I have noticed lately there is a lot of misinformation going around about cam swapping with a 2.4 here as of late. So hopefully this will answer the questions and clear up the misinformation. I know this wont solve everything, people are too lazy to search. Anyways here goes...

FIRST AND FOREMOST if your cam swapping, then you need to have the ability to tune. Swapping in any cams with an untuned ecu will not gain much power and swapping in any cams larger than secret cams will cause a lean condition in higher RPMs that can and will damage your engine. Also tuning software can turn of the CEL from the lack of a cam sensor.

If you want to retain sequential injection instead of Batch fire injection, then you need to have a metal pad welded to your cam for the cam sensor to be able to read.

Keep in mind that to run any 2.3 intake cam and keep power steering you will need to modify the cam for the hex insert, part number 24572945 from GM. The 2.3 pump will not work with the 2.4 head.

If you choose to keep your factory springs then your cam options are:
1. Stay stock
2. Secret cams
3. 87-88 quad 4 cams (these specific years had 212 duration at 50 but only .340 intake lift and .350 exhaust lift, this was a time when there was no HO or LO)

If you are concerned that the factory valve springs aren't good enough for secret cams, they are, however if you can find a set of mantapart LD9 springs they are slightly better than stock.

To use any other cams readily available such as:
1. HO cams
2. W41 cams

You at minimum must use 2.3 HO valve springs. To do so and retain power steering you HAVE to bore out the 2.4 intake tower to accept 2.3 35mm lifters, you can use a 2.3 exhaust tower. 2.4 33mm lifters will gouge the 2.3 springs because they are wider than the lifters.

To use larger cams with more than .410 lift that are more difficult to come by but are obtainable such as:
1. HG2 cams
2. Crane cams
3. Custom ground cams

You will need better than 2.3 HO springs such as:
1. Supertech VW spring setup Click here for a how to good to .430 lift
2. People have also used springs from an LS1, but be careful to read the specs, there are many many options and some just wont work with our setup.
3. Rocket parts valve springs(hard to find)
4. Mantapart DVS (also hard to come by)


There is one other possible option for springs. This is a Crower spring Part Number 68190-16. No one has actually run this spring as of yet. They work perfectly as far as measurements on paper. It would require 2.3 retainers, 2.4 locks, and 2.4 rotators, the spring is beefy enough to handle .430 lift, but narrow enough to accept 33mm lifters without gouging. Cam tower clearance for the larger cam lobes would be needed but its cheap at a machine shop and even cheaper if you own a dremel. Some people argue that the larger cams should not be used with 33mm lifters due to failures in the past, but no one ever ran them with a proper spring either.

Hope this answers all of the questions going around that people have been asking.

My 87 cams have 365 lift. They are originals, and also came with the original 87-88 "smooth" towers. The towers are also the steel sleeved ones. I wonder if I should send them out to have the checked?





PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

-MD- Enforcer wrote:My 87 cams have 365 lift. They are originals, and also came with the original 87-88 "smooth" towers. The towers are also the steel sleeved ones. I wonder if I should send them out to have the checked?

I measured the ones I have and they were .340 and ,350 but they were originals with the smooth cam towers, odd that we have different measurements. I probably should have left them out of the write up, they are kind of a forgotten cam anyways. And according to my track times they don't make much more power than stock either.

atta boy!



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