LA360 initial timing too high - are there different timing covers?

nm9stheham said
Good info. I looked it up too and the durations are 276/288. LSA looks like 114 with a 109 ICL 'as ground'. Not terribly radical buut.

To be able to compute out to the cranking compression you found, with your cam:
- was installed wih little or no advance (That's not the same as putting the key at 0 degrees.)
- the head gaskets are Felpro 5883PT's
- the pistons are deeper dished or lower compression height truck pistons

With the cam out, it would not be easy to put in another one, like a 260 or 256ish range with the same lift. (Crane, Lunati Voodoo or Comp XE/HE. Is that your thought?

Do you feel like pulling heads and looking things over and putting back in some thinner head gaskets? (Mr Gasket 1121G) I know I would want to put some sort of bore gage on a few bores to see if there is taper or out-of-roundness, and see how far the top edge of the pistons are from the deck and the dimensions of the piston top's dish.

nm9 - Thanks, I'll trust your specs. I couldn't find this cam in Elgin catalog, but found it on a speed shops site. I did use a felpro gasket when I installed the heads. The pistons didn't seem to have much dish (I've seen worse), but this is my first SBM - so no real reference. Although they were pretty deep in the hole - didn't measure but it was probably pushing -0.100 Yes, I'm looking at just putting in another cam in the 260 or lower range. I have a bad habit of feature-creep, and I was only planning to use this engine to help me sort out the rest of the car. So even if it is more worn than I had hoped, it isn't going to see a whole lot of duty anytime soon... Besides, this always give me a good excuse for the future upgrade. I'll get a cam installed and degree'ed, retest compression and report back.