what cam should i go with?

[74stepside]

Im going to be putting new heads on my truck in the next couple weeks and i wanted to upgrade my cam also.. the heads im getting are 2.02's and are good for a .550 lift....i want something with a nice erratic idle...my motor from what i know is a 69-79 350 ..i was hoping to get a cam that was around a .525 lift but most of the ones i see that are over .500 are reccomended for higher compression motors.. i am not sure what compression ratio my motor is and i dont want to get too big of a cam and do all that work for nothing... so my question is  whats the biggest cam i should use?  

[Leadfoot]

The reason they say that is with a bigger,longer duration cam,your bleeding off cylinder pressure do to valve overlap,it'll sound wicked and be a total dog unless everything else is matched to it.. the best running basically stock 350 I've ever had,I put a comp. cam 268 in it..around .454 lift I believe..  unless your willing to up the compression,add headers and good exhaust,change gearing and convertor,keep the cam size relatively small.you'll be much happier with it's performance..

Tim

[roundedline]

You cam needs to match the compression, the valvetrain and intake along with gearing and converter speed for the intended purpose to make the most usable power.  The worst mistake it to overcam a stock motor.

Chosing a cam to match a particular set of heads and still use a stock manifold, stock stall and stock carb for example would be a bad idea.

Typically you can get a 268-278 advertised duration cam that will add some good power over a stock setup.

Here is some reading..:
hotrod.com/techarticles/113_9604_cam/
hotrod.com/techarticles/2945/
hotrod.com/techarticles/49598/
hotrod.com/techarticles/p...selection/

This is a good section on taking crate motor and adding performance to it..
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html
www.chevyhiperformance.co...index.html

Chris Lucas
www.73-87chevytrucks.com
www.captkaoscustoms.com
Project Su
Jimmy 2WD Project

[Godgunsrocknroller]

Are there any cams that improve gas mileage at all?

[markzepp820]

I have a basically stock 350 with an edelbrock performer intake with headers and dual flowmasters. Would that COMP 268 work well for my motor? What was your setup on your 350 and how well did that comp 268 cam work for you?
              Thanks
                         Mark


1979 C20 350 TH400 3.73 REAR