I am thinking about putting some Crane Stage 2 Cams and AEM Cam gears on my stock 420 block but wanted some opinions first. right now i just have all your basic bolts on and an 85 shot of nitrous so nothing big and these seem like they would be pretty good. it recommends a low restrictive exhaust and intake and a ported intake manifold for these, and I have all of this but it also recommends porting the cylinder head for them and didnt really want to fork out the money or time and effort for that right now...is this really necessary? will i still get somewhat of a benefit without doing this or is it pointless...ALSO, does anyone else have this set-up or even just the cams? if so, any advice is appriciated...i did a search but didnt come up with anything about the cranes, just the crowders...thanks again guys!!!

-Anna (96 Eclipse GS)

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/474544

well first of all, Crowers come in "stages" and Crane cams are numbered. like Crower has Stage 1, 2, and 3 i think. Crane has 0010 street grind, 0012 nitrous grind, 0014 turbo grind, 0016 drag grind and 0018 drag grind for higher compression. with the mods you have, you would be fine with a set of cams. the ported and polished head is nice buy by no means mandatory. our head flows pretty well already. if you have a full exhaust and an intake then you'll be fine. maybe a bigger tb. you'd have some noticable gains. if you plan on milking out all the power you can then you'd obviously have to hit the dyno. you might want some different cam gears too. the aem's need to be remarked to the stock timing marks. i'm not going to go into to much detail with that cause you could search for that and see what i mean. i would go with fidanza gears. not to mention they're cheaper. now you just need to straighten out which cam you're getting. not crane stage 2 and not crower 12's. lol. no biggy.

youll be just fine without porting the head, our heads flow like the niagra falls.
and its crower stage 2's ...cranes go by 10/12/14/16 numbers
if you get cranes skip the 10s and 12's and go straigh for the big guns, much better gains and still streetable

1998 dodge avenger 4 cyl AT
Mods are:
Not enough

did you post that after me, or were we typing at the same time? lol that's pretty funny. well atleast he knows what's up, cause we both posted exactly the same thing at basically the same time. lol!

I was typing at the same time I guess and think we posted at the same time.
Great minds think alike

1998 dodge avenger 4 cyl AT
Mods are:
Not enough

you will also want to look into new springs and retainers while you are at it... buy the fidenza cam gears and with the money you saved get some new springs and retainers.

__________________________________
-Ryan

ok, sorry guys, your right...the ones i was talking about were the Crane 12's...but you think i should go with the 14 or 16's? would that be better...and ya, thanks for the advice on the springs and retainers...didnt even think about that...do you recommend any good ones...i saw that crowder has some but am not sure if they are "crowder specific" or universal ...i hope that didnt confuse anybody...anyway...thanks for all the input...i reallt appriciate it!!
-Anna

-Anna (96 Eclipse GS)

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/474544

Originally posted by aquafreeta
ok, sorry guys, your right...the ones i was talking about were the Crane 12's...but you think i should go with the 14 or 16's? would that be better...and ya, thanks for the advice on the springs and retainers...didnt even think about that...do you recommend any good ones...i saw that crowder has some but am not sure if they are "crowder specific" or universal ...i hope that didnt confuse anybody...anyway...thanks for all the input...i reallt appriciate it!! -Anna

__________________________________
-Ryan

I really dont think you need to go with new retainers. I have never header of a stock retainer breaking...the advantage to the titanuim retainer is that its ligher. The valve springs are stiffer that you would be getting to help stop valve float at higher RPM's with an agressive cam. What I would recommed is doing is change the valve springs, maybe put in a set of Stainless Steel valves that are std size ( becuase they wont burn up as easy as the stock ones) and put in a set of PT cruiser style lifters are rockers. There an updated version from ares. The lifters have better oiling abilities and the rockers wont colapse or break as easy as the stock ones. This is how my head is setup up with a pair of Crane #14 turbo cams....but thats becuase i have a fully built motor (lower end) and im running 19 pounds of boost. If your going to run NA then either use #12's or if you want ot play around with a little tuning get crane 16's or a set of crower stage 2's.

Klein567 - Ya i heard about that ticket you and Sean got.
Clint485 - Stupid chick cop...worst part was she looked like a dude.
Klein567- Thats becuase all hot cops are strippers

hey thanks so much guys for all the advice...i am still "toying" with the idea so I let you know what i did as soon as it happens...prob in the next week or so (have to talk to one of my "eclipse guru" friends too to see if they can help me-havent messed with cam and gears before and am a little worried about setting the timing back right)...and i dont trust mechanics with my car-most of them all suck and just want to rip you a new one anyway, thanks again-all of you were a big help!!!!!...i will keep you guys updated..

-Anna (96 Eclipse GS)

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/474544

no doubt... great minds do think alike. lol