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It's been a long time since I built my last engine. There is so much new stuff on the market and so much has changed I need some professional opinions. I'm going to build my engine back to factory specs but I want just a little thump to it when I pull into a cruise-in. What do ya'll recommend for a new cam? BTW it's a 4 speed car and will have (I guess) 2 or 2 1/2 inch exhaust with manifolds.

ALL help greatly appreciated !!

Daniel

Tell us more about the engine build Daniel.....compression, heads, intake....also rear end gearing, intended usage and so on. More details with help us to offer better opinion.

And little background to

OK folks this is all I know about the engine. My brother built it back in '74/'75. It was blue printed and balanced. It has 11.00 to 1 pistons and a .602 lift. Heads are 186 with 2.02/1.60 valves. Rear end is 513. Brother don't remember a lot of the details so I'm not sure if any porting was done. I haven't torn it down yet but I'm trying to get all my parts together so when time comes I can reach and get'em. Now this is what I want. If I need to bore it I'm thinking of sleeving it. Probably go back with a 10 to 1 compression. I'm going to use the original cast iron intake with Quadrajet. The POP said it had 331 gears so that settles that. I just want a small hydraulic cam to give it a little thump at idle. I want it to be as close to factory in appearance as possible but I'd like to turn a few heads too.

Daniel
BTW it was running in mid 9's with best 9.42 or 9.44 (he thinks)

Those are small chamber heads hence the high cr..more suit for 105+ fuel
Lift is way too high for a cruiser, and no dobiut are the rest of the cam spec

Want a cruiser, sounds good a real quick off the mark..ie spins up easy and economical
A set of bigger chamber 202 fuelie heads
cam with lower duration/over lap than stock and about .500 lift
then drop a 255 or 308 diff in it.
A small carb for bottom end...and if not hitting over 5000 rpms and at most times 4000, u have a real torquey bottom end engine.
Set of dual 2 1/2 " exhaust and truck rms horns cast manifolds will give u that deep V8 sound...header are for high rpms and tend to give a more tinny sound.

Step you're right about the fuel. I remember he got his fuel from a local oil jobber in 5 gallon cans. It was Union 76 121 racing fuel. I want to keep the heads. This is a numbers matching car and I want to keep it that way. All I want is a good sound and decent performance. It might get scolded now and then to clean it out but I just want a driver. As the gears go the Protect-to-Plate has a 331 listed and I will go with that.



Daniel

If you want to keep the heads, then you need to go back to stock type flat top pistons, either 4 eyebrow ones or something a lil fancier. That will drop the CR down to 10:1, and that will work fine with todays 91-93 octane pump premium.

I'd go with a cam around 230 degrees at 050. If you want that "thumpin idle" use a 106 lobe separation, tho really 108 or 110 will work fine and is much more common.

A hydraulic roller will give you more power in the mid to top rpm.

or, to be interesting, a baby flat tappet solid might be kinda fun.

Im not sure on this but strongly suspect they would not be the orginal heads..

But here is a thought.......ever considered going dedicated LPG on that engine and drop a stump puller cam in.
Thats what I have in our camaro....even with a 255 diff t360 and a 1200 stall it lights up at 1/2 throttle....1000 rpms=30mph
LPG by nature has a very low idle 500/550 in neutra; and 450 in gear and very stable..and lops real nice rolling thru a car park, deep due to the cast rams horns manifolds....and even has a alcol /racing fuel type smell
Then on a reasonbly fast highway cruise still get the equilient in $ value over 32 mpg.
With a single Impco 425 carb it starts to lean out mid 4000 rpms, but thats only for a couple seconds in 2nd when passing, not enough to do any damage....4150 rpms is 120 mph in top

I can't go with LPG. We have no filling stations here for this setup. It hasn't caught on here like in other parts of the world. Years ago the guy who ran the local LPG business had a station and ran his trucks off it but he sold out and the new owners took it out.

The heads are original to the car. The only work that's been done is triple angle valve grind and screw in studs.

Daniel