02 ZR2. Having problems determining exactly what I can get away with as far as a performance cam. Hoping to utilize my marine intake to get about an extra 50/60 ponies out of her. Just looking for a usable driving range cam with a good idle and not much vacuum loss.

Most everything I see on the popular sites says I must use an adjustable valve train. Does this mean I will have to take the heads to a machine shop and have rocker studs installed in place of the rocker shaft studs? I already have my donor motor, marine intake and tuner ready.

May have gotten over my head here, my quick research told me I might have to replace valve springs to go with a cam around 500/515 lift…..no big deal. But using some of the part numbers I found on several threads here the manufacturers say I need adjustable valve train.

Last time I built an engine was in the last century when I did hundreds of them and lots of V8 swaps. When I started this project I couldn’t even remember what the cam specs meant or how to degree a cam in.

So anyway, thought I was going to buy a $200 cam and move on…….well not so much. Looks like more like $800 plus machining. So your guidance thru this project would be very helpful.

YES I KNOW I COULD HAVE HAD A V-8

 

Quit the relearning curve, heads going to machine shop for new rocker studs so I can go adjustable.
Think I am steering towards 270 duration, 480 lift and 112 lobe centers.
Thought I would be able to just pop a cam in and go but apparently most cam manufacturers have a different base circle diameter. So will go with adjustable valvetrain so I dont have to mess with measuring pushrods.
Guess I will add ported heads and headers to the list......might as well go for more ponies at this point.

 

Are you going to do anything with gearing and/or the torque converter?

 

Undecided at this point about t/c, I know I wont be changing any gears because its 4WD. Seems I read somewhere the 4.3 used a higher stall converter than the V-8. I have time to consider the converter for now.....thoughts?

 

What's the power band of the cam? Just want it to match up to the stall of the converter. I'm trying to remember what the stall on my (factory) truck is. Think it's like 1800? Maybe