the age old question.... what cam should i buy?

the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/22/11 11:51 PM

hello all.

i'm new to big block mopars but not to high performance engines.

i have a 68 coronet rt that is all original type equipment (carter avs, 906 heads, hi-po manifolds, 323 rear end etc....) and i'm thinking of replacing the cam and lifters (and the timing chain and valve springs) with something that has a bit of a "muscle car" idle to it.

the car sounds like an old station wagon with the stock cam.

i'm looking for opinions on what would be a good cam to buy. i want to keep it very streetable but i really want to hear a cool lope.

i don't want to get into fly cutting pistons and expensive roller rocker arms and i plan on keeping the hi-po manifolds.

any ideas?

Posted By: Mr.Yuck

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/22/11 11:58 PM

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

Posted By: runner12

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/22/11 11:59 PM

call dave at HUGHES ENGINS he will help you out!!!

Posted By: 68-scatpack-rt

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 12:02 AM

Quote:

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

i'm thinking i can have both a good running engine and a cool lopey idle.

Posted By: Mr.Yuck

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 12:24 AM

Quote:

Quote:

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

i'm thinking i can have both a good running engine and a cool lopey idle.

not really. Usually cams that lope have a 106-108 centerline and are designed for racing and they will run TERRIBLE in a non-performace engine. They also pull terrible vacuum so good luck tuning the carb just right. What you want is a sound that is chrisp under WOT. If you want the car to shake turn the idle down.

Posted By: 5spdcuda

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 12:41 AM

Racer Brown has some really good grinds and they are all custom ground for little more than an off the shelf grind. If you're comfortable with Comp's products, I think the 274 XE flat tappet hyd would work well for you. I run the 284 XE in my own car, but mine's a manual transmission and I doubt that it would be happy with a stock torque converter.

Posted By: 68-scatpack-rt

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 12:47 AM

i've used cam motion to do some custom cams for my ford stuff. i might give them a shout.

that comp 274 looks like it might be a good choice as well.

Posted By: 68-scatpack-rt

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 12:50 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

i'm thinking i can have both a good running engine and a cool lopey idle.

not really. Usually cams that lope have a 106-108 centerline and are designed for racing and they will run TERRIBLE in a non-performace engine. They also pull terrible vacuum so good luck tuning the carb just right. What you want is a sound that is chrisp under WOT. If you want the car to shake turn the idle down.

i'm going to assume that you mean lobe separation angle when you say "centerline" as lobe centerline is the crankshaft angle at which the intake and exhaust lobes reach full lift.

Posted By: DaytonaTurbo

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 01:20 AM

My brother runs the 'big' summit cam in his 440, and it has a bit of lope at idle. Sounds nice. I put a cam with somewhat similar specs in my 440, a lunati voodoo 60303. With the exhaust system I had on the car, it didn't really sound any more aggressive than the stock cam did. Opened the header cutouts and it sounded great.

Posted By: Runner

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 01:44 AM

call dwayne porter and order a cam from him. great guy to deal with. 802-951-1955 what ive found with dealing with him is, he accually listens to what you want and trys to give you the best product for that.

and you can have some lope with a cam with a 112 centerline.

Posted By: cjs69mope

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 03:22 AM

Posted By: rss

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 05:43 AM

Quote:

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

You would obviously know better than me since you've used this cam before, but it looks to me like the Summit 488 cam has about 62 degrees of overlap which should make that cam pretty lopey, no???

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 01:31 PM

Quote:

call dwayne porter and order a cam from him. great guy to deal with. 802-951-1955 what ive found with dealing with him is, he accually listens to what you want and trys to give you the best product for that.

and you can have some lope with a cam with a 112 centerline.

Posted By: Mr.Yuck

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 01:58 PM

Quote:

Quote:

cool lobe is over-rated it's better to have a good running engine. Buddy took your basic combo in a 68 charger, added summit 488 cam, headers, t-chain, MP electronic ing, DP4B intake (I think) stuck w/ the Cater carb and the car ran 14.10 driving like grandma. it will work with mani's. You could also look at the mopar 528 solid, although it would like a little more gear.

You would obviously know better than me since you've used this cam before, but it looks to me like the Summit 488 cam has about 62 degrees of overlap which should make that cam pretty lopey, no???

it has a little lope but nothing like the MP cams. I've run a few of them as well. My bone stock 67 GTX went from 14.20 to 13.82 with just a cam change and my mild 440 in my 67 Coronet went 12.90. When I bought the car it had a mopar 484 cam and was a dog. It didn't have enough stall or compression for the cam to work right.

Posted By: 62maxwgn

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 02:21 PM

I personally wouldn't take any individual's recommendation (well,maybe one or two) on choosing a cam.What works for one doesn't always work for others.Call a cam grinder,tell them what you have and what you would like,you'll be much happier in the end,that is unless you enjoy changing cams.

Posted By: Mr.Yuck

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 03:34 PM

Quote:

I personally wouldn't take any individual's recommendation (well,maybe one or two) on choosing a cam.What works for one doesn't always work for others.Call a cam grinder,tell them what you have and what you would like,you'll be much happier in the end,that is unless you enjoy changing cams.

that be ture. You can have cams ground up for about the same cost as a shelf unit these days.

Posted By: rss

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 05:20 PM

Quote:

it has a little lope but nothing like the MP cams. I've run a few of them as well. My bone stock 67 GTX went from 14.20 to 13.82 with just a cam change and my mild 440 in my 67 Coronet went 12.90. When I bought the car it had a mopar 484 cam and was a dog. It didn't have enough stall or compression for the cam to work right.

The MP 484 cam has a bit more overlap than the Summit cam. The Summit 488 seems more similar to the MP 474.

Posted By: 68-scatpack-rt

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 08:34 PM

called cam motion today. they get 190 for a custom ground 440 cam and 95 for the matching lifters.

the rep told me they will only use german made cores now as the domestic cores have proven unreliable.

i'll post up the recommended specs as soon as i hear back from them.

thanks for the input gents!

have a great night, rob

Posted By: Baxter61

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 09:12 PM

have you considered a hyd roller? you could get some chunk out of the overlap but keep the duration numbers down.

Posted By: 68-scatpack-rt

Re: the age old question.... what cam should i buy? - 03/23/11 09:55 PM

Quote:

have you considered a hyd roller? you could get some chunk out of the overlap but keep the duration numbers down.

i have. the reason i don't want to go that route is that i don't want to have to buy an adjustable roller rocker setup.