I see a lot of people talking about puting on big Turbos and hot rod fuel injection, High flow fuel pumps, Engine power controlers.
I am wondering why I don't here a big deal about Camshaft upgrades.
Doesn't the cam and heads make all the power?
Or is this not so important when forcing air through the engine?

 

No , The cam can be a big part in airflow but not a required peice. Most street level cams only help with a tiny bit of EGT reduction and Spool-up. One of the main reasons your not seeing any switches to a aftermarket cam is the high cost. 12v trucks have been known to break factory cams and gears at high hp levels. In terms of power, for the cost to equal out to benifit you would have to fly cut the pistons to allow valve cleareance before any dyno proven gains would appear! Without flycut's you may see 40-50 RWHP

 

Is there an HP aftermarket Head for the Cummins engines? Can you Extrude-a-hone or open the ports/relieve valve pockets on the cummins heads with any real gain?

 

If you look back for some of Piers stuff they show the actual gains of porting. Porting and polishing has shown great results on air flow!

 

There are a ton of guys running MaxSpool, Helix and BigStick cams, with aftermarket valvetrains available and valve-reliefed pistons being necessary in some circumstances. They're not nearly as effective a horsepower increase as fueling modifications or turbochargers, but they do make the power more streetable and can add significant horsepower on an otherwise high-horsepower engine.


There are no performance-minded aftermarket Cummins heads available, but the airflow of a stock Cummins head can be improved by over 50% through porting, with substantial performance gains. There are also several intake manifolds available that can be bolted onto a milled head to improve distribution.


Cylinder heads and cams aren't as beneficial as on gasoline engines due to high boost levels and the lack of fuel in the charge air.

 

Begel,
So far, All of the dyno sheet's I've seen that show increase (besides driveability) in horsepower and torque have been mainly high lift stuff. I know that Zach Hamiltons new cam's are supposed to show better results for the daily driver. The trucks I've driven with "street" cam's I wasnt impressed with the increased driveability.
JMO

 

I would imagine that Truck pullers are doing this as well as drag racers?To squeeze out all HP possible.Maybe some day we will se Top Fuel Diesels running 4 seconds .

 

yes that would be sick

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i noticed really no difference after my cam swap but i was in there so i put one in paid almst 500 for it and really no benefit

 

The Stage I kit increases the Bore from 96ci to 103ci. The Stage II kit increases the Bore the same amount but adds the SE 255 Cam kit. What does the Cam kit add to my performance upgrade? I have always been told that inches are important -or -size matters. But the Cam kit isn't adding inches or size -so what does it add to the performance?

 

Just because the added horsepower isn't peak horsepower doesn't mean it isn't added. Horsepower under the curve is just as important.