Best cams?

[sjgYFZ200]

Hey i got a 91 eclipse gs. I gotta replace the head gasket and im wondering what the best engine mod to do while the head is off. Im thinking of replacing the cams, but from your experience what is the best company out there? How much horsepower is gained from a cam anyways? -Thanks.

 

[Bastard1g]

Non turbo? What other mods do you have? 5 speed or auto?

 

[sjgYFZ200]

Its a turbo, front wheel drive 5 speed. There is no other mods on the car. Maybe cams arnt the best mod to put on first? what is? Im not hoping to make this car completely modded just a few to make it respectably fast but still a reliable everyday driver.

 

[herostar]

For starters get a metal head gasket and arp head studs. For the 91 you will need 12mm studs (which I conveniently have for sale )

 

[sjgYFZ200]

How will that gain power? I got a fel pro gasket set today but i havnt gotten the studs yet...

 

[clownface]

Get some HKS street cams, i think there called 264's. A good headgasket and some APR studs wont give you power but theyll be able to take more then the stock stuff and prolly last alot longer.

 

[rarson]

In my opinion, the 264's will leaving you wishing that you had gotten 272's. At the very least, I would go with a 272 exhaust cam even if you go with a 264 intake, but there aren't really many driveability issues with 272's. Do a search for 264's and 272's and I think you'll see that most people that went with 264's wished they had 272's, and most people with 272's were glad they didn't get 264's (because they didn't experience anything bad enough not to want them).

The thing with HKS cams though is that they are relatively generic grinds. I would also look into Crower, many users of their bumpsticks like them. And then there's always Webs. I know most people will tell you not to get Webs, but the profile of the set that Road Race used to sell is actually pretty good. Some of the Webs had a problem with flattening out, but I heard that that was limited to a single production run. Mine have not gone flat yet, with about 6000 high-rpm miles on them. Another problem with the Webs is they seem to come out of the box off centerline. So you really need cam gears with them. I'll tell you right now that my Webs were ass right out of the box. Once I put cam gears on though and adjusted them, not only did I get good vacuum but the car pulled a lot harder. Definitely made a huge improvement in the breathing ability of my car (almost 35 lbs/min at 20 psi on a small 16g with an otherwise stock 2g head). I think Road Race had somewhere close to 30+ hp increase on a 16g car with Webs.

There's quite a few choices out there and a lot of them seem to have plusses and minuses so do some research and get some opinions and hopefully that will help you choose the best cam. Keep in mind that at your stage, cams aren't really the best mod but if you're pulling off the head anyway... well, my motto is "Might as well while you're in there..."

 

[sjgYFZ200]

ok thanks for your help.