Don't understand cams
It would be interesting to see how others think their way through a build.
For a street or street and strip engine I feel you got to design it differently than race car. Cause if got to fill so many different roles and with full racing engine there's rule you usually have to follow which dictates the build.
On a street engine you got to decide how far your willing to go with redesigning the drive line and what manners your willing to put up with.
One of the problems I see when people want advice on what to do is they pick a random power level out of a hat. Eg. I got a 360 and want 400 hp what do I need to do ?
The problem with that is there's a big dollar difference between a 360 hp or so and 400 hp.
A fairly stock long block and gearing will work with 360 hp. Going 400 hp start to take things to the next level engine and driveline requiring a lot more $$$ for hp that you will rarely use and make the engine more dogish where you do.
I go with SB since that's what most build.
Since most street cars are gonna be 550 hp or less. 273/318/360/340 all can handle that power and for the most part they all have the bore size to support the flow needed. Realistically the 273 would have a hard time doing it flow and rpm wise and would be a stone under 5000 rpm but in the right hands probably doable.
So when coming up for a recipe for your driveline. After deciding what you'll live with gearing stall idle mileage durability etc...
And if engines size is open It's time to decide the power to weight ratio your after.
After you decide that it time to decide on power to cid ratio. 0.8:1 or so is basically equal to stock muscle car specs. 1:1 is just a basic carb intake cam and headers up grade.
And up to 1.2:1 ish you move more into street strip territory needing deep gears stall heads etc.. Basically complete driveline upgrade. Above that is starting to get into race car territory.
Next I'd decide what heads do I need to reach that power level. The two hp per cfm rule of thumb wont work on moderate cr and cammed engine your more likely make 1.8 hp or less per cfm.
So if you wanted 8:1 weight to power ratio on a 3400 lbs car = 425 hp and 1.2:1 power to cid ratio = 354 so 360 and around 235 cfm heads.
Which gives you a ballpark frame work to decide on the parts needed.
Next it's time to call up the cam companies and figure out what cam and CR you need.
Then I'd put the basic info into my software dyno and play with heads and cams until I got the longest flatest torque curve that don't give up too much down low and with a hp curve that extends way past the peak.
But this gives you a frame work to base your decision to tweak out all the parts for your combo.
