COMP CAMS 260H 200CI Cam Shaft Kit review:

One of the cheapest ways to gain some power (though not always the easiest) is to replace your stock camshaft with something a little more aggressive. Camshafts taht come from the factory are typically very mild in tuning, mainly because like everything else on the car, they have to make it so everyone will be happy with it and it will run decently for the most people. That means less power, and smooth operations. Who wants to buy a new car that can hardly be driven off the lot, even if it does have 500 RWHP?

After looking high and low, I decided to go with Competition Cams. Well, my experience with the company was less then pleasant. When I originally called in November 2002, I was told they had the cores in stock and it would take about 2 weeks to grind one. Since I wasn't ready yet, I decided to wait. I called in December to see if they still had the cores and they said they did and it should take about 3 weeks to get it made and delivered. So I ordered the first week of December thinking it would be in by January, which is when I planned to do the work.

I ordered the complete kit, with Timing Chain, Lifters, Springs, Retainers and locks, and seals. I went with a 260H cam for several reasons. The main was was drivability. I did not want a real lopey cam. I wanted the car to still sound very smooth on idle. All I really wanted was slightly more duration, but more importantly, more lift from the Valves. This cam increase the stock lift of the valves by almost 30%. That's a lot of air. Lift with from .350" to .444". The .050 duration was also fairly long when compared to other comes around 260H (meaning more time for the air to come in). Also, the 260H cam did not sacrifice a lot of low end torque for high end power.

1st week into January, still no parts so I decide to call. Somehow now they are all out of cores, but they tell me they should have some in the next day or so and that I'll have my parts in 2 weeks. Great, except my car is without an engine.

Two weeks pass, still no parts. So I call again. They tell me to wait another 2 weeks because now they don't have any more timing chains, but my cam shaft is done. I tell them I don't need the timing chain (I only got it because it was part of the kit) and I requested they send the parts they have and send the timing chain later.

Later that week, I got all the parts except the camshaft. I did get a timing chain though. Finally, 3 months after ordering my camshaft, I finally got it.

Well, the valve spring locks were the wrong ones, but luckily I was able to reuse my old ones. Everything else looked very nice.

Installation instructions provided were excellent, especially about running in the cam and adjusting valve rockers.

Overall impression of the cam: Excellent. The engine still has a nice smooth idle, with only a very faint sound of lope. Sounds very good, and very aggressive. Sounds much better then the stock came. Performance wise, it is a great improvement. While I have no exact dyno numbers, the car feels much more responsive to the throttle, and the flat spots seem to be gone.