So I talked the wife into letting me spend the money and do a cam swap.
I read through this site and a few others to start reading up on the process and I find this.
http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/t...des/index.html

Have any of you guys had problems with your springs breaking or droping a valve?
I'm currently looking at Comps 273 grind, with a set of beehive springs, and there hi-tech push rods.
Will my stock retainers hold the beehive springs or do I need a larger set?
This is what the article talks about. Any thoughts???

 

Go with the 6.1 exhaust springs and push rods. I have read more about those beehive springs failing than most of the others.

 

6.1 springs and rods. anything else, you're wasting your money. As for valves, as long as you fill the cylinder with air, you wont drop one.

and I STRONGLY suggest reconsidering on the 273. Its the all wrong cam for these trucks... ESPECIALLY the quadcabs...

 

Why not the 273??
What would you suggest and why??
So the 6.1L springs and rods drop right in (as in they fit with no mods?)
Thanks

 

correct. you need 16 EXHAUST springs (not 8 intake, 8 exhaust). They fit no problem, and are MUCH stronger than the 5.7. they are strong enough to support any cam you can put in these things.

The 273 is all high end. it makes most of its power above 4,000 rpms. With an engine that will never see higher than 6500, thats a pretty little rpm band. You need TORQUE to get that quadcab moving.

Some common torque cams: KRC 210, KRC 210x, Sidewinder, comp 260, etc.

Weedahoe went with 210 and loves it (soon moving to the 210x), I have the 210, Off_Road_Teacher has a sidewinder and we're all quadcabs. You need torque, not horsepower if you wanna be fast

 

O.K. I will continue my research. I assume I will require tuneing of some sort. If so what would you suggest??

 

Some cams can be run on Superchips (sidewinder), but keep in mind you're gonna get WAY more bang out of it if you get it custom tuned. I dont have hours to give you all you need to know, but do some research on this forum as well as dodge talk.com. there are hours and hours of of threads about your same questions.

after doing some research, feel free to ask me any questions. I hope i can speak for Weedahoe, Off_Road_Teacher, and Truckin151 as well since we've all gone through the research process recently (weedahoe has done 3 swaps now, and i've done one, teach and truckin are both gettin ready for their installs, but have already purchased cams)

 

Yep, I've not heard of anyone having an issue with a 6.1 spring no matter what cam they went with.

And stay away from the higher HP, lower TQ cams, I know a lot of guys jumped on the 6.1 cam bandwagon because of the price who found performance to be WORSE than stock on heavier QCs and 4x4s.

I have a KRC210 sitting in the garage waiting for me to get the funds for the other goodies needed and most importantly the custom tune needed to run it. It's got a -4* custom grind on it for even more torque than standard, but as a result, will not run with a SC's canned tune.

I've actually had a minor disagreement with the guys over at KRC who are Comp spring fanatics. They swear they have never seen a Comp beehive fail in any of the vehicles they've put them in, but the forums have more than a few horror stories. I dunno if he's changed his policy on it, but one of the reasons I intend to do the cam install myself is that a year or so ago when this all came up, Marty was refusing to use the 6.1 internals (springs, retainers, etc) on his cam swaps and would only use either the Comp beehives or Manleys...

 

Check this thread out first

How to do a cam swap on a HEMI

My questions are these:

1) What makes you want a 273?
2) How much are you expecting to spend total?
3) Who is going to do your cam swap?
4) Where are you located?
5) With a cam that big, you will have to be custom tuned. So what tuner will you use and who will you use and pay to do your tuned? Also consider dyno tuning v/s email tunes
6) What year is your truck because you have not mentioned it yet.
7) What Air/Fuel setup will you use for tuning?
8) With such a cam as desired, will you eventually open the intake and exhaust with headers or duals?
9) There are two ways to change the valve springs, heads on the block or heads off. heads off mean new head bolts/gaskets, heads on mean special tools.
10) How many miles are on your truck? Will you replace the timing chain and oil pump while you are there?

These are all things to think about now before you commit.

Cams that dont need custom tuning are not that costly. But the opposites get very costly

Cam - 400
6.1 springs/rods & crank/cam bolts - 100
tuner and custom tuning - 500+
head bolts/gaskets - 100
special tool for changing springs with heads on the block - 75
renting the damper puller - 75
oil, cam lube, coolant, ATF fluids - 100
timing chain/oil pump (if needed) - 100
Air/Fuel setup - 150+

Then there is the cost of finding someone to do it if you are not going to do it yourself. Again, these are all things to think about

 

This dyno chart shows why you don't want the 273. All the power it makes is up so high that you will never get to use it. Look at some torque cams like the others have suggested.