I have a pretty clean 79 L82 vette that Id like to put a performance cam in... question do I need to take out the motor or is there enough room to take out the cam without removing the motor? Also any suggestions on the type of cam? I want something that gives decent performance but is still streetable... Have an Edelbrock Torker manifold and Edelbrock carb on it.... will also put headers on it when I do the cam.... Any thought would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Greg C
It may be easier to remove the engine to do it. Otherwise you have to remove the fan shroud, radiator and AC condenser. You may also have to lift the engine some for the cam to clear radiator bracing.
There are a lot of cams out there that match your requirements. Go to a local race track and talk to some of the racers about them.
PDDeen
It may also be good idea to put in new bearing inserts and align bore.
The L82 is already one of the best street cams out there. What you are probably seeing is poor head flow and lousy exhaust scavenging due to the single exhaust and catalytic converter. The Torker intake is really not set up for much more than the L82 cam, as its power range is not on the top end but in the middle.
The L82 had .450 in lift intake and .460 in lift exhaust, with an advertised Chevy duration of 284/278 Int/Exh. However, Chevy used the long ramps in their numbers so this actually comes to duration of 284/278 Int/Exh at .008 inches and duration of 222/222 Int/Exh at .050 inches. Many cams are rated at .050 so you can use this to compare.
A cam of .460 in lift and about 260 deg duration is available from Crane and others and develops more torque for more seat of the pants feel. You might like that better as the L82 has not so much low torque. This will give decent stop light take off power and enough to embarrass many cars, however, if you run up on a modified import (ricer), you will get dusted completely. Of course, without knowing what you really want, then it is hard to advise. Duke or SWCDuke from the NCRS tech board and Corvette Forum always recommended the LT1 cam, however, it is a solid lifter cam. For most that is too much hassle as you have to adjust lifters periodically.
If you want more stop light guts to blow away the imports, you need a lot more than a cam. If you want to be able to blow away grandpa in his Camry, then a .460/.460/260 deg cam should do fine. You might look around for what is in the .475 to .490 in lift range, but you are going to be giving up some bottom end and probably not being able to use it without work on the heads (replace with modern heads that flow instead) and exhaust work.
Speed costs, how fast do you want to go? And then change all in an organized and balanced fashion. A lot of cam and no head or exhaust work ends up with worse than what you have right now. A lot of head work and no cam or exhaust will improve somewhat but only a fraction of what you should have.
As to changing the cam, it is roughly 20 inches long. You will have to remove the radiator and the air conditioning condenser, which is hard. First, it is pressurized and you don't just disconnect and let the Freon out, not at today's prices and not if you are environmentally conscious at all. Not to mention it is illegal. So you have to maneuver around to get it pulled forward which is hard to do without damage.
Realistically, you are ahead to pull the engine, do some head work, change cams, and enjoy.
Good luck.
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