Cams Vs Porting

[Piero]

Hi Guy
What is your opinion on a dilema I am having at the moment with regards to tuning a 130 starda Arbath engine.
I am in two minds as to what to do.

option 1: buy new pistons (cr 10.1 odd), buy new stage 3 rally gravel cams, and leave the head work alone.

opption 2: buy same pistons, buy new stage 2 fast road cams and do the head work.

Before you anwser, let me give you just a little more info.
The engine is going into a light two seater sports car, and it is very light at the rear wheels, so I would say, torque is not my number one priority.

If I go with option one, and I feel I need more power, I can always, at a latter time, whip the head off and at no real extra cost, port and flow the head.
If I go for opption two, it is a lot more work, and if i want more hp, I will need new cams (extra money)

what I really hope to gain from you is whether one way is better and for what reason please.

Piero

[Guy Croft]

The cam is merely a mechanism for letting the air/fuel into the head or evacuating it. Whether anything gets in (or out) effectively is a compound of port flow and cam characteristics. Competition cams thus always work better if the head is optimised.
It's always a question of cost but I would always want to port the head (in-toto) before fitting a competition cam setup.

GC