Let me preface in saying that I have done a lot of searching and reading on the matter.

I currently have intake, TBE, JDM MR BOV, mbc, and a jestr flash. I'm ready to make the next step and cams are the logical choice among other things I plan on doing. I will be staying stock turbo, and I'd like to know what cams give the best overall balance of quick spool, high rpm pull, and most importantly, smoothest idle. My goal is to achieve 350whp minimum (dynojet hp). I'm not into attracting unwanted attention to my car. Aside from daily abuse, I do a variety of racing including drag, auto-x, and road race.

Thanks very much.

 

Been beaten to death but 272's were fine for me. Some have had good combo results like 264/272 ect. Just ask jester what he would do.

 

My 280's are fine with me also. so were my 272's, and so were my stock cams. Looks like i am NO HELP!

 

i think you should get a fuel pump if you already havent

 

I know it's been beaten to death, but I've read of people who had rough idle and stalling issues with HKS 272's (my choice for now due to price availability to me). Are these isolated issues?

 

thats going in along with the cams, a full pipe set, fmic, 10.5 exhaust side, and o2 housing I'm no noob to playing with cars but there's just soooo much info on cams its easy to get lost. I try not to make unneeded posts

 

Those are usually from being untuned

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...highlight=cams

I had an Aem ems so my idle was fine with 272's.

 

well i will be getting tuned, but sticking with tuned ecu and maf sensor. Not really looking to get into the cost or complexity of an EMS for my daily driver. Figured I should throw that in there.

Thanks for all the replies thus far, very helpful!

 

I am sure Jester can get you stock like idle with just about any cams you choose.

 

you'll have trouble getting the right answer..... cams are a compromise between quick spool, high rpm pull and smooth idle. Since "smooth idle" is most important, stick with stock cams. But if you're willing to compromise some idle, then there's room for debate. Also, 350 whp is a lofty goal for an 03 with your mods on anything less than 272's tuned for top end. Again, it's all about compromise. Cam gears adds another wrinkle, but can give you the best of both worlds so to speak. Buy 272's, use the gears to get the idle you want, and they'll still pull better on the top end than the stockers will.

 

Forget anything everyone has told you... go to who you are going to have tune the car. They will have their preference. True everyone is going to say that any tuner worth their salt can tune anything YOU want. However, like any person, tuners have their preferences. You can bet your ***, that no matter how minute the difference may be, they will tend to have their "sweet set up" that is what they tend to recommend. Hence, they have probably tuned that preference a lot... if you get my drift.

So if you are using Jester, spend some time talking to him about what you want, and what he recommends.

If you want to read about all the internet warriors battling out the merits of their favorite grind, the search function is your friend. I'm sad to say I have also participated in some of them.

 

Jon, I have seen many graphs comparring 264 to 272 on the same engine. The 264s give quicker broader powerband. The 272 win between 6000-7500 but not by much. The 264 give better results betwen 4000-6000 and its substantially more than what it gives up at high rpm. 264 will have a smoother idle. I vote GSC264 or FP1s since they are both designed to outperform hks264.

 

my gsc 272 idle

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H3fxHvvO0L0

Little lopey but they are fine.

As long as you dont get jun/revolvers or any other race cams with the stock ecu used for tuning, they will be fine for a daily driver.

 

I made no changes to my idle portion of map when I installed my comp 272 cams and you can barely notice they are there and never have any problems with car dying.