Comp Thumpr Cams Installed/Review

[STU]

Did some additions to my car this week. Had the Thumpr cams, motion delete plates, Larger Steeda CAI, Roush Off-Road mufflers and Blue Steeda Valve Covers installed at Brenspeed. Car re-tuned. Last year I had the car tuned with UDP's and K & N CAI. Made 289RWHP. These additions brought me up to 299RWHP (not as much as I expected) Definitely gave the car that old school sound. Gained 10 HP. Lost 6 FT LBS of peak torque. The torque stays longer now though and does not nose dive after reaching it's peak.

A cam with this radical idle requires some change in driving habits. You want to downshift earlier. (Around 2000rpm) Around 1500 rpm you start getting into the idle lope and the car bucks. These mods dropped me 5 mpg. At 18 mpg now. When not going to car activities will drive the Mazda more. At 50 mph in 4th you feel some minor surging because of the cam. Feel nothing in overdrive.

Definitely made the off road mufflers louder. Kinda like it though.
Definitely gets the looks and that sounds great comments.


http://cobrapages.com/thumprcams.MPG

[STU]

New engine pictures......

[08SVT]

Sounds mean.....

[redfire427]

That sounds like a top fueler. I likey !!!!!! Good investment in my books.

[STU]

That sounds like a top fueler. I likey !!!!!! Good investment in my books.

Thanks Carmen. I think I might take the off-road mufflers off and see what it sounds like with the stock mufflers one of these days as an experiment.

[F4iMerlin]

Sooo.....the driveability sucks now, it gets much worse fuel mileage, lost 6 ft/lbs of torque and has an odd surge at speed....?

Well, at least it sounds badass.......at idle. Although, you could have made a cd with an old school muscle car recording and blasted it while driving. Would have been a lot cheaper with none of the crappy side effects you have now.

It does sound good though. Hope you are happy with it. I would suggest getting it tuned elsewhere. Sounds like you got screwed on the tune. Someone has got to be able to tune it and get better results, otherwise, that was definately the wrong camshaft for your setup.

[SteveL]

It looks like all their "Thumpr" cams are 107 degree lobe centers. That's extraordinarily aggressive for an EFI car.

[STU]

Sooo.....the drive ability sucks now, it gets much worse fuel mileage, lost 6 ft/lbs of torque and has an odd surge at speed....?

Well, at least it sounds badass.......at idle. Although, you could have made a cd with an old school muscle car recording and blasted it while driving. Would have been a lot cheaper with none of the crappy side effects you have now.

It does sound good though. Hope you are happy with it. I would suggest getting it tuned elsewhere. Sounds like you got screwed on the tune. Someone has got to be able to tune it and get better results, otherwise, that was definately the wrong camshaft for your setup.

WOW! Who put a burr on your saddle? First off I never said the drive ability sucked now. I did say the rough idle cam does not like very low RPM. I would think that is the same for any rough idle cam whether the hot rod cam or what ever. The surge in 4th at 50 is barely noticeable, but I did notice it. Like I said cruising in overdrive is fine. Everyone on here who has been installing cams recently has done it to achieve the sound they want as their main reason for the purchase. If I was strictly after performance I certainly would have made a different choice. I don't race at the track and that is not how we drive the car. I have experimented under different driving conditions like putting the cruise on in overdrive at 55 to see how it handles steep hills at lower rpm. It does fine.

What are others getting for fuel mileage with the Hot Rod Cams? I don't know but I have to believe it is a little less. All anybody ever says is I installed the cams and love them.

I tried to expand that and give future buyers a little heads-up on what I found after the installation.

I posted the before and after graph below. I'll trade the momentary small spike in torque for the extended higher torque I have now.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with the tune. It is my understanding that on NA cars tuners really only have main control under wide open conditions. Under normal driving conditions the computer just does it's thing to attain 14.7 to 1 air fuel. If I misstated this I'm sure a tuner will correct me.

For now the Thumpr cams give me the sound I was after. In another year or two I may try something else. If it is not for you.....fine. I never told anyone to go out and buy this cam. Just gave my impressions. Something I wish others would do...........

Sooo.....the drive ability sucks now, it gets much worse fuel mileage, lost 6 ft/lbs of torque and has an odd surge at speed....?

Well, at least it sounds badass.......at idle. Although, you could have made a cd with an old school muscle car recording and blasted it while driving. Would have been a lot cheaper with none of the crappy side effects you have now.

It does sound good though. Hope you are happy with it. I would suggest getting it tuned elsewhere. Sounds like you got screwed on the tune. Someone has got to be able to tune it and get better results, otherwise, that was definately the wrong camshaft for your setup.

WOW! Who put a burr on your saddle? First off I never said the drive ability sucked now. I did say the rough idle cam does not like very low RPM. I would think that is the same for any rough idle cam whether the hot rod cam or what ever. The surge in 4th at 50 is barely noticeable, but I did notice it. Like I said cruising in overdrive is fine. Everyone on here who has been installing cams recently has done it to achieve the sound they want as their main reason for the purchase. If I was strictly after performance I certainly would have made a different choice. I don't race at the track and that is not how we drive the car. I have experimented under different driving conditions like putting the cruise on in overdrive at 55 to see how it handles steep hills at lower rpm. It does fine.

What are others getting for fuel mileage with the Hot Rod Cams? I don't know but I have to believe it is a little less. All anybody ever says is I installed the cams and love them.

I tried to expand that and give future buyers a little heads-up on what I found after the installation.

I posted the before and after graph below. I'll trade the momentary small spike in torque for the extended higher torque I have now.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with the tune. It is my understanding that on NA cars tuners really only have main control under wide open conditions. Under normal driving conditions the computer just does it's thing to attain 14.7 to 1 air fuel. If I misstated this I'm sure a tuner will correct me.


I never promoted the Thumpr cams I just gave my impressions. Something I wish others would do. In a year or two I may try something different.

If the cams are not for you.....fine. I don't see the need to run me down though.........

[Cshores]

WOW! Who put a burr on your saddle? First off I never said the drive ability sucked now. I did say the rough idle cam does not like very low RPM. I would think that is the same for any rough idle cam whether the hot rod cam or what ever. The surge in 4th at 50 is barely noticeable, but I did notice it. Like I said cruising in overdrive is fine. Everyone on here who has been installing cams recently has done it to achieve the sound they want as their main reason for the purchase. If I was strictly after performance I certainly would have made a different choice. I don't race at the track and that is not how we drive the car. I have experimented under different driving conditions like putting the cruise on in overdrive at 55 to see how it handles steep hills at lower rpm. It does fine.

Speak for yourself in regards to buying my cams for sound. That is NOT why I bought my Hot Rod cams. There ARE gains to be had and I have gained some performance from my hot rod cams. You shouldn't speak for other people.

The reason I went with the FRPP's is because no additional internal work would have to be done to my Stage 3. Plug in, TUNE and run. The other reason I went with the FRPP's is because they are the best- as you can tell by your sub-par results and performance on those "thumper" sticks.

[Iflyagfour]

Speak for yourself in regards to buying my cams for sound. That is NOT why I bought my Hot Rod cams. There ARE gains to be had and I have gained some performance from my hot rod cams. You shouldn't speak for other people.

The reason I went with the FRPP's is because no additional internal work would have to be done to my Stage 3. Plug in, TUNE and run. The other reason I went with the FRPP's is because they are the best- as you can tell by your sub-par results and performance on those "thumper" sticks.

Wow, someone woke up cranky today!!

Just remember, opinions are like, well you know. Lets race Cason

[redfire427]

Guys, lets show a little love for Stu. He spent his money the way he saw fit. I appreciate the fact that he shared his experience with us. As a lot of us have or are considering doing cams, the more info the better so we can decide what we like rather than purchasing blindly. Thanks Stu.

[Cshores]

Stu,

I mean no disrespect from what I said. I am only saying that my reasons and your reasons are not the same. I also did my research and went with what I "thought" was the best of the nsr performance cam's.

Don't mistake my directness with disrespect. I just want those who are looking at cams to understand that NOISE is not the primary reason for these cams.

[javsvt]

Lets not get like cobra guys. As I am like Stu, if I had the car, I would get it for sound. I dont race, but I do like the sound of a race car. You guys dont like his setup then dont get it, he said he liked the way it is now. So if you dont like it get your own setup, he didnt spend your money, he spent his own. When he spends yours, then you can be rude.

[STU]

Stu,

I mean no disrespect from what I said. I am only saying that my reasons and your reasons are not the same. I also did my research and went with what I "thought" was the best of the nsr performance cam's.

Don't mistake my directness with disrespect. I just want those who are looking at cams to understand that NOISE is not the primary reason for these cams.

I understand.......Noise was not my only reason either, but it was my primary reason. I certainly did not add the motion delete plates and larger CAI just because I only wanted sound. I tried to research best I could but the Comp cams were new enough I could not find much user info on them. I did decide to try them and I actually thought I would gain about 25 hp with them. It's not the end of the world that I didn't. If I had it to do again I would try the Hot Rod Cams. I may later on. One positive is I got a free install on my new valve covers since they were off anyways.

I guess one thing I don't understand is why changing the hood on your car, wheels, interior, grills, etc. to personalize it to what you like/want is not considered vain but making the sound what you like (whether a significant performance increase is achieved or not) is.

[Iflyagfour]

I understand.......Noise was not my only reason either, but it was my primary reason. I certainly did not add the motion delete plates and larger CAI just because I only wanted sound. I tried to research best I could but the Comp cams were new enough I could not find much user info on them. I did decide to try them and I actually thought I would gain about 25 hp with them. It's not the end of the world that I didn't. If I had it to do again I would try the Hot Rod Cams. I may later on. One positive is I got a free install on my new valve covers since they were off anyways.

I guess one thing I don't understand is why changing the hood on your car, wheels, interior, grills, etc. to personalize it to what you like/want is not considered vain but making the sound what you like (whether a significant performance increase is achieved or not) is.

Stu,

Its absolutely not vain. Its your car to personalize the way you want. If others dont like that, then too bad. Like it was said earlier, its not their car nor their money. Hell, you gained some power throughout the entire power band, so thats a plus with a good sound if you ask me.

[05 ROUSH RACER]

I say , you are still getting to mod your car , so be happy about what ever you get to do to it , I can see both sides , most want performance , some like the sound effects , I don't come against any of you guys for your opinion and neither should anyone else , especially if they have not done the mod them selves. good luck and have fun , but get all you can get out of the mod.

[STU]

Found this post on another forum. This seems to be the best comparison test I have yet found. Same car, same tuner, same dyno all within a few days of each other. With his mods graph shows around 30 hp increase with both cams. Here is a link to the thread.
Comp Cams 3V Thumpr NSR - Page 5 - MustangForums.com

[Scarface]

Most people getting cams are getting it for one reason, the sound. Anyone getting it for HP gain on a NA car is not being realistic. Cost of cams are around $800, install and tune/dyno and you are looking at close to $1500-$2000 total and for how much HP??. How much HP gain does cams give?? maybe less then 10HP. Ya I see companies claiming 30-50HP but what they don't tell you is the 30-50HP gain is from the total package, headers, intake, exhaust, CNC Heads, etc.. Everyone has their own taste, its your money do what you are happy with, BTW sounds really sweet

[STU]

Absolutely did it for what I like, and yes that is all that matters. It didn't hurt that while gassing the car up last Saturday 3 different people came over to tell me how much they liked the car.

Everyone enjoy your rides!!! Looks like another week or two and our season will be done till spring. Next year will be kicked of with a nice road trip to Alabama......

[08SVT]

I heard this car in person last weekend....I loved it!!!!! Makes ya say whoa what's that got in it
STU...FYI open dyno day at Brenspeed on the 1st.