Ill be tearing into my motor in October to fix my plenum with the hughes plate, as well as the timings set, water pump, t-stat, and puttin in e-fans, and i figured while i was at it i would either put in a new cam or some HS RR's. i was wondering which one i should go with? What are the pros and cons of each? ive never messed wth cams, but ive also never messed with heads either. I do plan on installing some preformance heads with the bigger valves next year sometime. any input is welcome




oh yeai do alot of offroading,and the truck is my DD as well. im looking for wich will help with low to mid range power the most but not sacrifice too much MPGs

 

Go for the RRs. It will run on the stock tune. A cam change probably won't..... (at least, not very well.)

Stick with the small valve heads. (1.92's) Going to larger valves will decrease flow velocity, which is what you want for bottom end torque. Unless, you do the wide open throttle, blast thru the mud thing most of the time, then go for the big valve heads.

 

Cam gives you bigger gains, but will require about 4-6 more hours of work and a lot more knowledge than slapping on some rocker arms.

On an arbitrary scale of 1-10 wrenching difficulty, I'd rank a simple slap-it-in-because-you-know-it'll-work cam swap at a 7, rocker arms at a 3. Oil change is a 1.

 

naw I may be young but I drive like an old man off road. 4x4 is only there IF you need it. I prefer to take my time and pick a good line so i can make it throu a trail in 2 wheel drive. then if i cant make hit the 4x4. beside i dont really like mud, its to easy to break thing in it, and its a PITA to clean up all the way. Ill take a trail over a mud pit any day

 

mk aim4, im a pretty good mechanic, at least id like to think i am, i work on Air Force jets for a livin lmao. so im not to worried about the wrench turning, my post was more focus towards the preformance and tuning awnsers, as well as how would each affect how the girl drove....oh yea i have a superchips tuner but im gonna buy a hemifever sct sometime next year

 

Then go for it, get you a nice torque producing cam and you'll really enjoy it as a daily driver.

 

what kinda cam should i get then, and what exactly goes into changing it. Ive never done a cam swap but if yall can tell me the basics of it ill be able to figure the rest out

 

Talk to Hughes about what can to get. Tell them what you want out of your truck and theyll recommend a cam for you, or theyll make a custom grind for you.

As far as changing a cam:

rip open your engine ( lol)
mark your timing with a paint pen or remember the dots on the gears
pull your timing chain off
take of valve covers, and pull your rockers and push rods
clean and then re lube the camshaft bearings ( i would at least)
Clean your cam journals and lobes on cam
assembly lube the lobes and drive gear ( do it by 4 lobes at a time youll save a bunch of mess)
redo your timing chain and set your timing
put it all back together with springs and rods
Then be nice to it for a while. then have fun

General cam instructions, google more details if neeeded

Depending on the cam, gonna need new springs too and push rods. Might as well get better rockers also.

 

If your doing a cam . Gotta do heads and intake manifold also. Mid as well just stroke it if taking the motor apart lol

 

in a perfect world... but that takes the cam swap/plenum fix project which is a ~$600-1k job well upwards of $3~4k..

being somewhat interested in performance, we're always yacking about TQ and HP- but you gotta ask yourself, what is enough to get YOUR job done?

A healthy but streetable cam, reworked heads, new rocker rollers and pushrods, good tight timing chain, free flowing exhaust and decent intake manifold will run about ~$2k-2.5k finished, and have substantial gains that are sustainable for the expected life of the truck.. You should be able to touch 350 ponies at the crank, and deliver 250 or so to the terra, and torque numbers should be more than suitable for trailing/towing/hauling at around 400 crank and 300 delivered.. Operative word: sustainable, for the expected life of the truck..

I see the original poster has a '98.. I have a keg w/ hughes plenum plate attached if your interested- I'll part with it for $150.. It has one bung for temperature a sensor, and I think you have just one on your rig.. I think pre-98 had two..