i have an 88 dodge d100 with the 318, i want to have a *mild* cam, gonna rebuild the motor next weekend (10/27) not too sure if i should get a cam or not? any ideas or suggestions? remember i'm on a poor college kid budget (i.e. $900) of which i only have $250 or so left

 

What's the goal and what have you already got?

 

Save your money. Our trucks have a computer and fuel injection that will not allow the engine to benefit from a different cam like the older trucks.

 

In actual fact the camshaft is what decides when and for how long the valves are going to stay open. Which in turn changes how much air and fuel can be stuffed into the cylinder. weather the engine is has a computer, or fuel injection or not is totally irrelevent other than the fact that in most cases the computer will need to be adjusted accordingly. In cases where a cam that is not radically different from the factory cam is used the computer might in fact automatically adjust itself based on what the sensors are telling it and not need any adjustments at all.

I am not a big fan of fuel injection or computers but I think in actual fact engines with these things are more able to take advantage of a different cam then a carb'd engine, If you do some research on engine building or race cars, or newer engines you will find out that a ton of different camshafts out there for LS {chevrolet} 4.6 or 5L {ford} and I'm sure for the new 5.7 L hemi's as well. One of the first things a lot of guys who buy new harley's do is change the cams because it helps the engine make more power.

Your engine might benefit greatly from using a cam that is different than the one the factory put in. If you are in fact rebuilding it then weather you buy a cam with the factory specs or something a little different is probably not a big difference in price and either way you gotta buy a new camshaft. Just be sure you know what you want the engine to do, and be sure to try and ask someone with more knowledge than me about adjusting the computer if necesary

 

The problem with putting a cam in an 88 is that the TBI computer's IQ is somewhere around freezing in degrees Fahrenheit, and has next to no way to modify it.

 

Wierd. I would think that my 83 thunderbird would have the same generation computer and it was adjusted, Thanks for the knowledge though!

 

beakerztoyz; I agree with you that the OP should ask someone with more knowledge about our trucks than you have. In fact that is what he did. I would also agree with you on the newer reprogrammable computers being able to take advantage of a cam change. The simple fact is there are no adjustments possible on any of the 1st Gen computers.

 

Pardon me? Is the first generation computer in a dodge different than the one in my ford? I thought basically the computers all manufacturers used in the 80's were the same.

Also could u please inform me with your wisdom which years of dodge trucks will see no benefits from modifications

Basically the impression I got from your first post in this thread Seal was that computer controlled fuel injected engines wont benefit from camshaft changes, and maybe with some types of computers they won't, but it's not the case for all fuel injected computerized engines

 

any dodge 95 or older has a stupid computer that you can't really do anything with. fords and chevy's are different which is why people that do TBI swaps onto there old carbed trucks use chevy parts and computers. to make a cam work you would have to setup a standalone injection computer or swap to carb but both options are fairly expensive.

 

I am not an expert in all Dodge trucks so I don't know when the programable computers started. This is a 1st Gen Dodge site. It covers years up to 1993 only. That is why I said our trucks and not all trucks. Trying to compare Ford computers with the 1st Gen Dodge computers is like comparing night and day. Our trucks used many different computers even within the same year because they are not programable and only work for the given parameters of the set up in that particular truck. You can't even be sure that two different trucks with the same 318 engine (of the same year) use the same computer. It is a big draw back for our trucks.