Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Performance Cam question

I'm looking for information about cams. Is there a general, all purpose high performance cam, or is something I heard about them being trade offs, between horse and torque true? How do they affect the engine's performance, sounds, and reliability? I'm kind of afraid that cams will do 1 of several things...
1) Raise the horsepower by 20 or 30, but lower torque by the same. Or vice versa.
2) Make the engine real loud, like a Mustang with no exhaust.
3) Make the car run rough at idle speeds, or throw off the balance of the car.
4) Just mess the engine up in general.

I am not aware of any aftermarket source for high performance cams. There was a lenghly thread on this topic a few months ago so you may gain more insight if you do a search. I absolutely believe that this engine would come alive with a hotter set of cams. Even the SVT cams are mild compared with stuff I used to run in older cars in years past.

Cams are very tricky and can change a lot of specs on an engine. If you're really interested, I recommend picking up some sort of book on this stuff. They can probably explain it better than I can.