bigger cam
 

are they worth it? i tried to search but couldnt find anything. so would a bigger cam and some porting give a noticeable gain?

Whether it's worth it depends on what previous upgrades you have and what deals you can find. You'll be needing a cam(s), upgraded valvetrain, tuning, injectors, etc.

I have a stage 2 crower camshaft in my d16y8 with valve springs/retainers, IM, no porting done though. After a quick base tune, the car was a little faster with the butt dyno, but really not that huge of a difference.

ok i gues i wont do it. then

did you degree the cam in with dial indicator and a crankshaft degree kit? probably the reason you didnt make that much more power

^^ Are you talking about advancing the timing?

not distributor timing but with a cam gear to get the cam dialed into the bottom end perfect (mechanical timing)

ditto, you can't just throw stuff on the car and hope it works.

From everything Ive read, building and port and polishing the head is really where your going to make power. I personally havent started building mine, but I have read threads on HT comparing dyno runs with diff cams and the difference was pretty big in a few cases.

^ depends on the person that does the headwork. Take a diy kinda guy and let him port and polish his head and compare the gains to a professional doing the port'n'polish, the results will be tremendously different.