I am nowhere near the gearhead that most guys in this forum, so I am curious about the following:
Is the reason that these cams are so popular because their relatively low lift numbers allow the racer to retain the factory valvetrain? Most aftermarket cams seem to have higher lift #s in relation to the duration.
I was just thinking that the Mopar engineers were possibly looking to help the racer on a budget. Thoughts?

First .. they are decent performing pieces. Second(and probably most important for Mopar) .. they are HUGE momey-makers for them. They run-off huge #'s when they make them .. to keep it a very profitable item.

for a bracket car they are good, although there are newer grinds that will run w/ them. You need to have at least 10:1 to run them, 3800 stall and 3.91's. they like good heads and a free=flowing exhaust. You can build an easy low 12 second b-body w/ that cam, 10:1 440, headers some head work, intake and 750DP. Not much to it.

Old grinds. I think the newer cams make better use of the 904 lifters.

i got the 484 in a 440 it sounds good but i agree the newer grinds have the advantage. i had an 03 voodoo cam not as lopey but much better low end my buddy had the 04 voodoo its a bit choppier at idle.i am going with the 05 next. cam lifters on ebay 182$.

To each his own and some have proven them to work well.............I still use old Isky cams although some say I`d go quicker w/a new design.

The old mopar cams sell so well because they work OK and they say mopar on the box. The newer desighn cams work better and are cheaper but people think for some reason that useing a comp or lunati is like putting a chevy cam in their mopar when really it is quite the oposite, the old mopar cams are lobes stolen from chevy desighned cams that have to use the smaller lifter diameter witch limits how much lift you can get in a given duration, comp cams has mopar specific cams in witch the lobes would not work with a chevy lifter. The faster higher opening means less duration and that generally means more tq while the higher lift generally translates into more HP, sort of the same reasons roller cams are advantageous and as a matter of fact on very short duration cams a big mopar diameter flat tappet lifter can get the valve open higher and faster than a roller.

I'd run the isky mega cam 292 244 505 108. I ran one in a
Chubby years ago and it was a bad boy!

Actually these MP cams were designed in the 60's and 70's and really have nothing to do with saving money. They were made for Mopar by Racer Brown originally and they were part of a package that Mopar would put out for the street cars and bracket racers for use in building good performance package. They would recommend the eng parts to use for stuff like a 12 second and 11 second build and so on. So Mopar had these cams ground to work for budget street racers and bracket racers. You could buy the cams themselfs and use them how ever you liked. But if you looked in the MP books they would have different builds in the books for big and small blocks and anywhere from 14 second to 10 second builds. And they all used one of the MP cams.
I believed they felt it really helped the average hot rodder in helping them select a cam for their Mopar build. Yes they are good cams and were some of the best back when they were put out. Today there are better cams but there is still nothing wrong with the MP cams if they fit your build.
I guess what I am trying to say is back when they were put out there was not alot of cams to use and these were good selection that Mopar recommended. But today there are alot more cams out there and alot more eng builders to help hot rodders select a cam for their build.
Bottom line is that yes the MP cams work fine and yes there are better cams to choose from nowadays so it is up to you or your eng builder to choose a cam. Nothing wrong choosing one of the Mopar cams if you feel like it fits your bill but you have many more modern cams to choose from now.

I myself like to use some of the MP cams in my budget builds as they work fine in the right combo. I used the .484 cam in a very mild 383 Dart and I really liked it. It ran 12.30's with 3.91's and was just a basic stock 383 with 9.5 comp and the normal bolt on's........headers , Eddy intake , Holley carb and MP ign.
I also used the .557 cam in my old 440 that was in my 63 and it was a mild 440 that ran a best of 11.49 @ 116.
I would suggest that if you dont know alot about cams talk with your eng builder or one of the reputable shops in your area about choosing the right cam for your combo. Ron

Ron. Just as there were limited cam designs back then, it was similar in cylinder head choices.

10 to 1 3800 stall and 391 gears arent a must my old 440 had 9 to 1 a 3500 swap meet converter and 323 gears and worked great ran 11.7s in a 70 4 door valiant full interior blah blah blah great streetability unless ur too scared to turn a screw or two

"not as lopey but much better low end" compares any 2 cams...

The dimensions on these cams are like a lot of older grinds - long duration with less lift than more modern cams. So ideally you're going to need a decent amount of static compression to make them work well but they seem to do OK even at low compression ratios also. We ran the 284 cam in a 9:1 440 with 906 heads at 3300# in a '68 Dart. Best time ever was 11.33 which we thought was OK. When we wanted to swap cams Dwayne Porter was nice enough to spend some time with me. He explained that they have a broad power curve and actually make pretty decent race cams. I remember him telling me also that they will RPM better than most modern "fast ramp" type cams making them a decent choice even now.

The 484 cam was generally considered the big Automatic cam and the 509 was considered the 4-speed cam - and yes they were designed to work with stock valve train and heads without modification to the guide heights. Good cams for there chosen purpose in the day considering the limited choice of converters and such. They were quality pieces at a reasonable price. but I agree there are much better choices today given your chosen combo.