I have an 05 raptor 350, and want to buy either a hot cam or web cam, the hot cam is a little cheaper because it uses the stock springs, the web cam comes with after market springs, is there going to be any performence difference with stock or aftermarket springs , and does anyone know if using the hot cam with stock springs will i have springs possibly break since their stock??

 

I have stage 1 hotcams in my Z400, no valve spring problems. With the stage 2 there is enough increased lift that valve spring change is needed. I like the gains I got with the hotcams. For more performance increase I hear the Webcams are the way to go, but more in line for buildups with many other hop ups to coincide.

 

I'd say go with the webcam, and instead of getting the mild .390 cam, go all the way and get the .430

I don't like the idea of using stock springs with an aftermarket cam. They're weak enough that you can float the valves from the factory. With a higher lift cam, even with the extremely mild stage 1 hotcam, it'll be quicker to float the valves, and I would think that the springs could possibly even break, because they're being forced to compress more than they were designed to with the stock cam. Stiffer springs will also help to keep the chattering/ticking valve noise down, which you will get from any aftermarket cam.

I don't think I could ever buy a hotcams product. They screwed over a lot of raptor 350 owners a few years ago, because they just re-labeled warrior cams as one for a raptor 350, without doing the proper research. The valvetrains aren't exactly the same, and a bunch of rappy owners ended up with messed up engines and useless cams, before hotcams pulled them off the shelves, and never recalled them or did anything to pay for the damages they caused on their customer's rides. It's possible that there are still some of those incorrectly labeled cams floating around, sitting on shelves gathering dust. I pity anyone who ends up with one of them.

 

Definatly go with the Web Cam for your raptor. The HotCam's for the Warrior and Raptor 350 are very mild cam shafts and use the stock valve springs for a reason. Don't look at just the lift spec's look at the duration, remember to when you are setting the valves at manufacture cam spec how much does that cam lift now, like hotcams. Just becacause HotCam has more lift the the Web .390 doesn't mean jack. The Megacycle mid range cam has more lift the either of them and is just a little better performing then the HotCam. If your not all out racing and in the top end of the RPM all the time then I say go with Web's all around cam. It's great cam for are bikes. Get some valve springs from Web and you'll be set.