Ok, so I see tons of recomendations for the LT4 hot cam kit for a daily driver. But what if I want just a little more? And still be a daily driver and still pass Ca smog. I have a M6 car. I have the following items on the bench ready to go.... ported heads, smog legal headers, 52mm TB and 3.73 gears. I want a "mild" 400 hp at the crank. So is it still the hot cam kit or ????? Thanks

Yep and intake if you can find one.

The LT4 HOT cam kit is an economical package for a mild upgrade. If you want "more", you're going to have to talk to other CA residents to see what cams they have been able to tune to pass CA emissions. You should also have a flow chart on the ported heads, so that whoever specs the cam can take advantage of the flow vs. valve lift fiures. I saw a post recently from a guy in CA who passed emissions with a Crane Powermax 2033 cam, but he's only making about 325rwHP. The cam isn't a lot bigger than the LT4 HOT cam.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5069018

You can't put the LT4 intake on LT1 heads, unless you machine away the interference between the LT1 head valve cover rail and the taller runners on the LT4 intake. If you do that, you end up with an intake that is virtually identical internally, to the stock LT1 intake. While GM put more metal at the top of the LT4 intake runners to allow them to be ported to match the taller ports on the factory LT4 heads, they never bothered to open up the intake runners, leaving them virtually identical to the LT1 runners. I have the LT4 intake and heads, and the intake took a major amount of porting to get it to support the flow of the ported LT4 heads.

Talk with Lloyd Elliot www.eportworks.com and he'll hook you up with a proven 400rwhp (thats to the wheels) emissions legal package. I made about 405rwhp with my LE2 setup. A friend with the same exact car but different gearing put down 417rwhp through a 9"!

Off the shelf cams your pretty well limited to the Hotcam and Comp 305 cam. Those cam choices with all bolton parts and ported heads you are lucky to get 350-360 tops. Depending on your choice of heads that you and what they flow you might be able to squeeze a bit more out of them. Lloyd Elliott is the man to talk to these days, if you want a 400rwhp dd and smog legal he would be the man to talk to i couldnt agree more.

I have the Hotcam kit in my car with all boltons and stock heads and guessing im in the ball park of 320rwhp.

Thanks everyone for the info. Im looking for 400hp at the crank with my bolt ons. Not 400rwhp. So thats why Im trying to figure out what cam to use.