Camshaft in a 65 273

-
cudafish65

cudafish65

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
79
Reaction score
23
Location
long island NY
Have a 65 barracuda with a 273/185. Thinking of doing a few upgrades. Upgraded the intake and 4bbl carb. Was looking into doing a light cam on it, been looking comp cams and such. Still has stock rocker arms, I'm not too sure about using a hydrolic camshaft on a solid rocker like that, any ideas?
 
You can use a hydraulic cam, lifters and pushrods with the adjustable rockers. Most hydraulic cams like a half to full turn past 0 lash. I used a Isky E4 solid cam in my 273. A bit bigger than the HP cam specs but it performs very well.
 
Years ago I ran a Crower cam (.427"/264 duration, as I recall) with stock non-adjustable rockers as my stock 273 rockers wouldn't hold an adjustment anyway. Cam worked well with 10:1 pistons, but REALLY woke up when moved from my old '66 Dart (904/2.94 gears) to my old '66 Barracuda (four speed/3.23 gears).
 
I like that cam Jim. I just looked on the Crower website and they don't grind that one any more. The mildest solid they have is a 229@.050 278/288 advertised .446-.456 lift 112°. that would be pretty nasty in a 273. The Isky E-4 is a mild grind with quite a bit of pull to about 5500. It idles with a very slight stutter, like the original HP273 cam.
 
I built my 67 273, out .040 with egge 10.5 pistons and an ld4b intake. I used a lunati hydraulic with the stock rockers, had to install shorter pushrods. So far, so good. I am happy with it.
 
toolmanmike said:
I like that cam Jim. I just looked on the Crower website and they don't grind that one any more. The mildest solid they have is a 229@.050 278/288 advertised .446-.456 lift 112°. that would be pretty nasty in a 273. The Isky E-4 is a mild grind with quite a bit of pull to about 5500. It idles with a very slight stutter, like the original HP273 cam.
Click to expand...

That wasn't a solid cam (not sure if that was clear). I also used a stock 340 cam in the last 273 I had (in a '67 Barracuda fastback). Worked ok, but there were some other performance issues that I never did address. The car came apart for a repaint and sat for a number of years. The replacement engine was a '69 383. That DID work well...
 
Yea I was thinking of using shorter pushrods, ive heard that works. I don't want anything crazy just looking to get a similar cam as the commandos had
 
cudafish65 said:
Yea I was thinking of using shorter pushrods, ive heard that works. I don't want anything crazy just looking to get a similar cam as the commandos had
Click to expand...
the isky E 4 cam is very good grind, I used one in 235/273, it would pull to 6200 rpm. idled good like stock cam yet had more chop sound. very streetable, it's a drop in. solid lifter type. mine worked very good. in a 235/273 with gears and slicks ran 13.31 @ 102 + mph.
 
Another vote (and current user of it) for the isky e-4 solid cam. It pulls 15 inches of vac at 750-800 rpm comes to life around 2700-2800 pulls strong till 5200-5700 depending upon where the cam is indexed at. Mine is stright up & pulls too 5500 all day. You cannot go wrong with this cam in a 273. Works even better with the higher
Compression motors like my own & TMM's engine. (I forgot to add I also installed crane iron 1.6:1 rockers to give a bit more lift.)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top