ORIGINAL: Nitti00GT

He said the duration was 278 with a .550 lift

ORIGINAL: rmr1923

i hope 278 is the "advertised" duration, but the duration @ .050" lift is a more relevant figure. the cam's duration and lobe separation play the biggest part in determining what rpm range your engine will make the most power in. generally, the higher the duration, the higher the usable rpm range; and i think (can't remember for sure) that the lower the lobe separation, the higher the power band too. back when i built circle track engines, we usually had maximum cam lift rules (street stockers couldn't have more than .460" lift), but no rules on the duration and lobe separation. Isky Cams made some .450" lift cams with 234 degrees duration @ .050" lift (i believe the advertised duration was somewhere close to 290 or 300; those duration figures are usually seen on cams with WAY more than .450" lift) with 112 degree lobe separation, and even though the cams didn't have high lift, they would turn up some pretty damn high rpm. power didn't kick in until above 4k and i usually hit about 7500 by the end of the straightaways. when you're selecting cams for your street car, you don't want too high a duration because you'll sacrifice a lot of bottom end. you'll still make those peak HP and torque figures that you're looking for, but acceleration and driveability is more about the entire power band than just peak figures. remember, HP is an engine's ability to produce torque overtime (hp = torque x rpm / 5252), so a solid torque curve should be a higher priority than some peak HP figure at some far-off RPM.

ORIGINAL: Nitti00GT

He showed me the cams and gave me the cam card yesterday. The specs are .545 lift and duration is, intake 242 exhaust 246 @ .050. They are the XE278AH cams. I am prolly just going to stay with the stage 1s I have and just get it tuned as soon as I get my intake and gears. Thanks for the help everyone.