# Cam degreeing important?



## Pontiachris (Oct 30, 2009)

Everybody I talk to about cam swaps says that they've had no problems just sliding the cam in and going about their buisness but I also hear that it's important to degree the cam when installing it to have it work right...how important is it to degree the cam?


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## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

Pontiachris said:


> Everybody I talk to about cam swaps says that they've had no problems just sliding the cam in and going about their buisness but I also hear that it's important to degree the cam when installing it to have it work right...how important is it to degree the cam?


You won't notice any diffrence unless you only run at the track, and then you're talking a thousands or two in the qrt mile.


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## 66tempestGT (Nov 28, 2009)

:agree


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## topfuel67 (Dec 23, 2008)

Degreeing a cam is personal preference or track need. Straight up is just right for dailing driving. The power range is spread evenly according to the cam design. Advancing or retarding the cam increases peak power by reducing low end torque or increasing low end torque by decreasing peak power. 

If you're not familiar with this, just do it straight up.


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

With the choice of cams on the market now, you should be able to find one that produces the power level you want at a street-able rpm range without the need to retard it to change the power range. You can still go to a bigger lift and longer duration but keep the LSA wide enough to reduce overlap or "lope" and you'll have a good street cam. The lope that everyone thinks is so cool moves the power range to ~2500-6000 and is not street or automatic trans friendly without a stall converter. The original ram air cams are a good example of what I'm talking about. The engineers put more lift and duration in without sacrificing idle or low end torque. Of course any cam needs to be matched to the heads...valve size and compression ratio. Too much cam with small valves and low compression is just not gonna work well.


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