do a pretty easy 425-430hp and still idle at 750.  Torque peaks a little higher than you might like, but it makes a very broad torque curve so there is more than enough from 2200-up.  Keep in mind that the LQ4 and 9 only differ in pistons/compression ratio.  They both have great heads.  They are actually LS6 ports with a larger chamber, so you have good flow to play with.

The Z06 cam would require springs, but the thing I'm not too keen about with the Z06 cam is the super-wide LSA at almost 118.  It's a 204/218.  I would think if you could find something in the 200/215 area with a slightly narrower LSA... say, maybe 114, you would have a wee lope at idle, but it should pull super strong from 2000-5000 and put peak power around 6000.  I would imagine it would also put you at or above 375, maybe 400hp.  It will require minor tuning.  It will keep trying to idle at 600 among other little fights it will have with known parameters.

Lots of folks rave about this Summit cam for about $250.  They gave it more duration, but basically kept a stock lift and slowed down the ramps a bit.  It is a compromise, but it lets you keep the stock springs.

Pick the cam knowing that you might have to budget for springs as well.

Factory rockers are super-rigid and totally fine up to 550-600hp, so no worries there.

Amazing information as always Curtis, I have seen some cheap l33s recently, would you recommend swapping to the 799 heads at the same time as a cam change? Maybe with ls3 springs so I don't do it twice.

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :

That's the cam I've ear-marked for me. Did you drive the truck before and after? How is it with the stock torque converter?

So I did not drive THIS truck (95 C1500 extended cab) with THIS particular 5.3 prior to the cam swap (did the cam at the same time as the engine swap,) however I have driven a few stock 5.3 trucks to compare to. At idle it has just the slightest hint of lope, most people probably wouldn't even notice if I didn't point it out. From idle-2500 or so not much difference, probably a little down on torque here but I think you'd be hard pressed to tell without driving two otherwise identical trucks back to back. From around 3k on up it definitely pulls a lot harder, with no loss of steam on the top end.

Only have ~600 miles on it so far and the tune still needs a bit of work (running in speed density for now due to suspected issue with the MAF sensor and AFRs are in the 11.8-12.0 range in enrichment) so there should be power left on the table yet. Posted in the GMT400 thread that I thought the stock convertor was giving me some bog off the line with the cam, but that seems to be a symptom of the suspected MAF issue. Works great with the converter now.

In reply to Catatafish :

Biggest benefit of the 799s is going to be the bump in compression from the smaller combustion chamber volume. 

Furious_E (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Catatafish :

Biggest benefit of the 799s is going to be the bump in compression from the smaller combustion chamber volume. 

Yup, this.

Or you could get a compression boost from a snail-shaped, exhaust-referenced hairdryer 

You're at 9.4:1 now, so no slouch, and you're looking to keep things torquey, so I would say the benefit to 799 heads isn't worth the effort.  In my case, I took an LQ9 (which is just an LQ4 with flat tops) and put ported 243 heads on it so I'm at 11.3:1, but I'm going to be playing with 550hp with a 232/243 cam.  Once E85 becomes more common, I might play with a couple of those hairdryers and test the limits of the bottom end.  Different animals.  All of the heads we're discussing have the same basic ports, just mainly different in chamber size.

Take a look at this page for some results on an L59 5.3L with a Z06 cam stabbed in it.  The torque peaks relatively high, but still plenty of torque from 2200-up.  It makes 385 hp with nothing but a cam and springs.  You should expect a pretty easy 400-415 hp in an LQ9 with even more torque at a lower peak from the larger displacement.  The Z06 cam isn't the cheapest option, but I'm sure you can find aftermarket sticks in a very similar configuration.

The really nice part about the truck longblocks is that they respond well to just a cam because the heads flow a good quantity AND a good quality of flow.