i looked and researched but no one can really tell me the advantages and differances for after market cams.... so whats lift? whats duration? and stages for CAMS? like hks step 1 or step 2 or stages? all i know is someone told me that one intake cam shaft will give it more oppurtinuity to speed or retard timinf for intake and one for exahaust does the same... so u get more tunability? please help clerify...

lift is how high the camshaft will open the valve. Duration is how long the camshaft will keep a valve open typically past .050" lift. It is measured in degrees by how many degrees of rotation of the crankshaft the valve stays open. Stages are kinda just attention getters. They are an easy way to rank parts in terms of how effective they are. But everyone says wow a stage three cam, thats the highest stage. I'll get that one. Just look at the stats of a particular part.

Take a look at this link...the animations are nice and it'll help you visualize lift and duration. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/camshaft.htm
What is the best lift and duration depends on what you want your car to do. I hear you can change the power curve on your car (low end hp/torque vs high end hp/torque) by changing the cams. When you read mags, it'll say like 256/257 or whatever which is the degrees of the intake and exhaust. How the degrees change the power curve, I'll leave to the experts to explain.....

Sorry but i forgot. It also depends on what your car can handle. Do not go too far or you may find yourself in a predicament. Compression test is a great idea. If you go really big, do not expect a perfect street car. It will idle very rough but run very well at higher rpm. A smaller cam will help you out down low. Or in an S13 KA24DE you can just use the exhaust cam from another motor in place of your intake cam. I think the intake cam stock is around 241 duration and the exhaust is 248 so the valves stay open longer allowing more air to enter the cylinder. Definately read the link above.

Id say Somewhere Between 256/272 are good for the Street. One of the things most people dont realize is even if cams have the same Duration and/or Lift they can still get different power gains for example the HKS 272s make less gains than the Tomei 260s or JUN 262s Because of their More Agressive Ramps. Ive heard Web Cams make Good N/A cams for the KA though

nissanfanatic, you said that you could replace the intake cam with a exhaust cam, from what engine??

i beleive he ment another 240sx engine