Real world Hughes Steamroller experience?

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motorpirate

serial mopar owner
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So as Dany and I sit in here with her Magnum engine parts watching it snow (Damnit it's like 25 degrees in the shop!!) we started "bench racing" about a LA 318 that is sitting at the shop.
The Hughes website does a good sales pitch on there "Steamroller" line but all a Google search will give is how cool it sounds at idle.
Thats great for what it is, but we are clearly interested in performance first.

So has anyone used this cam in a 1/4 mile car??
How did it perform?
Even better would be dyno data.

We did a search on here and found nothing.
 
motorpirate said:
So as Dany and I sit in here with her Magnum engine parts watching it snow (Damnit it's like 25 degrees in the shop!!) we started "bench racing" about a LA 318 that is sitting at the shop.
The Hughes website does a good sales pitch on there "Steamroller" line but all a Google search will give is how cool it sounds at idle.
Thats great for what it is, but we are clearly interested in performance first.

So has anyone used this cam in a 1/4 mile car??
How did it perform?
Even better would be dyno data.

We did a search on here and found nothing.
Click to expand...
Hughes doesn't grind cams. They send their specs to someone and have them ground. They put their stickers and boxes on them and charge you twice as much. If you liked or Cam so much send your cam into a grinder with their specs then pay half as much but you won't get their fancy stickers and be able to tell people that you got it from Hughes...
 
j par said:
Hughes doesn't grind cams. They send their specs to someone and have them ground. They put their stickers and boxes on them and charge you twice as much. If you liked or Cam so much send your cam into a grinder with their specs then pay half as much but you won't get their fancy stickers and be able to tell people that you got it from Hughes...
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I totally agree, but it begs the question, Is it a cruise in night cam or does it make the car faster??
 
motorpirate said:
Me either.. thats why I was hoping for someone who bought one to offer up a timeslip or some other data other than a video of it idling in the driveway...
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They usually advertise a RPM range? And a lift.. I would think one could make their assumptions from there...
 
motorpirate said:
Hughes Engines
here is the website page...
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LOL! And here is there 1.6:1 Rockers on my Duster...
20160227_162646.jpg
 
Links?
or specs?
What is a steamroller?

Any cam suitable for a low-compression engine, should send up red flags as to racing. And when the advertised is not disclosed, two more red flags should go up.
Yeah, I know the scoop, from 8/1 to 11/1 is only about 6% absolute power difference. But what is the difference in real numbers, and the power cost from stall to peak? That's where compression shines; in the higher average power to get there. That 6% is about 1 full cam size at the peak; but the compression boosts the power all the way down to idle, while the bigger cam steals low-rpm power to get the additional peak power. If you install a 4000 TC then the low-rpm doesn't matter to you. but 6% is still 6% no matter how you look at it.
IMO, a Whiplash cam is a cheap way to make an engine sound like a monster at idle, yet still have some torque at stall, so you save the cost of installing hi-compression components. This is great for the A&W cruiser.... not so much for racing,lol.
If yur gonna stick with a teener, yur gonna need the whole package, no shortcuts. Choose your MPH window, determine your P/W ratio, build the engine to satisfy that,gear and stall it; go have fun, whittling down your ET.
A bigger engine lets you be sloppy for the teener power window.Most of the time sloppy is cheaper.
 
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j par said:
They have "some" good products, BUT do they make them...?
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I agree...we have their valvesprings and retainers for Danys Magnum.
Still going with JRobs recommended Lunati cam for it.
It's starting to look like the Steamroller is not something anyone has put a timeslip to...
 
motorpirate said:
I agree...we have their valvesprings and retainers for Danys Magnum.
Still going with JRobs recommended Lunati cam for it.
It's starting to look like the Steamroller is not something anyone has put a timeslip to...
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The Time Slips going to not do anybody any good unless the entire combination of the car is quoted with it. Tire size weight transmission rear end gears the list goes on and on and on that and shocks and suspension and Driver error! LOL
 
j par said:
The Time Slips going to not do anybody any good unless the entire combination of the car is quoted with it. Tire size weight transmission rear end gears the list goes on and on and on that and shocks and suspension and Driver error! LOL
Click to expand...
I guess I thought that was obvious, maybe not.
How about " I had X car with Y cam etc and I put a steamroller in and it went faster/slower afterwards. "
 
tight LSA will get the engine to torque range earlier, gets you into the power band quicker
 
AJ/FormS said:
Links?
or specs?
What is a steamroller?

Any cam suitable for a low-compression engine, should send up red flags as to racing. And when the advertised is not disclosed, two more red flags should go up.
Yeah, I know the scoop, from 8/1 to 11/1 is only about 6% absolute power difference. But what is the difference in real numbers, and the power cost from stall to peak? That's where compression shines; in the higher average power to get there. That 6% is about 1 full cam size at the peak; but the compression boosts the power all the way down to idle, while the bigger cam steals low-rpm power to get the additional peak power. If you install a 4000 TC then the low-rpm doesn't matter to you. but 6% is still 6% no matter how you look at it.
IMO, a Whiplash cam is a cheap way to make an engine sound like a monster at idle, yet still have some torque at stall, so you save the cost of installing hi-compression components. This is great for the A&W cruiser.... not so much for racing,lol.
If yur gonna stick with a teener, yur gonna need the whole package, no shortcuts. Choose your MPH window, determine your P/W ratio, build the engine to satisfy that,gear and stall it; go have fun, whittling down your ET.
A bigger engine lets you be sloppy for the teener power window.Most of the time sloppy is cheaper.
Click to expand...
That was my gut reaction biased on the lobe separation, but I am no where near being able to look at a cam card and tell what traits the cam will have like a lot if you here.
That's why I asked!!
Thanks.
 
I used a Hughes "steamroller" hydraulic roller in my last magnum build. I still have the cam on a shelf at home. It was a 10.5:1 360 with Hughes 2.02/1.60 EQ heads. The cam was a 218/[email protected] .539/.549 lift with the factory magnum 1.6 rockers. Car weighs 3304 without me, 727, 3.55 gears, pump gas, etc. Carburetor was untuned straight out of the box and using a stock electronic distributor. Went 12.88 @104. That was my 3rd, final, and fastest pass. That basic combo was pretty fun on the street and in hindsight I should have left it alone.

I will be using a bigger Hughes cam with my edelbrock heads and 408. It's a 234/238 @.050 .571/.576 hydraulic roller.
 
1994redram said:
I used a Hughes "steamroller" hydraulic roller in my last magnum build. I still have the cam on a shelf at home. It was a 10.5:1 360 with Hughes 2.02/1.60 EQ heads. The cam was a 218/[email protected] .539/.549 lift with the factory magnum 1.6 rockers. Car weighs 3304 without me, 727, 3.55 gears, pump gas, etc. Carburetor was untuned straight out of the box and using a stock electronic distributor. Went 12.88 @104. That was my 3rd, final, and fastest pass. That basic combo was pretty fun on the street and in hindsight I should have left it alone.

I will be using a bigger Hughes cam with my edelbrock heads and 408. It's a 234/238 @.050 .571/.576 hydraulic roller.
Click to expand...
That is EXACTLY what we were looking for!!!
What did you change to and why?
 
So, I went to the strip and made 3 passes before getting run off for no helmet. I got hooked but that was the last race before the tracks shut down for winter. I should have left it alone and tuned/perfected that setup this coming season. However I had the edelbrocks sitting and got bored, so I pulled the engine and put the edelbrocks on and the bigger cam.

Then it all went downhill! You can look up my other thread where I posted pics. I didn't pay attention while installing the cam and I put the timing set on incorrectly and DESTROYED that engine about a month ago. So now I'm building a magnum based 408 with the edelbrock that are getting repaired. And I'll use the Hughes 234/238°@.050 previously mentioned. That cam is probably a bit small for the 408, but it's getting used.
 
1994redram said:
I used a Hughes "steamroller" hydraulic roller in my last magnum build. I still have the cam on a shelf at home. It was a 10.5:1 360 with Hughes 2.02/1.60 EQ heads. The cam was a 218/[email protected] .539/.549 lift with the factory magnum 1.6 rockers. Car weighs 3304 without me, 727, 3.55 gears, pump gas, etc. Carburetor was untuned straight out of the box and using a stock electronic distributor. Went 12.88 @104. That was my 3rd, final, and fastest pass. That basic combo was pretty fun on the street and in hindsight I should have left it alone.

I will be using a bigger Hughes cam with my edelbrock heads and 408. It's a 234/238 @.050 .571/.576 hydraulic roller.
Click to expand...
If you sent your old Hughes cam to a regrinder and had them grind it to the new specs you're looking for you can still say you have a Hughes cam..
 
1994redram said:
So, I went to the strip and made 3 passes before getting run off for no helmet. I got hooked but that was the last race before the tracks shut down for winter. I should have left it alone and tuned/perfected that setup this coming season. However I had the edelbrocks sitting and got bored, so I pulled the engine and put the edelbrocks on and the bigger cam.

Then it all went downhill! You can look up my other thread where I posted pics. I didn't pay attention while installing the cam and I put the timing set on incorrectly and DESTROYED that engine about a month ago. So now I'm building a magnum based 408 with the edelbrock that are getting repaired. And I'll use the Hughes 234/238°@.050 previously mentioned. That cam is probably a bit small for the 408, but it's getting used.
Click to expand...
Oh man I just read that sorry about your loss..
 
motorpirate said:
View attachment 1715297721
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Yeah this is what I based my opinion on.
If you add ~46/47 degrees to get an approximation of the advertised to maybe .006tappet lift, so you can maybe compare it to a Comp cam, then I get;
260intake/272exhaust/125 compression/111power/48 overlap; in at their recommended 105-ICA.
Firstly the 260 tells you it's a small cam suitable for a low-C 318. The ICA of 55* keeps the cylinder pressure up so she doesn't go too soft at factory stall. What they did was steal extraction degrees, by making the exhaust overly long, to get the 48* overlap, which makes the idle-lope everybody seems to crave. That leaves just 111* for extraction, which makes for reasonable fuel-economy. The left over 272 exhaust duration looks like a lot, and it is way more than the 260intake needs... but it would allow log-manifolds and not lose much power. So that is how it works from idle to off-idle to almost stall-speed.

But as soon as you wind it up to stall speed,everything settles down,because there is no longer enough time to support the lope which is actually just reversion and intake dilution and poor combustion; and so the .050s become more important. Now the 213/226 tells the story. This is a generous size for a 318, and will make peak power around 4800rpm, about 400 higher than the stocker. The extra rpm makes the power, perhaps 20 or more.

But here's the deal, taking that 260 intake degrees as gospel, and building a fast-rate cam with it, suitable for to use a 904, a guy might choose ; 260/268/112 with .050s of 220/228, and make another 20 hp with a powerband suitable for the auto. The events now are;
260intake/268exhaust/121 compression/111extraction/40overlap; in at 103 now.
So we lost 4* of compression, and the cylinder pressure dropped a similar amount, so we kindof need to increase the Scr to get back the pressure at low-rpm ..... unless you increase the stall. Extraction is the same 111* and the exhaust has been reduced to a more sane level for the 260 intake. So the bottom line here is more peak power with the same intake degrees, but needs a boost in Scr to maintain the bottom end, and midrange; with a slight loss of idle-lope(8*). This would be more suitable for a street/strip car.

But if you are gonna increase the Scr with pistons..... then you might as well aim high, the cost is the same. And then you might choose an even bigger cam, without loss of low-rpm torque. The increased cylinder pressure will really pump up the midrange, and perhaps another 20 at peak. Of course that means a higher operating range, and a new set of gears to trap at the higher MPH.

If you continue this way, you will hit the dreaded detonation wall, or end up with a 4200TC,....... and a trailer,lol.
 
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