Thread: which cam would you choose

As of right now, I am running a 3.4" mps, 3" catted downpipe, cai, zzp 1.0 pcm. I will be adding headers and a cam soon and possibly a 3.1" pulley with a retune of the pcm. I am debating between the nic cam and the thrasher race cam along with upgrading the valve springs. Which is the better cam for power.

you dont want the TEP. it is pretty extreme and was never proven to make good power. and why would you want a NIC cam?

what are you wanting out of the car? a lot of people would really suggest you go with an S1x, XP, or VS for any kind of normal setup.

it depends on what you want out of the car. do you want to cam because racecar?

i had the xp and i was awesome! great street cam, car really should have came that way from the factory. now i have the IS3 cam and it too is awesome but not nice on the street as the xp was, i still love it though! after a while i will be going back to the xp or s1x for a daily driver and get some fuel economy back.

You also just can't "expect" to run "X" pulley because you have "Y" mods.

Injectors will most likely run out of headroom (static) around the 3.1" range anyways...keep that in mind.

With just a XP~S1X~VS/headers/tune, don't expect much more than a 3.2~" anyways IMO.

I loved my XP, I also went to the Thrasher for the noise and the top end pull. It was also very proven when Chris Green slapped a TEP Cam, S2IC, Headers, and a 2.8" on there with injectors and whatever tuning software they had back in '02...guessing DHP PT and went 12.1x @ 110+ on street tires and a stock trans/heads/block minus the cam/springs. I however do not recommend it, especially if you don't have another car to drive...I broke mounts, sheered off A/C bracket bolts, and busted the welds on my headers...it also had poly mounts all around as well and a brutally built race trans.

I want to do the cam swap once, and want to make sure I put the right one in for power/streetability not worried too much about fuel mileage. I will make a few visits to the track a year, but not a every week thing. I am not a stop light racer either.

just curious why no one likes the NIC cam

not thread jacking, this answer should add to the OPs question.

i didnt have the choice, i bought my car with the NIC cam already installed

If staying with stock heads, factory stall, and don't plan on IC then I would go with NIC

Stock heads, factory stall, and you will IC then S1X

If you will eventually go with IC, aftermarket heads, and factory stall or theres a possibility of going turbo in the future then XP cam.

If going aftermarket heads, IC, tiny pulley, stall, and squeezing every last by of hp then go with the XPZ.

If wanting to stay with stockish valvetrain then go with the VS.

streetable really depends on the drivers preference. i would say that the xp is streetable and reliable. and when i road in billboasts bonnie with the VS/1.8 setup it was very smooth and streetable. my IS3 cam and stage 3 heads i have no problem driving on the street either but for reliability and streetability i would go with a different cam.

based on the mods in your sig i would go with the xp/s1x/VS for what you are looking for. like i said before the cars should have come with them from the factory, not too aggressive but makes the car a blast to drive.

Brian.. S1X with 1.8's on the S3 heads. Oddly enough when Andrew was here doing the S3X and 1.7 rockers....we noticed I had more lift.