Streetable HeadsCam Setup

**Bouvers** · 05-09-2008, 09:25 PM

Alright guys I'm set on heads AFR 205's I'll be upgrading the whole vavletrain except maybe the lifters I might leave stock because I was told they are fine for a cam I'll be in the market for.

So seeing as how I'm going with those heads I'm looking for anyone out there with those same heads or similar heads to tell me what they have for a cam and what its like.

I'm looking for near stock drivability this is a weekend cruising car I just want it to have more punch and under the curve power. So I'm starting with a TR224 114 as a baseline but I might move a bit depending on what other people have and how the drivability and power curve feel.

Let me know guys I've been set on AFR's for a while but can never make a decission on a cam I'm hoping this will be my last thread looking for the answer!

**UTVols98** · 05-09-2008, 11:38 PM

Save some money and just reuse the stock rockers. The 224 should be a good cam for streetabiliy with any head and the 205 should yield you some good torque down low.

**SPARKYS T/A** · 05-10-2008, 03:42 AM

while u have it all apart i'd replace the lifter and rockers,the cost is minor when it comes to a head and cam swap and i feel its a good piece of mind knowing its all been replaced. i'm currently shopping for head and cam also. heard afr makes a great head. road in a car with afr haeds not sure if they were the 205 or 225's ,and had crane quick lift cam 224/224 and the power gain was pretty impressive while retaining a pretty good idle. not sure of his other mods but hopefully this helps your cam choice

**mark21742** · 05-10-2008, 04:52 AM

If you want to get the most out of it, take your car to a truck stop and weigh it on the scales(around here it costs $8) get all the info on your mods, and what you are going to want the car to do, then order a custom ground cam for exactly your wants and needs. A custom grind cam costs about the same as an off the shelf grind, and is made for your cars specs
good luck!

**Bouvers** · 05-10-2008, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by mark21742

If you want to get the most out of it, take your car to a truck stop and weigh it on the scales(around here it costs $8) get all the info on your mods, and what you are going to want the car to do, then order a custom ground cam for exactly your wants and needs. A custom grind cam costs about the same as an off the shelf grind, and is made for your cars specs
good luck!

I'm not totally following you on car weight for figuring out precise specs on a cam, and I'm not really a huge dyno kind of guy I would rather have a car the drives excellent and less peak horsepower then a car that drives like crap and has peak hp. So I'm not overly concerned about it, I think an off the shelf cam will probably be in my favor.

**Bouvers** · 05-10-2008, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by SPARKYS T/A

while u have it all apart i'd replace the lifter and rockers,the cost is minor when it comes to a head and cam swap and i feel its a good piece of mind knowing its all been replaced. i'm currently shopping for head and cam also. heard afr makes a great head. road in a car with afr haeds not sure if they were the 205 or 225's ,and had crane quick lift cam 224/224 and the power gain was pretty impressive while retaining a pretty good idle. not sure of his other mods but hopefully this helps your cam choice

well if someone here can explain to me where the stock lifters fail and why then I might invest in some LS7 lifters but otherwise I'm not too concerned however I do REALLY appreciate your input and it is a consideration I might take with more information on it.

I'm actually going to replace the rockers with some YellaTerra Ultralights 1.7 roller rockers. I'm intending on doing retainers, springs and pushrods but I don't know what brands to choose from I guess I just expected to buy an assembled head and what they give me should suffice? Input on that matter would be greatly appreciated!

**UTVols98** · 05-10-2008, 10:10 AM

Go ahead and get the lifters. It's only 120 dollars and you'll feel better knowing you have new lifters under there. Honestly, the stock rockers will work perfectly. I'm running the stock w/ 115k miles on them and the lift on my cam is 644, and they work fine. It seems like a waste of money for the new ones, but it's your car. With the money you save, I'd go get something that actually gives you more power such as an UD pulley, which you'll want with a cam.

**mark21742** · 05-10-2008, 10:46 AM

don't get me wrong, an off the shelf cam will work just fine. If you would decide to get a custom grind, the more info you have to give the company that grinds your new cam, the better they can give you exactly what you are looking for and maybe alittle more power and driveblity for a higher strung daily driver, for about the same price

trust me you are right about the high peak HP, you definately want a cam with a nice broad powerband if your driving on the street

**INMY01TA** · 05-11-2008, 08:55 AM

I'd go with the 205s and a 228 cam myself. Won't see much difference in drivability but get a lil more out of it.

**Bouvers** · 05-11-2008, 01:03 PM

I'll deffinately get an UDpulley, but I'm quite set on YT UL roller rockers. Anyway I might started considering LS7 lifters for the price of them... I was considering maybe a slightly bigger cam, last night I just went out for a ride in a camaro with a 224 and that was quite the powerband I very much doubt I'll ever need anything more then that honestly. I'm thinking maybe slightly bigger because my car probably won't respond to a cam as well as he did cause his is a freak, but certainly a 114 LSA.

224 cam is good but he told me to try and find some "newer" seeing as how thats an old design theres new cams out there with just as good drivability but a better powerband. anyway care to throw out some cams that fit that criteria? like you said InMy01TA a 228... whats the lift on that cam?

**01WS6475hp** · 05-11-2008, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by mark21742

If you want to get the most out of it, take your car to a truck stop and weigh it on the scales(around here it costs $8) get all the info on your mods, and what you are going to want the car to do, then order a custom ground cam for exactly your wants and needs. A custom grind cam costs about the same as an off the shelf grind, and is made for your cars specs
good luck!

I have a custom ground comp cam . It is worth it.

01 WS6,228/236,578/588 114 custom comp,ported/polished factory heads w/manley race master valves,978 dual springs,Comp titanium retainers,hardend pushrods,160 stat,MSD,NGK,SLP bellows/mass air,ARP ,BG ram air,3400 midwest stall,DTS 12 Bolt 3.73,Spohn sway bar,QA1s,BMR rear susp,Macs,ORY,Magnaflow.Mustang dyno 393 rwhp,352 tq

**Bouvers** · 05-11-2008, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by 01WS6475hp

I have a custom ground comp cam . It is worth it.

01 WS6,228/236,578/588 114 custom comp,ported/polished factory heads w/manley race master valves,978 dual springs,Comp titanium retainers,hardend pushrods,160 stat,MSD,NGK,SLP bellows/mass air,ARP ,BG ram air,3400 midwest stall,DTS 12 Bolt 3.73,Spohn sway bar,QA1s,BMR rear susp,Macs,ORY,Magnaflow.Mustang dyno 393 rwhp,352 tq

why did you decide to go with a split?

**01WS6475hp** · 05-11-2008, 06:12 PM

Previous owner was looking to add a turbo later down the road. I love the idle right now and it is fine on the street. I had it tuned not long ago so my numbers should be better.

**UTVols98** · 05-12-2008, 12:02 AM

How bout a TR 230. Seen some impressive numbers from that cam.

**Bouvers** · 05-12-2008, 10:29 AM

at this point I'm certain I would be happy with a TR224 powergains. The only reason I would go bigger is if I get more power without sacraficing any drivability of the 224... if its gonna sacrafice any drivability whatsoever I'm not going to bother for an extra 20hp...

So my question is, is there anyone out there that can vouche for how the 230 drives compared to the 224? the same? better? worse? (keep in mind I'm looking for near stock drivability!)

**blackls1ta** · 05-13-2008, 11:32 AM

heres what i just had done,afr heads 205s 66cc milled to 62cc,tr224/227 nitrous/blower cam,ls7 lifters,tr hardened pushrods,tsp ported oil pump,ls2 timing chain,and fast90/90 combo intake and tb,then also hp tuned,and man does this car haul ass now,just needing new clutch,injectors,and fuel pump before i add a wet 150 shot kit

**blackls1ta** · 05-13-2008, 11:32 AM

dyno numbers soon

**Bouvers** · 05-13-2008, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by blackls1ta

dyno numbers soon

sounds awesome I REALLY need to find out what you're putting down...
two questions you milled the decks on the AFR's from 66cc to 62cc? what was your compression ratio before and after?

secondly how do you find the drivability of the car? taking off does it need quite a bit of gas, whats the LSA on that cam? and the rest of the specs on it...

**Midnight02** · 05-14-2008, 06:50 AM

I just got my car back from the shop and my setup seems to be similar to what you're looking to accomplish. I pulled 435 rwhp and 406 rwtq on a relatively conservative dyno. I went with a budget head (PRC Stage 2.5 5.3 heads) milled to 60 cc...compression is around 11.0:1 and I haven't had any trouble running on pump gas.

The car drives like a dream....even with the 112 LSA cam, I can let out of the clutch and creep forward without even touching the gas (although it responds even better if you give just a little press on the throttle). I'm certain the tune has a good bit to do with this.

The AFRs you've selected are certainly a better head than what I have and with the right supporting mods, you should be able to hit the 450 rwhp mark while retaining GREAT street manners.

For purposes of my build, my car is a street car and needed to have great street manners. Torque and low to mid range power were my primary concerns....while the 435 rwhp figure is pretty strong, I'm much more excited about the torque figures. At 2,700 rpm, my dyno graph shows that I'm already over 350 ft./lbs of TQ. With 3.90 gears, it feels absolutely ridiculous driving on the street now. The seat of the pants gain from my cam swap was most noticeable in the mid and high ranges (you feel it best when getting onto the highway running through 3rd and 4th gear), however the head swap coupled with my relatively mild cam put the greatest seat of the pants gain down low....the car is very noticeably faster to 40 mph, 60 mph, 80 mph, etc.

**Bouvers** · 05-14-2008, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Midnight02

I just got my car back from the shop and my setup seems to be similar to what you're looking to accomplish. I pulled 435 rwhp and 406 rwtq on a relatively conservative dyno. I went with a budget head (PRC Stage 2.5 5.3 heads) milled to 60 cc...compression is around 11.0:1 and I haven't had any trouble running on pump gas.

The car drives like a dream....even with the 112 LSA cam, I can let out of the clutch and creep forward without even touching the gas (although it responds even better if you give just a little press on the throttle). I'm certain the tune has a good bit to do with this.

The AFRs you've selected are certainly a better head than what I have and with the right supporting mods, you should be able to hit the 450 rwhp mark while retaining GREAT street manners.

For purposes of my build, my car is a street car and needed to have great street manners. Torque and low to mid range power were my primary concerns....while the 435 rwhp figure is pretty strong, I'm much more excited about the torque figures. At 2,700 rpm, my dyno graph shows that I'm already over 350 ft./lbs of TQ. With 3.90 gears, it feels absolutely ridiculous driving on the street now. The seat of the pants gain from my cam swap was most noticeable in the mid and high ranges (you feel it best when getting onto the highway running through 3rd and 4th gear), however the head swap coupled with my relatively mild cam put the greatest seat of the pants gain down low....the car is very noticeably faster to 40 mph, 60 mph, 80 mph, etc.

thats great news I'm glad to hear how streetable the cam is

I might consider going slightly higher then the 224 if your right about how well the car drives... I'm not sure I'm going to go quite as big as you though.