I have been doing some lookin, and all I see are cams for up to 95, or from99 and up. I want to get a cam for my truck, but it is a 97 with the vortec 350. I s there anyone who has done a cam swap in a 96-98? Also the only current mods to the truck is a different muffler with a dump. Basiclly what I am lookin to do is some minor basic bolt ons such as CAI, headers & catback, and cam swap. Just trying to let her breath a little better. I know that I will need to retune the pcm, but like I said, I can't seem to come across any cam choices for these years. I am beginning to wonder if there are any! LOL. Any light shed on this would be apreciated, Thanks.

Chris

 

ttt... anyone?

 

The cam is the same as the LT-1 cams so any cam for an lt1 will fit, BUT you will either have to get the heads machined for new springs or use comp cams 918 or 915 springs and retainers. Some use the yellow locks with them they are +.050 ( I think). But stay with a lower duration cam since unless you have a 411 PCM you cant rev past 5800RPM anyways and the intake does not flow good at higher RPM. Also if you do get a cam and need a little stall check out the ones from a V-6 S-10 they will stall around 25-2800rpm. If you have any other question hit me up. hope this helps

 

The 1992-1997 LT1 and 1996 LT4 stock camshafts will work.

This link has all teh stock cams GM ever used on the stock Gen 2 LT1 350, LT4 350 and L99 265/4.3L V8 engines.

Personally I would go with teh 1996 LT4 cam with 203°/210° duration and 0.476/.480" with a115°LSA.

http://www.automotiverebuilder.com/ar/ar99928.htm

Lingenfelter also makes a nice 213/219° duration 0.492/.502" lift with 1.6's or .462"/.472" lift with 1.5's on a 112LSA.

Basically teh cams for the 1987-1992 TPI roller engines and 1992-1997 GEN 2 LT1/4 cams will fit your L31 Vortec 350.

Hooker makes the 2462 hkr longtube headers with 1 5/8" primaries and 2 1/2" collectors which are about $200 painted and about $380 cermic coated.
They also make a Super Com series 2806 which has 1 3/4" primaries and 3" collectors with EQUAL length primary tubes using 18 ga tubing. The 2806 hkr is pianted and costs about $400 and teh 2806 1hkr is cermic coated and costs about $750.
The above headers need O2 bungs welded in teh collectors or in the headpipes after the collectors like I did in my 2462 1hkr LT's. If youw ant to retain EGR (I didnt) you will need to get an EGR feed bung welded into 1 of the drivers side primary tubes.

Hedman makes a Hustler series header which is a direct fit, they look awesome.

I would go with Longtube headers because tehy force you to upgrade from the restrictive 1 7/8" pipes that connect the manifold to the cats. Thes epipes srimp down MUCH smaller than 1 7/*" in some of the bends.

2462 1hkr headers and very mild fastchip PCM tune dropped my 1/4 mile time my 3/4's of a second.

I also have teh s-10 V6 torque converter in my truck, it stalls to 2700 rpm at WOT in 1st gear rear wheels NOT spinning.

You only need to machine for larger springs if youw ant to achieve over 0.475" of lift on the Vortec heads.

Southern Chev has some great advice.

peace
Hog

 

Thanks for the info, I was beginning to wonder if there was even an option here. My reason for asking is that in the next year or so I want to do a rebiuld seeing as I have just passed the 180000 mile mark. The truck is awsome even with these miles, but I would really like to freshen her up a bit. I can tell that the motor is beginning to feel a little "tired". When I do the build, I would like to do some basic bolt ons as well as a cam geared more for a towing application. This being said, I am leaning twords doing a cold air intake, headers & full 2.5 or 3 inch exhaust, converter, cam & valvetrain, oil pump, and if the budget allows, either an sts turbo kit or a magnacharger. The platform for this would obviously be a forged shortblock with compression around the 9:1 range.

I also tossed the idea around of doing the 4l80e upgrade, but I am not sure since the 4l60 in there now only has like 1500 miles on it.

Thanks again for the help,
Chris