Ok guys, I have a stage 2 cam and valve springs, and was gonna buy a piston also, but money is real tight now due to buying a house. I havent put the cam in yet because i was gonna do it all at one time, but i dont know how long i will have to wait for that piston. I was just wondering how much of a gain I would get by just adding the cam, or would it be best to just keep the cam in the closet (thats its current home) until I can afford the piston? I have had the cam for about 6 months now and I hate to just see it sit there.

 

leave it alone, you need to get a better piston (more compression) to realize the potential of the cam. you might loose some performance with just the cam since it's a stage 2, if it were a stage 1 Id say go for it. If you put it in now it will probally be better than stock, but it would be best to wait just to make sure.

 

And with a stage 2 I think you should port and polish the head(just my opinion)

 

If I had it too do allover again, I would have only went with more cam and left the stock piston in. You will never have too worry about the rod blowing, the aftermarket piston grenading for no apparent reason, the head gasket blowing for no apparant reason, or high octane fuel if you stay stock on the piston. Tons of reliability is lost when you replace the piston unless you replace the rod....and thats more major cash. It's simply not worth it for 2-3 additional horses (but low end torque benefits more). The Raptor is a torque monster anyway...so is more low end torque really necessary? No. This is from my personal experience....just don't make your machine a grenade and enjoy it instead of being broke down all of the time.
Gary

 

Thanks for the info guys