Hello everyone (; I just turned 18 and I get my degree and diploma next month you know what THAT MEANS!! I can finally dump all of the moneys into my car now that I won’t have to balance school and work.Now I can get a full time job.. I’m in the process of a motor build since the oem rotating assembly gave up! My question is regarding the bc 280/280 camshafts! I was wondering besides the recommended springs and retainers what else I need to do to make these cams work on first start up , and what I mean by that is I know bigger cams make the valves stay open for longer and was wondering if these cams would possibly have any chance of being big enough to maybe smack a valve without machine work to the head and all the other fun.. basically I’m trying to ask if they’re striaght drop in cams after I do the upgraded springs and retainers.. I really assume they are considering I haven’t heard anything else about it but I want to make sure and double check! I know they’re going to need to be degreed Forsures but that’s gonna be for when the car makes it to the dyno! Pardon my ignorance thanks for your time! Here’s a picture for fun

You will want to check piston to valve clearance and degreeing the cams is a good thing to do to ensure the locating pins were drilled in the proper spot in relation to the lobes. Dont assume anything with cams, especially when going to something as large as 280s

Will have to check valve to piston. I have ran BC cams in the past and they usually do require being degreed. But I also check what my max adjustment advance and retarted is on both cams so I know when I play with the overlap. Last time I spoke to GSC they recommend not even degreeing the cams. Just install straight up then play with them on the dyno. But from my expierence GSC are usually close out of the box just depends on machine work done to your motor. What is the Goals for the car? If you haven’t purchased the cams yet I would recommend others over the larger BC cams. I ran the BC288’s and ended up going to a GSC s2 and enjoy them much more.

jed344 said:

Will have to check valve to piston. I have ran BC cams in the past and they usually do require being degreed. But I also check what my max adjustment advance and retarted is on both cams so I know when I play with the overlap. Last time I spoke to GSC they recommend not even degreeing the cams. Just install straight up then play with them on the dyno. But from my expierence GSC are usually close out of the box just depends on machine work done to your motor. What is the Goals for the car? If you haven’t purchased the cams yet I would recommend others over the larger BC cams. I ran the BC288’s and ended up going to a GSC s2 and enjoy them much more.

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Good info guys thanks, I haven’t bought the cams yet and might ultimately change my mind on bc’s I might go with something a little more pricey, I was going for bc’s because they’re cheap and they have good reviews for the most part but with how slow the motor build is going I might be able to fork out some money for a better cam , I want the car to make 600-700whp, it was running like a raped ape on stock internals but now with my build I have Manley h beams that are going to be cryotreated (ik some people don’t even make it passed 600 from what I’ve heard with these rods) probably a wiesco 9.5:1 piston , arp main studs ,kiggly main girdle , 2g oil pick up since my 6bolt pickup got murdered, new oem oil pump, twin disk,I already have 2150cc fics and a 340lph pump on e85, plan on going to dual 255’s or if I can dual 450’s and goin to -8an feed and factory return.. I like to go overkill with the fuel system so it’s all there if I ever need it haha, and a built head springs, retainers,cam,2g or revised littered with ever ones would like to live at 8700ish rpms. And defintley a bigger turbo my gt3582 won’t make the power I want I’ll probably go over to a precision 6262 or a 6466. Just trying to make a healthy pissed off street car since when I only made probably 400-450hp people lost their shit on how fast the car was o

ThunderChild said:

You will want to check piston to valve clearance and degreeing the cams is a good thing to do to ensure the locating pins were drilled in the proper spot in relation to the lobes. Dont assume anything with cams, especially when going to something as large as 280s

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And how would you go about it if say the piston to valve clearance is no good? I’ve watched jafro have this problem and his just grinded deeper into the valve reliefs in the piston (they were stock pistons) . As far as I’m concerned the head still have a lot of life in it as far as machining goes, say I get all the specs for the cams and I take them to the machine shop and they know what pistons I’m going to run and they know what machining they’ve done to the head and block would they be able to tell me if the piston and valve clearance checks out?

YungTlon said:

And how would you go about it if say the piston to valve clearance is no good? I’ve watched jafro have this problem and his just grinded deeper into the valve reliefs in the piston (they were stock pistons) . As far as I’m concerned the head still have a lot of life in it as far as machining goes, say I get all the specs for the cams and I take them to the machine shop and they know what pistons I’m going to run and they know what machining they’ve done to the head and block would they be able to tell me if the piston and valve clearance checks out?

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If your PTV clearance is too tight or there's interference with all things considered, then deeper valve reliefs or creative cam timing (degreeing) would be the only methods I've used. You could look for a shorter compression height piston, but that's stepping over dollars to pick up dimes...

I do believe the recommendation was made for gsc s2's, though either sets of these cams should have enough clearance capability as they're commonly used, but you still want to verify before ruining valves because someone said they'd be ok.

Going with a more realistic cam choice is a better decision all around. I'm still on stock cams because I don't need fattys, and I like my idle normal, but to each their own.

ThunderChild said:

If your PTV clearance is too tight or there's interference with all things considered, then deeper valve reliefs or creative cam timing (degreeing) would be the only methods I've used. You could look for a shorter compression height piston, but that's stepping over dollars to pick up dimes...

I do believe the recommendation was made for gsc s2's, though either sets of these cams should have enough clearance capability as they're commonly used, but you still want to verify before ruining valves because someone said they'd be ok.

Going with a more realistic cam choice is a better decision all around. I'm still on stock cams because I don't need fattys, and I like my idle normal, but to each their own.

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If worst goes to worst I can always stick to a stock compression type piston instead of stepping to a 9.5:1. And yeah I love the choppy fat boy noise but at the end of the day once they’re degreed it probably won’t sound too much like that which don’t bother me, I’m mostly in it for the top end considering my .63ar didn’t spool till 4500-5k and my redline was only 7k. Defintley going to need a bigger turbo than my current one though so that’s where the top end fun begins

I've used 4 sets of BC cams over the years, from 272s up to 288s and never had a PTV clearance problem with any of them.

I have ran many different cams and never had issues either. I am also 10:1 compression and built with a tight quench area. Only cams I ever had that where very far off out of the box was BC288s. What fuel do you plan to use? Put a .82 housing on the 35R and they flow quite well. I use a 62mm hx40 in .82 housing and it flows around the same as 35R. I see 20psi by 4,800 rpm and no drop off in power up top.

jed344 said:

I have ran many different cams and never had issues either. I am also 10:1 compression and built with a tight quench area. Only cams I ever had that where very far off out of the box was BC288s. What fuel do you plan to use? Put a .82 housing on the 35R and they flow quite well. I use a 62mm hx40 in .82 housing and it flows around the same as 35R. I see 20psi by 4,800 rpm and no drop off in power up top.

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I’m currently on e85 and plan to stay on e85, how did you know they were “far off” did the machine shop tell you or did you just check your ptv by yourself? Sorry for the dumb questions I’m kind of in the dark with this one

No the PTV was fine but degree wise they were off. I assemble all my own motors and check clearences myself.