Camshaft wear

**gcross** · 01-29-2007, 02:15 AM

Hey guy,

I've reading stuff for a while now and getitng good info from you. My bouhgt a 02 trans am about 8 months ago, it had some mod when I bought it and I've added more these. My problem is it does have the power that it should. The former owner replaced the stock cam with the LS1 hot cam at about 38k mile but didn't replace the lifters when he did it. Now the car has about 45k on it. I've been working with the guys at EFI live to tune the car and they have been a big help, but it just not doing what it should the idle it good but when the car slows down it surges bad and that catches itself some time. My thought is with out the lifter change with the cam the new cam has made trashed due to improper wear can this happen or how to you judge bad cam wear. Thanks for any help you my have

**nhraformula** · 01-29-2007, 08:26 AM

surging has nothing to do with lifters.
its a tuning problem.

**Marc 85Z28** · 01-29-2007, 08:37 AM

The surging is most likely due to an aftermarket MAF, throttle body, or a tune that is way off. Tuning the HotCam should not be hard, even for a novice.

And roller cams RARELY ever go bad. Some low quality aftermarket companies may have a bad batch here or there. I don't think I've ever heard of or seen a GM hydraulic roller cam fail...

**INMY01TA** · 01-29-2007, 07:19 PM

No need to change the lifters for a cam swap. That cam is pretty small too.

**CAMAROLS1** · 02-14-2007, 06:51 AM

actaully if the cam is a higher lift you might need to change the lifters and valve spings.

**ProjectCamaro.com** · 02-14-2007, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by CAMAROLS1

actaully if the cam is a higher lift you might need to change the lifters and valve spings.

He has the Hot Cam so they aren't needed.

**Killer_bluebird** · 02-20-2007, 12:38 PM

Like it was said before surging has nothing to do with the lifters. Even though the Hotcam camshaft is small relative to todays average monster cams it does have an LSA of 110 (if I remmember correctly). So it will lope quite a bit. Surging can be minimized with a good tune but I do not know if you can erradicate it all together. I know on bigger cams you will have some surging and bucking but the degree is always dependant on the tune.

**ProjectCamaro.com** · 02-20-2007, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by Killer_bluebird

Like it was said before surging has nothing to do with the lifters. Even though the Hotcam camshaft is small relative to todays average monster cams it does have an LSA of 110 (if I remmember correctly). So it will lope quite a bit. Surging can be minimized with a good tune but I do not know if you can erradicate it all together. I know on bigger cams you will have some surging and bucking but the degree is always dependant on the tune.

The ASA cam has an LSA of 110 but the Hot Cam's LSA is 112