Well finally went ahead and pulled the trigger on an LQ4 this past week, tearing it down and cleaning it up currently. Right now I have some 862 heads going on and will be camming it as well as maybe switching intakes, not 100% sure yet. I have done a plethora of exterior and interior mods but this is my first real performance mod and this is my first ever engine swap/“build”.

i’ll post some pics when I get off work. Still have not picked out a cam profile yet. This thing is my daily driver and so I don’t want to lose bottom end only gain if I can. I was looking at a 228/230 because that looked like solid gains all across the board. Someone recommended I stay with a 212/218 but I was under the impression that bigger engine=bigger cam?

Incredibly excited to get this thing rocking I think it will be a hell of a lot of fun!

 

I put a 212/218 112 LSA low lift in my 6.0 and I am very happy with it. It is great for daily driving.

Lots of people push the high lift version, personally I would stay with the low lift.

 

I forgot to mention that although it is a daily I do want to be able to race another truck or something and have a chance

gotta get my girlfriend thinking this pay to play stuff is worth it too cx

 

If it's your only truck and your sole daily driver I 100% agree with wretched73. The 212/218 was awesome in my LQ4 Tahoe. I ran the high lift version and ended up breaking a single valve spring so I recommend the low lift version or the dual valve springs for sure. I don't think you will notice any difference in power between the high and low lift version anyway so the reliability factor would be more important to me.

However, if you want more of a racetruck sound I would go with a cam that has more duration. With a set of stock 862s going on I don't see much need for much more lift than .550. Vinci and BTR both have a great line of truck cams and I will likely be buying from one of them for my RCSB soon.

Keep in mind your tire size, gear ratio, and torque converter play a huge role in truck cam selection.

 

10-4 on that last comment. I have 3.73s, stock TC, stock wheels and tires for now.

I think there was a kit for the high lift version that was basically the same price as the low lift so I may go high lift. I would love some chop but I will not choose to lose low end torque to get a sound. Obviously would love to go as big as I can with the cam to squeeze every bit of torque out but not so big that I lose some.

 

I also have 3.73s, stock TC and 33" tires.

I'm glad Dan made that comment. I run LS6 springs on my low lift cam and it's been about 15k miles without any issues. If I ran a high light cam I'd do BTR platinum dual springs. I didn't think the small gains would be worth the added expense of those springs.

You can have your tuner make your cam as smooth or as choppy as you want. Mine has a really nice lope at idle

 

I highly suggest dual springs if you do a high lift. Mine just broke a spring and it cost me over $1,000 to fix it. I was lucky it could have cost me the whole motor. I really do think you could get away with a step up from the 212/218. Maybe this BTR 218/224 .553”/.553” 110. Low lift for valve train longevity and a tad more duration. The 212/218 is an awesome cam but if you read a lot about it it's highly suggested for 4.8s and 5.3s that want to tow. You have a much bigger engine that will eat the duration up and mellow it out.

 

Do you happen to have access to that tune file? I tried a couple of different things to make the 212/218 lope and it never sounded much different than my 2500 work truck. I'd like to make this 224/228 lope a little more as well.

 

The springs are in the kit I am pretty sure are rated for the high lift, would be kinda bullshit if they sold low rated springs for a high lift cam but....


Agreed on that 212/218 is for a 5.3-4.8. As from what I understood since my displacement is larger I should be able to get a bigger cam so I will look into that 218/224

 

I am not 100% sure which spring I broke weather it was a Pac1218 or Pac1219 I am sending one out to get tested soon. However, both are rated for .600 lift yet one broke with a cam that has .600 lift. Not saying you are certainly going to break one and it might take a long time as mine lasted around 35k miles. However, for a small cost difference, I would go duals for the peace of mind. Mine didn't break while I was beating on it it broke sitting at a stoplight going to work.

Also, I have been emailing Roger Vinci back and forth for about a week and wow his customer service is fantastic! Seriously if you want to talk to a pro (which I am not(Unless you count clutch dumping)) email him roger@vincicams.com. He explains stuff that makes sense.