Camshafts, idle quality, driveability and LSA-REAL WORLD EXP and OPINION

Lustle said
Not in it's entirety. Mostly just looked at the cams they picked then jumped straight to the graph. What I did see there are some thing that could have been improved. I would have really liked to see more cam choice (104, 108, 110, 114). As 104 is not as common on the street as 108. While 114 is out there (ls engines I think? I dunno I don't touch GM). Maybe throw in a 120 to really show the difference.

Honestly if I ever won the lotto. I would just build a dozen really common engines (318's with minor work. 360's with XE series cams and 10:1 on iron heads. Stroker 408s. Eddie heads vs iron heads, etc etc). Then swap just cams, or just heads, or headers, carb. Etc etc etc. And dyno and document it all. And share it with everyone on here. So they could see real world, no BS results. And get a good look at proven power from a certain common combo.

And that was my point. The test was to show trends of LSA's with no other change. The problem I have with these tests is:
1. They don't give enough info. I'd like to see all the dyno sheet. Not just HP and TQ.
2. They didn't articulate where each cam was installed. Who knows, the 104 LSA in at 100 or even 98 would have packed more at the bottom. But we know it would have been more prone to detonation. How about the 104 at 106? Would have helped power past peak. When you don't test for ICL you really have no idea what the engine wants. And testing is expensive.
3. Why a split pattern cam? They either wanted to extend the RPM by adding exhaust or add bottom by reducing intake timing. That head is plenty good enough to not need help on the exhaust side. You could have reduced exhaust timing put it on a 108 and it would have killed all the other cams and had more vacuum at idle.

For what it was you could learn something from it.

My point is there is only ONE set of timing events that is correct for any givin combination. LSA is product of that. To move the cam more than a couple of degrees means you have the wrong timing to begin with and you leave power on the table. There is no de facto LSA.