just wondering what the gains would be if I were to swap in some crower stage 3 cams. also wondering if v-tec cams work in non-vtec heads? i did some searching but didnt come up with a conclusive answer.
vtec cams do not work in non-vtec heads
from crower’s website:
Take it as you will:
Stage 3:
Stage 2:
As I have learned, cams will help a lot. But just cams won’t do the trick. You will need to do the homework with the ones you get. In some cases you may have to upgrade the fuel system and the head internals. The list goes on… I found out the hard way with my crowers. But your gain will be noticable with supporting components.
If you are going to swap cams, make sure the cams you choose work well with the compression ratio you plan on having. The more horsepower you want, the more aggressive the cam you need, and the higher c/r to run them, and more supporting mods to aid them.
If you want to keep your stock 9.2 c/r and just drop in some cams for power, then Crower 403’s or similar Colt regrinds would be a drop in affair. But you will have to keep your stock rev limit due to the limitations of the stock valve springs and weak rod bolts.
A cheap way to raise your compression would be to install some PR3 b16a pistons. The compression will be 10.8-1 and they are the same stock bore, and can be had very inexpensively. With these pistons you can run 404’s that will yeild around 160 whp with a good tune and still be streetable.
Crower 404’s do require upgraded valve springs and other supporting mods. For tuning you will need adjustable fuel pressure regulator and a socketed ecu with the tuning program of your choice. Adjustable cam gears are also helpfull with tuning, but not absolutely necessary. But to take advantage of the power of these cams, you will need to raise the redline until the power drops off on the dyno. To raise your redline, you will need ARP rod bolts and a balancing job on the rotating assembly, and even with these improvements, I wouldn’t rev past 8K rpms.
This is all fuel for thought, and others may dissagree with half of it, but you should do some research for yourself and see how far you want to take things. Sorry about the novel, I kind of got on a roll…
I am thinking bout purchasing crower 62403-2. I know you need the springs and retainers which i plan to get. Is there anything else to get to get it to work properly? And by adding cam gears , will it improve anything?
ok not to jack the thread but heres my big question, everyone recomends the 403’s if your not going all out because the 404’s make their power way past redline, well how come in the dyno the 404’s make more HP at every RPM point even down in the low and still added alot of power while maintaining the stock redline? because i was looking into these but plan on never going past 6.9k rpm and have been trying to decide but after seeing that dyno they diddnt even up the compression!
I agree with you Black, guess they all want a smooth idle or something. I will be raising my compression so the 404’s will be excellent, and with proper tuning the idle will be raised a bit, but just fine. I have heard a few people on here lost low end power with 404’s and stock compression, but then again I have heard of way many more with increased power across the board. I choose to believe the latter. Tuning probably is the key factor.
Most people are talking about reaching the FULL potential of the cams and since they still make power past redline, they advise building the lower end so you can go high in rpms to take advantage of the full potential of the 404’s. But I see no reason not to run these cams even with a stock redline, power is power, torque is torque. So what if you could make more at a higher redline, you are still making more power at the stock redline than if you went with the 403’s.
thats exactly what im talking about, im right with you i dont plan on spending the $1000’s just to rev an extra 1000rpm i rather keep stock redline and still spank GSR’s every day
They tell you to use the least cam needed because 1. it saves fuel to have a smoother idle and less aggresive cam 2. In general more aggressive camse make power higher up, and require more compression to do so. The 404s are a diamond in the rough. If you believe those dyno charts from the people that made the cam, by all means go for it.