i'm looking for more performance on my '81. i,m thinking of changing camshafts. does anyone know if this is a good way of going for more performance and if anything else needs to be changed at the same time? what about the cost?

I'm using a comp cams xe262h in my 72. It's a very good street cam. Excellant idle and good vacumm, but more peformance than the stock one. I added a edelbrock intake and a holley 600, a good three angle valve job, and a set of headers with flowmasters. It's a very tractable street engine that runs 14.3's at around 98mph. I have a th400 with 3.36 gears.
If you watch ebay, you can pick up most of what you need without spending a lot of money.
Tom

You can go with a more than stock cam without changing anything else. It just depends on how far you want to go. If you also make the other changes, it will help even more. A cam change is perhaps one of the easiest ways to get more from your engine. You will need to change the lifters when you change the cam. They wear in together and if you don't do both, you may have a failure. You can put a lot of money into a cam. Summit Racing has a cam and lifer kit for under 100 bucks. You will also need gaskets.
A larger "bump stick" is always a good choice. Just don't go to far or you will loose idle and low RPM vacuum. Cam like this won't help unless you do other engine, intake, and carb changes.

I will change my cam and lifters, and install dual exhaust. This will add quite a bit, and still run smooth. I need to do a several other things first.

Ken Styer

Changing the cam can certainly help. The previous owner of my '78 L82 put a higher performance cam in the car, but never modified the carburetor to match. It wouldn't hold an idle because the primary jets were now too lean. I installed one size bigger primary jets and that took care of the problem. It may not happen with your car, but just be aware when you change something, it has ramifications elsewhere in the engine/induction system that may need modifications as well.

As far as what camshaft, contact Summit Racing, Edelbrock, Crane, Comp Cams, Lunati, etc., and tell them what you have, what kind of performance you're looking for, and they will all be happy to recommend the camshaft they have that will do. Comp Cams will usually tell people to pick a camshaft they think they need, and then choose the next milder cam and you'll have what you really need.

If your '81 still has the computer hooked up you will be limited on how big a cam you can use. Remember '81 was the 1st year for the "Computer Command Control" ECM system.
If it's hooked up then you may want to use something like a Compu-cam from Crane or see what other manufactures offer for a computer friendly cam.
Or if you don't have it hooked up then try out a recommendation from one of the members.
Have fun + good luck!
Sarge