My brother is in the market for some cams for his Evo IX and his ultimate goal is to have a very fun, streetable car. We've talked about doing several different cam setups in it but, like most others, are trying to get the best bang for the buck.

Can anyone give me insight on whether or not springs and retainers would be required for his application? I've searched on this topic but can't really find a whole lot of solid data. I have concluded they are recommended in higher revving engines, but he is running a 2.3 stroker motor so he isn't really going to be revving it all that high. Max RPMs will be the ocassional spin to 7800-8000 but with the majority of shifts around 7500-7600. The car will not be constantly beat on, mostly just used as a daily driver/putting around town, etc but will occasionally be used for some WOT fun

Like I said we've looked at several other cams but have pretty much narrowed it down to either the Kelford 272's or the GSC S2's. That goes back to the most for the money though as I know the S2's are going to require springs/retainers, which in turn is going to cost a lot several hundred dollars more in labor.

Any advice/input is appreciated!

 

From what I know with those cams if your gonna be taking it to 8 you should get springs etc. If he wants a pretty fun set up he can do something like mine, Im running meth, which just ran a 12.5 with ****ty first time launchin by me, lol so its about a 12.2 car in AZ. But what Im going to do is get a set of s1's and leave factory springs ( I shift at like 7.2) and run a really good tune of Meth+100oct fuel. But if he wants those more aggressive cams and wants to shift at 8 I would def go for the springs and retainers. I dunno if you put it somewhere, but whats your bros current set up?

 

i have upgraded single springs and retainers with my kelford 272's

 

Thanks for the input, but at the current time he's looking to stay away from meth and just do straight pump gas. I ran meth on my old Evo (see sig) and had very good results so he may decide to do it in the future. As I said a spin to 7800-8000 will be very few and far in between, not a daily thing.

Setup is:
2.3L engine- JE pistons, Eagle rods & crank, ARP hardware etc
FPRed Turbo (thanks to Big Al for the hookup )
3" TBE
880cc PTE injectors
Walbro 255
Undecided on IC and piping
Whatever cams he ends up going with
Basically all supporting mods

The exhaust, fuel stuff, and motor are (of course) already in the car and then everything else will be put on shortly. It'll be tuned using ECUFlash on straight pump gas for now.

 

it would be wise to run a new spring set on Kelford's 272 and you already know what i think about our S2 set.. try not to skimp $225 on a $4k build to ultimatly float a valve and smack some pistons.

also remember the S2 for the Evo 9 that is now shipping is a 278 11.2mm and a 274 11.0mm.... the new grind produces more power up top with out loosing any of our low end and mid rangen or idle quality...

 

Greg, thanks for your input on the situation. What it boils down to is not a fact of being cheap, if they're needed then they'll be used and it will be done right. On the contrary, saving $500-600 (got to think about labor to install the springs as well) never hurts.

What I've pretty much concluded is that while he probably can run the Kelford's with the stock valvetrain and get away with it at his RPMs, in the long run it's probably going to be better to do a set of springs/retainers and have the peace of mind knowing there won't be any problems. Like I said initially, I simply wanted some input/advice from others.

 

gsc s2... but i am kinda biased. I think the beehive valve springs should be plenty for what hes revving too as well... They aren't too expensive both GSC and FP offer them

But looking at AMS's cam test for what he will be revving to.. The GSC S2 offers a tad bit more power in that range

Can't wait to see what both our cars put down though... I am sure billy will be happy just to have his car on the road again!

 

How ya figure, the dyno graphs are based off speed not RPMs But yeah he's pretty anxious to get it back for sure!

 

because i narrowed it down to rpm's ... looks like it was a 3rd gear pull ending about 95mph is gonna put you right around 8500K+ based on the stock gears of course


But yeah man either way both are killer cams

 

Springs and retainers are recommended on both those cam conbinations over stock rev limit 7606rpms.

We have supertech single springs and retainers in stock which would be the best quality and cost effective solution for his build.

 

Haha nice, I don't know much about the stock IX gearing but I just remembered my old 8 being somewhere around 90-95mph at the end of 3rd and my rev limiter was 7800.

Thanks for your input, sending you a PM now

 

Dude, spend the extra $$$ on some springs and retainers or just springs (Beehive) and have the peace of mind when you do want to hit 8k+

 

Bought GSC beehives today to go with my Kelford 272's.

 

our stock springs are beehives arent they?

 

For the $$ you cannot beat the GSC Beehive springs.. EVen if you get the basic set which reuses the stock retainer.. Better safe than sorry!!

Mike