Cam

[niter3]

Quick question guys. I now this is a very vague question, but what kind of gains (hp, trouqe) would I get out of a aftermarket cam. I'm not using my car for dragging, but more of just city driving. If i'm doing a rebuild I'd like to get the car to do at least 160hp. It's a 90 3.1 to let you know.  Throw some advice back. i'm doing some reading on my part, but just a generic idea. If anyone has suggestions on which cam to grab up, perfect, let me know.

Thanks

[Guest]

I have a 89 chevy beretta with a 1993 3.1 i have put a crane cam 480 lift and had the heads done up and it runs like a beast but has rough idle i also have the msd coils on it and a chip but it made a huge diffrence hope this helps

[IsaacHayes]

I'd keep the stock coils as they are plenty potent even highly boosted motors (turboz24) uses stock with no problems.

If you are rebuilding you could do a cam and then get the chip afterwards, let them know what cam you have the specs etc and they can tune the chip for the cam so the computer is more tolerant of the cam and you get a bit more refined tune for it and power.

If you are good at doing "advanced" stuff like this you may later or before you get the chip put on the new style like 3400 heads and intake manifolds. That with a cam and chip would make a ton of power! There is some stuff you have to do like get the new style power steering pump/etc but it's been documented before check out 60degreev6 site...

With the gen3 top end you'd make probably ~170 hp, with a cam and good tuned chip on top you'd be close to 200 crank HP if not more. (conservitive figures).

[Guest]

if you bought a good aftermarket cam expect more torque not to mention horsepower to it. Id do it just for that and go with a good port on the head but thats my opinion.

Brandon

[niter3]

Ok thanks for the advice guys. I'm looking into everything, but I might not just have the time to pull the intake and head out to do the changes, so just grabbing up a chip might be the way I'm going for now.

[rweatherford]

You can only get so much HP out of the stock 2.8/3.1 intake and heads and tb.

Ask Norm all about this.  They are TQ monsters, but limited on HP.

[IsaacHayes]

Yup, that's why I suggested the 3400 heads/intakes as they are much better designs. The head is designed to flow better and has larger valve, and the intakes are a much better design too. The gen2 intake (like you have) isn't even equal length runners.