Camshaft

[HotRod73]

I know nothing about cams. I have a stock motor im planning on putting a edelbrock performer intake and maybe an edel. carb as well.... but i also want a cam... i want a cam that has a noticable lope because im going to be installing dual super 40 flows and i want that amazing sound of flows and a nice cam... what kind of cam should i get i dont want to have to add a stall and my motor is all stock except i plan on upgrading intake/carb...
i dont know ANYTHING bout cams and the numbers are foreign to me... whats a good size cam i should get to hear a nice lope...

[Slonaker]

I am far from an expert. However, I doubt you will get a cam with much lope that will work well without a higher stall convertor and better gears.

When I got my truck it had a mild erson cam with just a little lope. The only other modification was dual exhaust. It was a real dog with that setup. It didn't want to idle with the A/C on. It didn't develop enough vacuum for the power brakes, and it made no power until I was at higher RPM than I usually shift at. It sucked. I replaced it with a stock cam, and it ran better and was faster.

Slonaker

[Tom]

Like said above, you want two very different things. All that lope you hear at idle is the engine almost dieing out. You can have that, but you will NEED a higher stall convertor for the trans, more compression for the motor, and you'll fail emissions test almost for sure.

I would go with nothing more then 220* @.050, and about .460" lift. Look for a LSA below 112*, that will help with the lope.

BTW slonaker- that had to be a huge cam, not a mild one

[79BIG10]

Look at the XE262 from Comp Cams. I've heard it in a couple trucks and sounds great with good performance and you can keep the converter stock.

[Slonaker]

Originally Posted by Tom

BTW slonaker- that had to be a huge cam, not a mild one

I would not call it a huge cam, but it was a real pain in the butt because it was so poorly matched to my driving habits and to the rest of the truck. Unfortunately I spend most of my time in stop and go traffic, and this truck is my daily driver, so a cam with any lope was just a bad idea. Combine that with stock exhaust manifolds, gears, air cleaner, and converter and it was a real dog. The "occasional" power brakes really sucked, too!

It sounded nice, though.

Slonaker

[piecesparts]

I agree with the others, a cam upgrade can be done, but there is a limit to how far you can go without spending a large amount of cash to support the cam's profile. I have a 383 stroker motor and the "Comp Cam" that I installed has a fair amount of that LOPE that you want, BUT to get it to work out right on the streeet, I went to a 2400 stall converter and 3.73 gears. It hits the spot now, but it took tome to get there. There are a lot of cvams out there that will work for what you want, but thetrue lope that you are looking for may not be really evident. Get in touch with the "Comp Cam" people, they have a large group of people that are experts at matching profiles and they are working in their company to do just that for you. Call them, or any other company and talk to them. My machinist, even has their number on his call list.

BIG CAM=LOW VACUUM=ROUGH IDLE=LOW REAREND GEARS=MORE GAS=MORE FUN=MORE GAS=MORE TICKETS=MORE MONEY=EMPTY POCKET=BIG SMILE FOR SOME

[Ron 586]

Originally Posted by HotRod73

I know nothing about cams. I have a stock motor im planning on putting a edelbrock performer intake and maybe an edel. carb as well.... but i also want a cam... i want a cam that has a noticable lope because im going to be installing dual super 40 flows and i want that amazing sound of flows and a nice cam... what kind of cam should i get i dont want to have to add a stall and my motor is all stock except i plan on upgrading intake/carb...
i dont know ANYTHING bout cams and the numbers are foreign to me... whats a good size cam i should get to hear a nice lope...

I agree with all the posts above. A lot of things come into play in choosing engine upgrades. What year is the engine and what size. With all the changes that took place in the smog days a 350 engine might have 8 to 1 comp. one year and 10 to 1 the next. Is the engine fresh or have a hundred thousand miles on it. The rear gears also need to be known as they run from 2.73 to 4.56 depending on what package your truck came with. To make your truck more drivable if it is geared high you will want a torque cam to give it a little more grunt. If your plans don't include any internal upgrades you will be limited on how high you can run it on RPM's. Edelbrock offers some packages that match up carbs, intake manifolds, heads, and cams that take all the factors into consideration and make for a more user friendly truck. Nothing is more frustrating than to spend a lot of money on a bunch of parts and end up with a ill mannered, gutless, truck that runs worse than when you started. Not trying to bust your bubble just telling you to avoid the mistakes I have made in the past. Good luck.

[piecesparts]

There are a dozen things that can be done to your setup that is going to "Bump Up" the performance and make it a Street Pleazer. I would definitely look at the rear end gears and figure out where you are at on them first, then go to the motor and start out by changing the cam and carb and intake to fit that.

The intake probably should be a dual plane intake to allow for a good transition from street to moderate aggressive driving. The choice of carb centers around what you like Holley, Edelbrock, or other. Many choose from the Edelbrock lline, due to cost and simplicity. The cam of choice can be somewhere around the 260 to 272 duration criteria. If you want a good improvement on performance, the heads make a serious change, but are a little pricey. I put a set of DART II heads on a 350 and they were worth the money for horsepower, and I am glad that I did. Those heads are now in on the 383 stroker motor in the picture. As stated in the above posting, Edelbrock is good at selling "COMBO" sets that put the heads, intake, cam, and carb together and they tell you what your HP will be. They get this data from stting up many DYNO engines and watching for consistency in their assemblies. For the money they are hard to beat, since they do all of the figuring for you.

Remember to upgrade your ignition wires, cap and plugs to handle the higher performance.

[BigDan3131]

How stock is stock? Factory stock like a GM bolt-in motor or the one that came with your truck? Do you just want the sound or do you want actual power from your new cam? Your going to be running those Super 40's with headers I hope and no bigger than 2 1/2",right? I would stay smaller at 2 1/4" with a nearly stock motor and mild cam to give you more Seat Of The Pants feel.

I would use a Lunati Bracket Master II cam with .480/.480 lift

As long as you realize that gas mileage will drop do it. Otherwise scrap the "Lopey" idle for something that will help you down low if you drive this every day. As far as a cam for that, a split duration cam will help with stock heads. The Voodoo cam with Advertised Duration of 262/268 and lift of .468/.489 would be a much better choice and have a slightly noticeable idle which with those muffs will be just right. You need to replace the stock valvesprings anyway for any performance cam.

[75sierraclassic]

I've got a comp cams xe262 in my motor and it has a noticable lope. Not mean and sputterin fuel out the exhaust, but it sounds good. I have heard a lot of good things about comp cams extreme energy cams. You can call tech support and they will help you find a cam that fits your engine.
Also, if you are going to buy in intake, buy the eldebrock performer rpm. It provides 5-10 horse over the performer. HOT ROD magazine has done many intake tests and for the price the RPM is the best.

[piecesparts]

I hada the opportunity to spend some time at the Comp Cams factory, when one of the Hot Rod Power Tours stopped there. These people definintely live and breath their product. They have a large group of techs working the phone lines and if one doesn't know the answer, another will. I am now running a Comp Cams roller cam and I really like it.

The intake is up to you, but I agree with the discussion on the Performer RPM being a better choice for HP. It's power curve band is from 1500 RPM to 6500 RPM, where the Performer is from 0 RPM to 5500 RPM. In all essence the vehicle that you drive will not move down the road effectively until you take your RPMs above 1000 to 1500, so the Performer RPM makes a better choice, in my book.

My Son's truck is an 86 SWB, 350, 700R4, 3.73 gears, headers, 2 1/2" Flowmaster mufflers, Performer RPM, Edelbrock 1406, 272 Crane cam, He has a pretty responsive combo with the truck and good street performance.

[RunTMCfan]

I agree with the above post. The performer RPM is more of a racing cam than an off idle cam or 4x4 cam. If I had a 2wd slammed and wanted to hall but I'd to the RPM. If you want to build a 4x4 with smooth throttle response from idle the regular performer is all you need.

In 1996 I built my first blazer and while rebuilding the engine I put in a monster cam. Don't know much about the numbers but I would literally spit gas out from my exhaust. It had a ton of lift. Combine that with Dual Chamber flow masters on headers and you've got yourself a fire cracker! I had Brodix aluminum heads, all the goodies.

I later pulled that cam and put in a stocker. It drove way way better and was much quieter. I also got rid of the Flowmasters. I would have done the Three Chambers but they didn't fit. I went to a turbo style.

Edit- You may want to consult with someone on a single plain manifold if you really want to dump some fuel into your engine. The performer is a very reliable dual plain but will limit how much fuel you can dump in the car. Again though, the single plain may cost you a bit off the line. But once the RPM's get up you will zoom.