What kind of power gains could I get by getting a camshaft installed on a 1997 460? I have an E4OD tranny as well, 4x4 truck. I want to get a cam eventually, is it worth it, and how much of a job is it? Should I have my guy replace any other parts in the motor while hes in there or no?

 

if you get a custom chip made for your truck when you get the cam installed, id say you could get up to around an extra hundred horse if you install matching valvetrane and a stall converter with it, but without the custom chip your computer will probably freak on you and either not run worth crap, or just not run at all.

 

the intake on the efi 460 will be a large restriction as far as horsepower gains, it has long runners with high velocity designed for making torque....much more than a mild cam will be useless, just put a mild cam in it and either convert it to mass air or get a chip burnt so it will run good and you should be good to go

 

nice, thanks guys. Now I was talking to my performance mechanic the other day, and he was saying to install a cam on my truck may be a very expensive job to do, he said he would have to take off the front assembly off the truck, the AC compressor, radiator, and possbily even the heads. So he suggested just replacing rockers and lifters would make a huge difference, said something about rolling rockers or maybe it was lifters, but said it takes less horsepower away when they roll oppose to up and down movement. Whats ur take guys, just do that little upgrade? Anyother parts to replace while he be in that area?

Hey darrin is a stall converter in the tranny? Or am i off base here? ANd what would that help do?

 

Another big issue with changing the cam is you are getting more fuel and air in so you have to get more exhaust out. You can kill a lot of what you would gain with out a good free flowing exhaust system. ( Headers, freeflow converter, flowmasters or other good mufflers and atleast 2.5 inch or lager pipes)

 

yes the cam would be expensive on labor, you have to rip the front and top of the motor off, and that includes any accessories. while youre at it you could just as well replace the cam bearings too... and you have to be really careful on cam break-in these days or you could be stuck doing a rebuild from wiping out the cam. the rocker arms arent a bad idea, just keep in mind the stock ratio is 1.73, so anything less and you wouldnt have as much effective lift on your cam. if you went to 1.8 ratio rockers it would increase your lift- basically it would be like a small cam upgrade without the high labor cost. youd have to get crane stud mount rocker arm adapters though to get 1.8 ratio rockers... so youre looking at around 450 dollars in parts for stud mount rockers and the stud adapters, and all you have for labor is pulling the valve covers off, unbolting the rocker arms, screwing the studs in, bolting the new rockers on and setting them up, and putting the valve covers back on.
also the stall converter is required for a bigger cam upgrade because the bigger the cam the worse the low end torque but better the higher end horsepower- the stall converter makes the engine revv into the range that the cam makes best power at, otherwise a big cam would be gutless on the low end or possibly kill from not having enough low end torque to move that heavy body

 

wow that be pretty cool. Yeah I wont get into this motor stuff until my headers, and true dual 3 inch exhaust is on, then I wil dig into this thanks

 

I think the exhaust is a good place to start. You should see significant gains from putting on a good freeflowing exhaust system then the cam upgrade would work a lot better. To make good power it has to breath. As little restriction in and out as possible.

 

thats really exciting, i just want to make this thing a power house