I know it needs a fairly steep gear but how much compression would be ideal using this cam in a 360? 10:5:1 or so??

do you already have the cam?
I find a bit too much for the street.
I had it in a well built 340 and had prblems making it run good because of the low vac.

12 to 1 would be good but you don't HAVE to have compression to run a large hyd cam. Lot's of converter 4800/8"(NO street converter) and 4.30-4.56 gears with 26-28" tires.I've run high 11's with that cam 9.8to 1 compression,3000converter,3.91 gears. Changed gears,converter,added a point of comp and gone low 11's. A body 3100lbs and 360w/factory heads.I'd suggest a GOOD hyd cam from Bullet cams,ask for Tim.It's cheaper to put the right cam in it than gears,converter,etc.

Well if you think that comp would be too much,do you have enough converter,gear,etc? If not get better matched cam and sell the .508.

#1 What fuel are you planning on? I'd say 9.5 or more and leaving room to max out the timing curve will give you way more gain than a too high CR that makes you compromise the timing. Def measure/calculate during mockup/planning & get the ACTUAL CR

I have this cam in a 9 to 1 360 with iron heads. Its in my FrankenDuster. I have a 4 speed and 3.55 gears. It idles decent and runs strong.

It idles pretty good actually. I expected more of a rough idle that it has.

An auto trans will change things a bunch.

I had the MP508 in my old Duster 340-4psd-4.10 gears with 10-1 compression. It ran great & sounded wicked at idle but I got old and went to an automatic on my present car.

22 degrees intial timing 36 total timing all in by 2200rpm