I am being offered stage 1 shrick cams for my car to be installed before we tune it. The price is quite reasonable, and living in the Philippine, I would have to wait 1 month to order one, if I wanted it.

From my research, the cams cost the same, not matter what stage you get...very slight variances only. I want to tune the car with the highest possible N/A figure, but still keep it a daily comfortable car that is not temperamental.

Should I opt to wait and get stage 2 or more, or should I just get this one? I was told that idle will not be smooth anymore with stage 2.

schrock do not call them stage 1 or amything, they quote timing, 296 schrick cams are supposed to be biggest street friendly cams, but may need some head work for valve spring clearance due to increased lift

Ok...I know I am not using the right terminology...but I did see it at a website one time that it is referred to that way, and I guess it is the easiest way for me to remember. Let me try to find the link...

http://www.ca-at.co.uk/variants.php?car_make=bmw&car_type=e36m&parent_id=1571

Here it is...this is where they refer to it in stages....but the thing is, stage 1 has 284, stage 2 has the 296 duration...then it goes to stage 3 back to 284? I assumed that you get more powerful as you get from stage 1 to stage 4? But the other numbers I don't know cause they are different from all stages.

they may have same timing, different lift

http://cgi.ebay.de/Schrick-Nockenwellen-296-BMW-M3-E36-NEU_W0QQitemZ160122211882QQihZ006QQcategoryZ61357Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem