I do remember the Buick Set Ups, up to Stage IV... I think !
Ford, indirectly has Stage setups, via SVO, now SVT, all in Book Form, they called it Stage Building at least if my memory remembers correctly, what was it we were talking about, lol !
Although Ford HAD, Stage Building, it was for there V-8 Families, and then there was there 4.3L V-6 too, but not for the 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and I have never seen anything for the 4.0L, any of them. The Stage Building Systems would allow you to buy certain parts, get some performance gains and if not enough performance, you could upgrade without a lot of loss in parts cost because it all worked together for the most part.
BUT, where I was going in the beginning is, what was the build trying to achieve, more torque for a kick in the pant take off, more HP for that high end pull, higher RPMs just to make it sound better, all take a different approach in selecting a Camshafts. So I thought it funny the Stage 1 moniker.
I do remember when you could only buy a Camshaft that had a title, either Street, 3/4 Race and Full Race, I'm guessing Street was 1/2 Race, what ever that means.
I never knew much about them back then, maybe not now too, but it did make it a little easier selecting a cam, that's what Buick and Ford attempted to do.
I built my latest 5.0L W, added longer than stock Connecting Rod for longer Dwell times on the piston, and a short duration, big lift, cam to get more torque and gain a little HP while I was at it. I would have to look up all of the specs on the cam to be sure but the lift was around .510 INT and .515 EXH, with a shorter duration; a lot of opening held open for a shorter time, this can result in better overall performance but increase low end torque more than high rpm HP.
Sorry got on a roll, thanks for listening !
