im building an 04' lq9 to swap in to my Camaro street/strip car (a4 3600stall,3.73's,),and as the title says im having the 317 casting heads milled .035" and using cometic .040" headgaskets to achieve around 11:1 compression,ive done the math and doing this brings ptv clearance almost .050 closer then stock so I know my cam selection is limited with this setup,especially without flycutting the pistons..and I definately don't wanna mess with flycutting the pistons just yet,and before anybody says just buy a set of 243's and call it a day..I dont have the money for 243's,799's etc..so, with that said,what would be the best suited "off the shelf" cam for this setup to get the most bang for my buck safely so to speak?..TIA

 

Forget turning the necessary RPM with only 0.030" of piston-head clearance cold. Stock pistons are already out of the bores at top center anyway, so if you want 0.040" quench then you need 0.050" gaskets.
From there, 0.600" valve lift is near the upper limits for un-milled heads and stock gaskets, so you're looking at 0.565" or so, maybe 0.570" if you use a wide LSA and modest duration. Fine if you want to run cheap Z06 springs, which aren't supposed to run more lift than that anyway, but are high-rev springs on lazy lobes.

 

How about the TSP 228R cam?..would that be a safe cam to go with??..http://texas-speed.com/p-1148-texas-...-camshaft.aspx..if not, how about the ASA or HOT cam??

 

The 228r is a nice cam and all,would love the 11:1cr but its an aggressive lobe design.I think with the lq9 pistons you might have clearance issues.I know that when I was putting my lq4 together using milled 243 heads and stock head gaskets..things were alot closer than anticipated but safe.Dont get me wrong I love my 228r..it drives great makes power..sounds nice.But there are newer lobe designs that arent so hard on valvetrain and do all the above.

Id suggest looking into some other cam vendors and ask what they suggest for you goals within those specs.I wouldnt doubt a custom cam might be the way to go and its really no cost difference from most places so dont rule it out.

I dont see a cam being spec'd out passed 228..226's under 600 lift and hardened pushrod and new valve springs with that motor should sing nicely.Get a hold of Martin at Tick,there new cam line has been impressive to me.I also like Eps stuff if you want something tailored for your application,same goes for Pat G.