ABC cams are good but...
 

they are outdated. what cams would be comparable ot the ABC line?

ive been looking into cams for the past week and i think im going to go with an ed curtis custom grind. mostly due to his experience, and this way i will have a cam tailored to my specific eqiupment.

I would never go with a Letter cam. Worst ones out there for sure. They are hardly better then stock.

damn, that bad? so it would be comp, crane, ed curtis, anderson..who else makes good 5.0 cams?

They are POINTLESS, the F cam has done good in some turbo engines but thats about it. I think the only thing keeping those cams going is people are lazy and just wanna pick out a cam out of a catalog. The LS1 guys are light years ahead on cams when it comes to just getting on a website and picking one out.

damn so pritty much *>Letter cams

They really arent bad. The B cam makes great steetability and a cool sounding idle for a daily car, the X cam makes some pretty good numbers, and the E and F cams are the most copied things out there, tons of cams just like em. They are proven good runners that work for the average bolt on person and occasionally pull some huge #'s with the right setup. To say they are almost no better than stock is insane...

Comp and Crane make some excellent cams if your looking for something OTS.
For mild performance I would look at something like a 276HR, XE270/274HR from comp. You can never go wrong with a TFS stage 1 or 2 cam. Crane part #449591, #449601 (strikingly similar to a TFS stage 2), #449651.

That should be enough to get you started!

There's no arguing the alphabet cams work, but there's so many cam profiles that just work "better" for a given combination. There's so much more to a cam profile than just duration @ .050" and lift.

Lets compare the TFS stage 1 (TFS-51402000)....
Duration at .002 in: 275 intake/279 exhaust
Duration at .050 in: 221 intake/225 exhaust
Lobe Lift: .312 in. intake/.319 in. exhaust
Valve Lift with 1.6 Rockers: .499 in. intake/.510 in. exhaust
Lobe Separation (Degrees): 112

to the B-303
Duration at .002 in: 284 intake/284 exhaust
Duration at .050 in: 224 intake/224 exhaust
Lobe Lift: .267 in. intake/.267 in. exhaust
Valve Lift with 1.6 Rockers: .480 in. intake/.480 in. exhaust
Lobe Separation (Degrees): 107

At first glance, most people look at the duration @ .050 .. In that case the B cam looks a little bigger, save for that 1 degree exhaust difference. But lets look at the advertised duration for a second. Look at the B cam exhaust vs the TFS cam exhaust. The TFS cam is obviousy ramping the lobe much faster, since with one MORE degree @ .050, the total time the valve is open is actually 5 degrees LESS than the B-cam! The faster you can get the valve off the seat and into the lift range where the heads actually flow some good air, the more power you're going to make. Another thing to notice is the lobe separation angle. B-cam 107 vs. the TFS cam 112 -- that B cam is a nice rumpy cam at idle, while the TFS cam is going to purr. So, you've got a much more "mild" feeling cam, that makes more power than the B cam.

Who cares if the alphabet cams work, you could still go faster with something else. No sense in staying in the cave man era. This is another reason why the LS1 guys are LIGHT YEARS ahead on n/a street engines, their wild heads help also. ;)