Cams How do you choose one?
you could always match ur cam to ur convertor and gearing, rpm range , how u will drive it and where at !
Mmm....manual 4 speed trans. No help in the TC department.
OP, you asked about milling depths. 2 things to consider: pushrod length and intake side milling of the heads. Reports here support that you can go .030" to .040' with a good chance of not having to change out pushrods; . It's just not a 100% guarantee; the parts stack up is on an individual valve/rocker/pushrod/lifter basis. The more you mill, the closer you move to having 1 or more pushrod length issues. Sometimes swapping around rockers can resolve this.
As you mill the deck surface of the head, you should mill the intake side of the head too, to maintain intake alignment. Mill .001" less off the intake side than the head side in the .030" to .040" range of milling. Deck-only milling has succeeded without intake-side milling for these amounts of deck milling, but it's less of a chance you are taking on a fit problem to do both.
Thinnest head gasket is .028" thick; Mr Gasket 1121G.
Let's mill and see where things end up:
.030": SCR moves from 7.8 to 8.2
.040": SCR moves from 7.8 to 8.35
DCR will move up in the same amount. A half point increase in DCR WILL show up in improved torque, throttle response, etc. So now with that smallest VooDoo cam, installed with 2-4 degrees added cam advance, the DCR is about .4 points higher than stock, both at sea level and at your elevation. It is not yet 'super snappy' but it is overall better and breathing has improved for the mid-upper RPM range to help the top end too. Maybe you can consider a one step larger cam too.
And, there is some more help if you set up and tune the ignition timing better. This can/should be done regardless of camming or milling or anything else. Other threads abound on that topic.
The piston changeout is a complete overhaul; that is a lot bigger bite to take. So not doing that is quite understandable. However, it would get things set up as best as possible. SCR moving up into the high 9's to 10-ish is the result. BIG difference in low-mid RPM torque and driveability! And perhaps the big thing: the cam possibilities open much wider, to include larger cams, and then the high RPM operation extends out too. Now you have more torque everywhere; it'll be more responsive whenever you hit the gas. That's the beauty for a driver, where there are situations where there is no 'optimum gear' available with your manual trans to avoid 'falling off of the torque curve' if the engine is set up around a too narrow RPM range.
