The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop opinions please,cam selection

heres what i got,49 1/2 ton. 3.73 12 bolt,350 turbo.355 sbc ,flat top hypereutectic,1978 low comp heads. edlebrock performer intake,edlebrock either 600 or 650 carb dont remember which.plan on the truck pretty much being a driver.kinda want enough of a cam to boost my ego but not necessarly sound like a pro stocker either. was thinkin about the comp cams 268h but then again with gas prices uncertain ,thinkin about maybe just usin the edlebrock preformer cam kit and be done with it. that one will be matched to the intake(off idle to 5500 rpm) while the 268 is 1500 to 5500.not oposed to running a small stall converter. but with the 3.73 and the bigger cam is it worth the xtra fuel or lack of mpg just to hear a lope at idle? has any one had experience with either cam or similiar combonations? would really like some feedback as the time to assemble the motor is aproaching......dave

Dave, sounds alot like my 52. I got a r700 trany, I just ordered a edlebrock thunder 650 and a performer airgap dual plane intake. Summit has a Comp cam kit #cca-k12-206-2 that I'm thinking about, I like the numbers, rpm range is 1200-5200. With out overdrive your gas mileage isn't going to be great anyway. Just remember you have to feed the beast.

dave sent you a pm.

Dave, I have a 327 bored .060 over, same pistons, intake, 600 cfm carb, 1.6 roller rockers, TH350 Trans. I used a Comp Cams 262 - seems like a good combination. Lots of torque / not a real " lopey " cam sound tho.

Dave;
The Performer cam and lifter set is matched to your intake manifold and carb for a nice hp gain but it is real smooth, not rumpity-rump at all. If your after the lopey sound I'd look at something else.

Dave,
I've used the performer cam and intake, with a quadajet. Was ok. Maybe because of the carb. Was cheating in a total stocker race car.
But, the Comp Cam Xtreme 4X4 in the same setup livened my 350 up..447"/.462" 254/262 degrees. 1000-5200. Liked it so much I'm gonna put it in the 57. Just a hint of lope. But if youre worried about mileage, I don't think you want lope anyway.

Your heads will choke down any performance gains the bigger cams would offer. Low compression motors and long duration cams don't mix well. Either swap the heads or stay with a very modest cam lift and short duration.

I'm not intetionally pushing you to something too wild, but if it's for the over-cammed sound and the ego, who cares about a litlle loss in bottom end torque & MPG! It's your cruzer. Anyway, you can get some of the low end torque back by getting the ignition advance curve all-in as early as possible ( by 2K RPM), as well as installing the cam a couple of degrees advanced. This will mask the loss of cylinder pressure caused by the overlap. My bigger concern would be having a loose enough stall converter. Many NHRA super stock racers have to keep the compression ratio and head castings their spec'd engine came with. They manage to make some crazy power numbers with sick sounding roller cams. It's all in the tune! Use a good set of long tube headers. If you know a good dyno guy, they can really help you with this in 2-3 hours of work, once your hardware is all bolted together and running. Cheers, MV

If you are going for that big cam sound at idle without much loss in low speed performance the Comp Cams Thumper series are supposed to work very well. They are designed with these two contradictory traits in mind. I have no first hand experience, but everything I've read is positive.

John

Thumper Series cams are retro-fit hydraulic roller cams. Between the price of the cam and lifters, you'd be looking at around $700.

im planning on going biiiig on my cam, my truck will only be a cruiser. my freind is setting me up with a cam with a advertised duration of .355 and lift of .595. dontt know the at .50 numbers off hand .of course im going to use a 3500 rpm stall and big heads a eldebrock performer rpm intake. and many ohter goodies. just because i want the huge cam sound and h.p to go with it.