A little background.. I Was lucky enough to pick up a 10 alpha T earlier this year and have been playing around spending money on it... Airdoc, snugtop topper, predator winch system, gm perf exhaust (Borla)..etc. All fine and dandy, but for a v8 it really was a bit of a dog. It looked neat but didnt really sound mean or go like I wanted. Looked into a supercharger but the kit was discontinued and i wasnt comfortable trying to make it all work with no real supprt, and didnt want to hurt long term overall reliability with 100hp+ boost..(although it does sound like it would be awesome)
After a fair bit of pondering and net surfing, I decided a new camshaft from competition cams would be a decent way to go, with a bit more lift and duration. Basically what is referred to as an RV cam. Also considered heads, long tube headers, and anything else that popped into my feeble cranium, bet stuck with just the cam. And new valve springs to go along with it. And a cam phase limiter because it had vvt and i wanted to ensure no interference with the increased duration..
Its been a few months since installation and hptuners pcm update via pcm of nc.. Here is my report for anyone who cares...
Damn this truck is awesome now!
it sounds bad-ass, runs awesome, has way better touque and hp, and just makes me smile every time i turn the key. I dont have a dyno in the back yard but can say without a doubt this wasnt a 5-10hp increase, it is more like 30-40. The frist time i punched it with the new cam my head snapped back and euphoria set in. Its a total beast now. It has a bit of a lopey idle now too, which i like. With the borla exhaust, it just sits there and says "take me out and run over a prius. NOW!" Sure i dropped my economy a bit, but its optimized for torque not mileage. I may play with the hptuners file a bit to see if i can improve it a bit, but gas is cheaper now so its not quite so painful... 12.4 hwy averaging 70mph isnt the 17 it was getting before, but it sure is more enjoyable to drive.
if i ever get smart enough I will post a photo of my truck, IIRC.. No photo means my truck isn't real.. Btw I live in Michigan if anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole but needs to compare their alpha to a cammed one to see if its worth it for them. I found it to be a great mod, and makes the truck a keeper. The 8 cyl engine drives like one now
Hopefully this helps someone, or at least is interesting to one or two netizens. I usually just lurk but though it was time to share.
Steve
After a fair bit of pondering and net surfing, I decided a new camshaft from competition cams would be a decent way to go, with a bit more lift and duration. Basically what is referred to as an RV cam. Also considered heads, long tube headers, and anything else that popped into my feeble cranium, bet stuck with just the cam. And new valve springs to go along with it. And a cam phase limiter because it had vvt and i wanted to ensure no interference with the increased duration..
Its been a few months since installation and hptuners pcm update via pcm of nc.. Here is my report for anyone who cares...
Damn this truck is awesome now!
it sounds bad-ass, runs awesome, has way better touque and hp, and just makes me smile every time i turn the key. I dont have a dyno in the back yard but can say without a doubt this wasnt a 5-10hp increase, it is more like 30-40. The frist time i punched it with the new cam my head snapped back and euphoria set in. Its a total beast now. It has a bit of a lopey idle now too, which i like. With the borla exhaust, it just sits there and says "take me out and run over a prius. NOW!" Sure i dropped my economy a bit, but its optimized for torque not mileage. I may play with the hptuners file a bit to see if i can improve it a bit, but gas is cheaper now so its not quite so painful... 12.4 hwy averaging 70mph isnt the 17 it was getting before, but it sure is more enjoyable to drive.
if i ever get smart enough I will post a photo of my truck, IIRC.. No photo means my truck isn't real.. Btw I live in Michigan if anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole but needs to compare their alpha to a cammed one to see if its worth it for them. I found it to be a great mod, and makes the truck a keeper. The 8 cyl engine drives like one now
Hopefully this helps someone, or at least is interesting to one or two netizens. I usually just lurk but though it was time to share.
Steve
