Bought my '03 used thinking it was stock, but everybody assures me I have cams installed. This would be nice considering I'm about to start modding. How much labor time is involved finding out? As of now, I only have a MBC. I want a TBE, drop-in filter, and custom EcuTek tune. My goal is about 330hp. Would this be enough if I have cams? I have 2K to spend max....including labor.

 

just open the valve cover than find out. It will take about 30 mins.
another easy way. get the MAF reading at the idle from the logger. stock will read about 24 HZ cammed engine will read about 32 Hz. It will take about 2 mins.
But, it will be hard to tell if you have 264/272 or 272/ 272s. you can sure tell you have 280s since idle will be so rough. 264/264s are almost stock like...

 

Just pull the valve cover and take a peek.

 

uh... who is "everybody" and why do they assure you that you do? It seems strange that the prior owner would install cams & a MBC only, and not install any other basic bolt-ons first. My initial guess is that you do not have aftermarket cams installed.

 

I doubt you have cams. As someone else mentioned, not that it's not possible, but it is odd that someone would put cams in without any of the other basic bolt ons. Most would do cams only after they did all the basic stuff.

 

"Everybody" includes Doug at TopSpeed in Atlanta and Andrew at Dyno4mance in Calhoun, GA. My idle is very rough, even the Mitsu service manager noticed. We believe the car was modded more, just put back to stock. I put on the MBC b/c the stock boost lines were not there. Andrew took a peek but could not identify what brand and/or flavor. How important is knowing first before the tune?

 

Have you thought about that person might have sold all the mods and left the cams? cams are pretty hard to take out(took me 8 hours first time). If I am going to sell my car quick, I might leave the cams. And if you have 264/264s in it is really hard to tell. the guy I know took it to the dealer for warranty work, and they didn't notice cams were there. Also, taking out TBE or LCIPs are pice of cake compared to cams. I can do that in 30 mins.

 

I did a quick peak by removing the oil cap and noticed that the car does not have the stock hollow core cams. To find out what cams exactly the car has you would need to remove the valve cover and look at the part number stamped on them. If you were to do a through the mail flash you would need to know first hand what cams your car has.. but if you just go and get a custom tune then it really doesn't matter since your tuner will tune for whatever is in there anyways.

 

Well if you're going to have it dyno tuned, they'll fix the AFR and tune your car so its running tip top. Not all same mods will react the same for every EVO, and thats where the tune comes into play to bring it all together. You shouldn't have to worry.

 

+1

 

Well, Doug....you would be my tuner...so I have nothing to worry about then. Thanks. I doubt they are 264's since my idle is so rough. Do you think we could reach my goal with my cams, mbc, tbe, and your custom tune?