Camshafts

Choose by What the Truck Does

Stage numbers look like a ladder where higher is better. They are not. A higher stage moves the power band up the rev range, and if your truck does not live up there you have made it slower everywhere you actually drive.

The 2.4 has one genuine advantage here. A shorter stroke than the 2.7 makes it naturally happier to rev, so a bigger camshaft suits this engine slightly better than the same grind in the larger one — provided you have the gearing to keep it in the band.

• Stage 1 — stock or mildly built engines, runs on the factory ECU with no tuning. Also works on low boost, 4-10 psi. The right choice for most owners.
• Stage 2 — a large increase in mid-range. Designed for a well built naturally aspirated engine.
• Stage 3 and Stage 4 — upper rpm. Off-road racing, circle track, drag and hot street. Below 3,000 rpm they feel worse than stock.
• Stage 5 — huge lift, competition only.

Turbocharged? Use the turbo grinds on the Turbo page, not these.

Adjustable Cam Gears

The adjustable cam gear fits the intake cam, and on the RZ engines it is the only accurate way to change cam timing at all.

The usual reason is correction rather than tuning. Milling the head or decking the block moves the camshaft closer to the crank and retards the cam timing. If you have had machine work done and not corrected for it, the engine is not running the timing the camshaft was ground for.

Replace the intake cam hub bolt any time the stock cam gear comes off. It is a seven-dollar part.

Do Not Fit a Camshaft Alone

A camshaft is a valve train component before it is a power part. At Stage 2 and above the springs, retainers and followers must control the valve at the lift and rpm the cam asks for — and the follower diameter has to match the lobe, or it runs off the edge of the bucket.

The full range is on Cylinder Heads & Valvetrain, where the followers are listed by which camshaft stage they suit.

Tell us the engine, gearing and what the truck does and we will pick it with you.