Cam ID and cracked head question

I got my engine out (383) to change the cam. Had a lobe go bad and wanted to take a look at everything. The numbers on the cam are: 891497. I have no idea what cam this is and a google search doesn't come up with anything. Does anyone know what cam this is?

One of my heads has a crack on an exhaust port where the heat cross over is. Can this be fixed easily?

The only cams I recall seeing that didn't have Parkerized lobes are the MP cams, so that's probably what it is.

If you look at that crack just right, you can see it spells out the words, "buy some E Street heads".

Made me chuckle yes truth !!! dont waist money on those old iron cracked heads.

Thanks! I was hoping to find some specs on the cam so I know what not to get to replace it. I'm hoping to milk this engine one maybe two more summers. I plan to start collecting parts next fall for a 512 low deck build. That engine will have TF240's on it.

It turns out the pistons in this engine are TRW 11.5:1. I'll need a cam that can lower the dynamic compression enough to still run pump gas and use stock type springs. Any recommendations?

"11.5:1 pistons" are only that with the correct deck clearance, chamber volume, and gasket thickness.

Do some measuring/CC-ing so you know what you actually have.

It may or may not really be 11.5:1.

Ok. I'll measure the chambers up this weekend. What do you think about the crack?

How are you with an oxyacetylene torch and bronze rod?

Kevin

Is the crack all the way through? You could braze it, but you would want to preheat the whole head imo to be safe. But iron heads are a dime a dozen , if your not ready for aluminum heads yet, braze her up or get a cheap replacement steel head.

I find it pretty odd for the head to be cracked in that area........and not cracked “a little” either.
Of course, the crack doesn’t really go anywhere.
If you were worried about oil leaking through to the heat crossover cavity, you could just slather some JB weld on it and call it good.

Before I tried welding/pinning/brazing it........I’d just do up another head.

Die grind / v out the crack and use some liquid metal, think the JB weld mentioned above is the shot.

I was pretty sure I'd have a use for these pics at some point......

This is what can happen when that crack gets really big......

I was pretty surprised at how thin the material around the stand is.

And if you read it backwards, it spells: "Iron is dead."

What's scrap iron sell for by the pound these days?

Actually, you need 3-D glasses and a black light to see the "iron is dead" inscription.

I wouldn't put that head on anything except a scrap pile...

No sense of adventure. lol

Fire up the gas BBQ, set to cremate and put the head in it (after prepping the crack of course) and close the lid.

After the temp gauge goes off the end for a while, open the lid, fire up the torch and the bronze rod and have at it. Close the lid when done and turn the fire down gradually until it's out and leave the lid closed until cool.

If you have witnesses and it doesn't crack, everyone in the area with FUBAR cast iron will be knocking on your door to have you perform this "magic".

Kevin

Having had a cracked iron head "repaired", the R&R labor, gaskets, fluids etc. were far more than replacing the head.

w/r/t I'll need a cam that can lower the dynamic compression
Not the way to select a cam, that's backward. It also isn't nearly as effective as it sounds.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll get a better look at the crack this weekend. I'm trying not to spend any extra money on this engine. Would rather invest in the other engine. I can't find any info on the piston dome size. Any educated guesses on how many cc's the dome is? I'll cc the heads and try cc the piston to get a better idea of what the CR is.

Wouldn't that crack also leak exhaust into the engine creating pressure?

I have a very nice ported set of 906 heads in my house garage that ran 9.80’s many years ago but started leaking again water. I ran some block sealer and they never leaked again but I can’t bring myself to use them again. I also can’t bring myself to throw them on the scrap pile. Lol. After I’m dead and gone my kids can scrap them.

All the rich guys tell you buy aluminum> Where will they be when they crack strip or better yet warp> The question is if your going to race it go ahead with aluminum. If not try JB weld after a drill on the ends of the crack. Frankly if it were me I would probably braze it or just JB weld it but I'm old and don't know nothing I have seen too much BS with cheaper aftermarket aluminum heads yes they work but leaks leaks and more leaks especially on a non decked block Said before too many non racers using race only parts and seeing the piss poor results

Id swag a guess of 15 to 20cc on the dome. But your piston looks about .020 in the hole as well.

I did some CCing of the chamber and of the piston. I got about 92cc for the head and 20cc for the piston dome. Looks like the CR works out to about 9.8:1 according to Diamond's calculator. I am somewhat relived that it's not as high I originally thought.

I measured the lobe lift of the cam and it's exactly .350. With a rocker ratio of 1.5:1 I get a valve lift of .525.

I really don't know what I should look for in a new cam. Something with similar lift should be good with the current springs. This is a street driven Bee with a Team G intake and a 750 dominator and large long tube headers. It has 4.88 gears and a 33" tire. The car would pull hard in the higher rpms but was sluggish off the line. Seemed to lack some torque down low. The intake and carb contribute to that. I would like to find a cam that will help with low end torque.

This will open a can of worms, but what dimension did you use for the dome fill down?

Did you figure the deck clearance into the equation to get the 9.8cr, or does that 20cc dome volume figure take that into account?

MP used to have a .533 lift hyd cam.....I wouldn't be surprised if that's what you have.

If you're good with a degree wheel you could plot it out and see exactly what it was.

What I did for the piston measurement was.
Put the piston in until the dome was level with the deck. Measured the distance from flat portion of the piston to deck. (.349)
I used the 4.28 bore and .349 to get a theoretical flat top volume. With the piston in the same place I CCed it. I subtracted the cc fill from the theoretical volume. After your question it guess I should have added the .021 to the .349.

???????????????????

I hadn't seen the screenshot of the calculator prior to my previous post.

It looks like it's correct there.

I ran the numbers before looking at the data on the screenshot and got 9.75.

Were you/are you really going to use that big of a gasket?

The other piece of the puzzle for cam selection would be knowing what the stall speed was.

Assuming the converter isn't totally wrong for the application, I'd be looking at something like the middle Howard's Rattler cam for that thing if you're looking to improve the low end a bit...... Although its still not going to be great with that intake and carb on it.

It had a .040 gasket on it when I took it apart. The big gasket is to bring the CR down a bit. It would detonate with 91 sometimes.The stall speed is around 2800.

With that low of a stall speed, you probably have the worst choice for an intake manifold/carb combo.

There are probably at least 10 intakes you could pick up used that would work way better in that application........ Along with a plain Jane holley 750dp.

when I ran my 452 on the dyno I used my old m1, the last pull we changed the intake to the team G and LOST 75 HP.
Get that POS of your motor, run it then make changes.

I know. I've wanted to change the carb and intake since I bought the car. Didn't have the time or money to do it until now. Not many used mopar parts up here. Shipping used stuff from the south is pricey and gets close to new cost. If I plan to get new stuff I want it to work on the 512 also. I know the cam won't work but I just want to get the car running again. From what I've searched would something in the 230@.050, .500 lift and a lsa of 108 work ok?

No bigger than that, but it still won't be a cure for the horrible mismatch between the induction and the converter.

Did you verify the cam timing and where it is installed currently as far as the lobe center(ILSA) on the intake lobe? If not that is worth doing, all the BB Mopars I've work on and tested hated the cams straight up or 2 degree retarded
Your car with those gears should be a lot more perky than your describing in low gear That makes me think the cam is not degreed in properly
Let us know what you decide and find out Good luck

Thanks for all of the help! I didn't think to check the cam before taking it out. I did take a picture of the timing gear before removing it. I haven't looked it up to see what degree slot it was on. I think it was too big for this motor. The best run at the track was 13.00@ 108 and 2.19 in the 60'. Idle speed was about 1100 rpm.

Looks like there are a few companies that make a cam that would fit the bill. I would like to get feedback on what others are using.