5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind

Posted By: chache876

5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 09:10 PM

I was interested in getting a mild performance camshaft my 98 5.9 Magnum 360. Currently it has a 650 holley carb, crosswind air gap intake, and headers.

Any suggestions on what kind of #'s I should go with? It'll be a street/strip application but would like to do as little valvetrain modifications as possible and want to make sure I'll have enough PTV clearance (stock internals/heads). I'm going to order the GM 3.1 springs and 2.2/2.5L retainers for the heads. I have a 2200-2600 stall converter and 3.23 gears, but may be upgrading the gears to a 3.55-3.91.

I'm not sure what the limits are for regrinding cams. I called Bullet Cams and they weren't too much help on what I should do.

Posted By: POS Dakota

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 09:54 PM

comp makes a nice grind for you that's spec'd at 210/220 @ .050 with a .512 lift on both sides on a 110 lsa.

I think you can get it in a 108-112 lsa also if you like.

It's supposed to be worth about 320 hp at the wheels in an EFI 4 speed auto truck.

Your converter will work fine with it too. It'll probably be even better.

Has a nice noticeable idle too.

Posted By: mcmopars

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 10:11 PM

i would talk to hughes if it were me.they are mopar people,and really did me right on my cam for my magnum

Posted By: Wedgeman

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 10:48 PM

What cam and specs are you using in yours ?

Dan

Posted By: VITC_GTX

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 11:04 PM

Sounds like I have the same setup you do. I grabbed a '98 5.9 Magnum out of a junkyard (truck engine). Took off the fuel injection and replaced it with an Eddy Air-Gap and 650 carb. Got a cam from Scott Brown (old Straightline Performance days). It is a 226/232 with .520 lift. I did have to cut the valve guides down for the .520 lift and put on new valve springs but other than that it's stock. In fact, I never even tore the bottom end apart. I put it in a '71 Demon with a 3600 flash PTC convertor and 3.91's and it runs 12.70's at 104 mph

Runs great on the street!!!

I have the cam card/part # if you would like it, just PM me and I will pull it out.

Posted By: HotRodDave

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/26/10 11:44 PM

If your going to use the 3100 behive springs you have to use the 3100 behive retainers NOT the 2.2 2.5 retainers. You use the 2.2 2.5 retainers with the mopar performance springs, both the mopar springs and 2.2 retainers are a lot more than the 3100 stuff.

The mopar stuff can handle a bigger cam but under .500 lift and modest RPM I have had good luck with the 3100 stuff.

Posted By: chache876

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 12:01 AM

Quote:

If your going to use the 3100 behive springs you have to use the 3100 behive retainers NOT the 2.2 2.5 retainers. You use the 2.2 2.5 retainers with the mopar performance springs, both the mopar springs and 2.2 retainers are a lot more than the 3100 stuff.

The mopar stuff can handle a bigger cam but under .500 lift and modest RPM I have had good luck with the 3100 stuff.

thanks for the clarification, I must have misread some of your posts in the past. I'm going to try and stay under but close to .500 lift so the 3100 springs should be fine

Posted By: scratchnfotraction

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 12:23 AM

IIRC,i thought I read to use the 3100 GM spring with the 2.2 retainers also

IIRC I talked to patrick about that when he sugested the comp 901-16 spring for my pre-mag roller set up

and the GM 3100 for a mag head

Posted By: Wedgeman

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 12:26 AM

That's what I recall too.....!

Posted By: scratchnfotraction

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 12:47 AM

maybe patrick will chime in again on the subject

Posted By: chache876

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 02:00 AM

Quote:

IIRC,i thought I read to use the 3100 GM spring with the 2.2 retainers also

IIRC I talked to patrick about that when he sugested the comp 901-16 spring for my pre-mag roller set up

and the GM 3100 for a mag head

I just went back through my bookmarks from the other day when I was searching info on springs for magnum engines and patrick/hotroddave did say that you have to use the 3100 retainers with the 3100 springs. He mentioned in one thread that they are the same as the LS1 springs apparently. 2.2/2.5 springs go with the mopar springs

Posted By: scratchnfotraction

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 02:05 AM

ok my bad

I stand correct

I had a blowed fused

Posted By: joedust451

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 03:08 AM

I had mine done through Bullet cams about 2 months ago, there is not a hole lot that can be done with these factory cams, at least not with my 95, we settled on this grind.

.477/.477, .216/.218 @50 on a 112 with 1.6 rockers.

If you want more, i'd call Hughes, i'm limited to .500 lift also on my RHS heads, i was looking at something on a 109/110 LSA with Dur. in the upper 220s/low 230s @50, lift right around .500 with Hughes, this should still work great with a 26-2800 stall, mine is a freakin torque monster with this cam, i'm sure it'll fall apart at 52-5400.

Posted By: patrick

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 01:14 PM

Quote:

If your going to use the 3100 behive springs you have to use the 3100 behive retainers NOT the 2.2 2.5 retainers. You use the 2.2 2.5 retainers with the mopar performance springs, both the mopar springs and 2.2 retainers are a lot more than the 3100 stuff.

The mopar stuff can handle a bigger cam but under .500 lift and modest RPM I have had good luck with the 3100 stuff.

yup, except instead of the MP springs, use the hughes #1110 springs. they're the same price as napa's price on the GM springs, but yeild and extra ~ .040" lift clearance. once I priced it out both ways, I thought the hughes springs were a better value.

for a cam, on my mag headed 318, I had bullet regrind using their HR259/316 lobe for both intake and exhaust, ground on my cam's factory LSA (112). it's a torquey SOB, and pulls hard up to 5500 RPM. idles very clean, near stock, but makes a lot more power. works out to .506" lift, and I have plenty of valve guide clearance. I'm using junkyard 2.2L retainers (got 'em for $10) and the hughes springs and the stock magnum keepers. if you run headers, and especiually if you do a little port cleanup on the heads, they flow good enough on the exhaust that you don't really need a split duration cam. one thing with mine, it is from my '86 short block, so it is an LA roller cam core. I dealt with Tim at bullet. talking with him, it sounds like the LA cores might have a deeper hardened layer, which will allow bigger lobes. beings mine was from a 5th ave (carb motor) it also had the long snout for a mechanical fuel pump.

when looking at cam specs, IMHO, I'd look more at .2" duration numbers than .050 duration numbers. that'll tell you the cam's power potential. for example, my cam's specs are [Email]259@.006"[/Email] lift, [Email]208@.050[/Email], and [Email]127@.200".[/Email] for comparison, a comp XE262 is [Email]262@.006"[/Email], [Email]218@.050[/Email] (10 degrees bigger) and [Email]130@.2"[/Email] (only 3 degrees bigger). this 318 with the roller cam and mag heads feels about as strong as my old 360 with the XE262 with the same induction and exhaust. except it idles much better and gets on average 2-3mpg better fuel economy

I'm very happy with my bullet regrind. another option would be hughes, their HER1828 is the largest they sell as a regrind, and I think is bigger than bullet will regrind on a magnum core. if you want a little more upper RPM power from a bullet grind, I'd see if they could fit the HR266/325 or HR270/330 lobe on there. both will require the hughes springs, the GM ones won't have enough lift capacity (only about .490" max lift from my measurements on my heads)

Posted By: patrick

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 01:16 PM

Quote:

IIRC,i thought I read to use the 3100 GM spring with the 2.2 retainers also

IIRC I talked to patrick about that when he sugested the comp 901-16 spring for my pre-mag roller set up

and the GM 3100 for a mag head

the 901's are good for an LA head where you don't have the rocker ratio, and more installed height than a mag head.

the 2.2L retainers allow you to use any single spring in the 1.4-1.45" OD range.

Posted By: scratchnfotraction

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/27/10 01:19 PM

so you can use the 2.2 retainers on the GM 3100???

Posted By: chache876

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/28/10 10:14 PM

I guess my next questions is in regards to pushrods and rocker arms. I've been browsing around on some dakota forums and they're claiming new pushrods are an absolute necessity with a new cam. True?

Posted By: patrick

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/29/10 01:23 PM

Quote:

I guess my next questions is in regards to pushrods and rocker arms. I've been browsing around on some dakota forums and they're claiming new pushrods are an absolute necessity with a new cam. True?

first off, to answer scratchin's question, NO. the LS1 springs and GM3100 springs have the same top end geometry and use the same PN for a spring retainer. they are both beehives, with ~.9" OD on the top. but the LS1 is a 1.2" OD bottom with a blueprint 1.8" IH from the factory, the 3100 springs are a 1.4" OD bottom (so they fit the magnum heads), with a a blueprint IH of ~1.7", and a coil bind height of ~1.065".

the 2.2L retainers allow the use of any straight 1.35-1.45" OD spring with an ID greater than ~ .9" with the factory 8mm stems and keepers....they fit my hughes 1110 springs great.

to answer the pushrod question, "it depends". on my build, stock magnum PR's worked fine, this with a factory '86 block deck height (no idea how close it was to blueprint), thin Mr. gasket head gasket (.028" compressed), my roller cam reground, and when I had the heads done, I had the valves sunk .030" to gain a little more IH. with the 2.2L retainers and magnum keepers, my installed height was 1.60" with the factory valve job. coil bind is 1.040", so I had .560" travel before coil bind, but .540" before the keepers hit the old valve seals on the heads. my current IH is 1.63" and I now have .590" travel before coil bind, and ~.560-.570" travel before the keepers hit the seals, so I should be good if I ever want to crank the lift up into the .530-.540" range, as long as I have V/P clearance...with the stock pistons in the hole .055", my measured V/P clearance was ~ 1/8", but that's as much a function of cam duration as cam lift.

I found some comp pushrods for a ford 302 that were ~ .020" longer than the mag PR's, that when I tried them out assembling the engine, worked fine, too.

Posted By: chache876

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/31/10 07:01 AM

Well I decided on getting the cam. Its a 231/234 .487/.497 106 LSA

I may end up just going with the Hughes 1110 springs as I'm not too sure what kind of RPM the 3100 springs are good to.

Whats the deal with the 1110 springs? Can I use the 2.2/2.5l retainers with these?

Posted By: patrick

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 01/31/10 04:33 PM

Quote:

Well I decided on getting the cam. Its a 231/234 .487/.497 106 LSA

I may end up just going with the Hughes 1110 springs as I'm not too sure what kind of RPM the 3100 springs are good to.

Whats the deal with the 1110 springs? Can I use the 2.2/2.5l retainers with these?

yes, use the 2.2L retainers with the 1110 springs

Posted By: chache876

Re: 5.9 Magnum Hydraulic Roller Cam Regrind - 02/02/10 11:13 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Well I decided on getting the cam. Its a 231/234 .487/.497 106 LSA

I may end up just going with the Hughes 1110 springs as I'm not too sure what kind of RPM the 3100 springs are good to.

Whats the deal with the 1110 springs? Can I use the 2.2/2.5l retainers with these?

yes, use the 2.2L retainers with the 1110 springs

Alright, ordered the 1110 springs and bought some retainers off a guy on turbododge.com. I figure its better to be safe than sorry with this cam.

If anybodies interested I'm going to put up an ad in the small block for sale section for the 16 new 3100 springs I've got no use for