6 liter cam question (1 Viewer)

[workingdog]

I recently shoved a 2001-ish 6 liter I 'got from a guy' into my '67 FJ40. The engine came with a 'stage 2' cam, whatever that means - and I'm wondering if I should get rid of it in favor of something more appropriate. The cam I have now is not great at idle, smells of gas when idling, prone to die on deceleration. Now, I may be able to tune some of that out of the engine, but I'm wondering if there is any point in fighting that battle. I'm never going to run this thing WOT, like a lot of mild wheeling rigs, this is going to spend 90% of its time at low RPM.

If I were to lose this cam, what would I go to? What do people suggest for a torquey, low end cam with great street manners?

 

[pjohnson]

Why not go back to stock? It will make your tuning a lot easier.

 

[workingdog]

I've heard that the stock cam is pretty weak and designed mostly for emissions and that there are very good cams out there that give better power and work great with the stock tune.

 

[workingdog]

Thanks for your reply - that is exactly what I needed to know. I look at some sights and a 224/224 cam is 'mild' and then other sites talk about something much smaller. All those numbers you gave made sense. I have HP tuners and will attempt the tune myself - with a little help. Who know idle was so complicated.

 

[workingdog]

I have an NV4500, I have enough trouble figuring out idle without having to deal with an automatic.

 

[peesalot]

I have a 2001 6.0 in my 40, stock cam and a Howell tune, runs well.
Im in windsor, wondering who you got motor from ?
May just be your tune, is it stock computer , harness or aftermarket, ?
2 O's ?, is the tune looking for a VSS signal ?
I have a 420 behind mine and it did want to idle crappy when you slow down real quick at stop signs but has gotten much better as I ran it, IMO a VSS would be best, it tends to run rich when crawling but with the 420 it revs out quick enough it is easy to clean it out and the rich condition isn't enough to cause running issues.
Does the yellow light stay on next to the test plug ?
Do you have a fuel pressure gauge ?
have you checked for vacuum leaks ?

 

[workingdog]

I got my motor from a guy in Marysville. Don't know a lot about the motor.
My computer and harness came from Howell, but the tune in the ECM was wrong/bad and I'm still cleaning it up.
Single O2 on either side. There is no VSS. I'm not sure what you mean by is the tune looking for a VSS. The throttle cracking software (at least) looks for VSS, I'm not sure what else. I have a Jags that Run VSS here somewhere and I'm going to put it in once I find it and figure out where to write it up to the ECM connector.
The SES (yellow) light has been going on due to weird idle conditions which I think has been caused by the Cam.
I have a fuel pressure gauge, although I've been told I need to get a vacuum adjusted fuel regulator.
I have not checked for vacuum leaks because I have none of the rest of the symptoms that would indicate vacuum leaks.

I have HP Tuner if you want to pay the license fee we could hook it up and try to put a tune on yours. Sounds like it was slightly out of tune and it's 'learned' a better tune. Shouldn't be running rich like you say it is.

 

[workingdog]

I have NOT seen where I can delete the VSS in HP Tuners. I've looked and looked online for information on VSS and found very little concrete.

I was also looking at the difference in what Stage 2 means on cams.

Most stage 2 cams (like BTR) I'm coming across are 227/234 or in that range. The tick performance torque max is 231/235. But their tow max is only 214/224. That's a huge difference. Stage 2 just isn't a useful term. I have no idea which flavor of Stage 2 I have - but the smell of gas at idle is really strong. But for all I know, there's a problem with the fuel system that we haven't found yet instead of it being all the cam.

 

[workingdog]

Also, what do you think of the following options versus the trick Stage 1

Stock LQ9 cam 02-03 12561721 196/207 .467/.470 116

Or stock Corvette cam 2001 12560950 204/211 .525/.525 116

Both are smaller then the Trick - but still bigger than the stock LQ4 cam

 

[peesalot]

I have been advised that I should run down to have a tune done while its on the Dyno. I am told there is a good shop in SR or RP, I can't remember, the guy does em for some friends on mine that run Ultra4 and theirs sound sweet.
I would be interested to see what Howell put in mine, I ran it outa the box and have never looked at it.

 

[workingdog]

RPM is in Rohnert Park and has a good rep. I did not have a great experience with them, but part of that was because we never got on the dyno and then ever looked at the tune because they decided to chase a non-existent fuel delivery problem (that was really a tune problem). If you know you want a tune, they have the equipment. But for almost the same price and some time, you can get HP Tuners and do it yourself. You only need them if you want to tune WOT on the Dyno with wideband sensors. You can do it on the road using the ECM and the existing narrowband O2 sensors - it just takes some time.

 

[sadam_husain]

I have a fuel pressure gauge, although I've been told I need to get a vacuum adjusted fuel regulator.
I have not checked for vacuum leaks because I have none of the rest of the symptoms that would indicate vacuum leaks.

your engine should have the return fuel line coming off the fuel rail so you will already have a vacuum adjusted fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail, its common for the diaphragms in the regulators to split and fail resulting in irregular fuel pressure, raw fuel being sucked into the manifold through the vacuum tube and rich condition codes on the SES, to check the regulator you take the vacuum hose off and if the hose is dry the regulator is ok and if the hose is wet (fuel) it needs replacing

 

[peesalot]

What do you mean by irregular fuel pressure ? Like 2 or 3 lb changes while running or like 5lb or more ?