Budget 360 build in heavy car- Which cam?

MopaR&D said
For a mostly street cruiser at that weight, first cam (-08) is my choice. If you do go with a 3000+ converter just be sure to get one that stays tight when not wide-open. I think a ~2500 RPM stall would be sufficient but newer custom converters can stall higher and still be tight at part throttle. If the car will see any freeway cruising above 65 mph I would definitely stick with 3.23 or 3.0x gears. The smaller cam will work fine with stock rockers and is probably better for your stock-ish compression ratio which I doubt will be much higher than 8.5:1 with the thin head gaskets and light milling of the heads.

For lifters I'd hit up one of the smaller cam companies like Schneider or Delta Cam and get some from them, all of the big-name outfits get their lifters from the same manufacturer and these days it's a crapshoot with quality; not uncommon to get one or multiple in a set that don't have the faces ground with the correct radius or too loose of tolerances in the hydraulic plungers and end up with a wiped cam and/or collapsed lifters.

Im leaning towards the first one as well, and in reality this is to be a cruiser, so I will most likely end up with the gears in the 3.0x or 3.23 range. Using stock rockers means no adjustability....does that mean id use the stock pushrods too? Again, this kinda thing is all new to me. As for lifters, good tips, thanks! Ill try them.

OldmanRick said
With what you're using it for and if you prefer a Howards grind, i'd prefer this one.

Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshaft; 1964 - 2003 Chrysler 273, 340, 360, 318 1800 to 5600 Howards Cams 711651-12 | Howards Cams

Not much gear and lowish compression leads me to go easy on the intake duration. This one has good lift, a 108 centerline and some split for those stock heads and a street exhaust. Should make good torque from just off idle. I might even rethink the stall speed if i chose this one.

Good luck with your project and have fun. :thumbsup:

I will take a look at it for sure. If I can swing it, im going to try for a set of speedmaster heads on Black Friday, but the default plan is the stock heads. I had a cam in a similar low compression build (8.5:1) and it was duration in the 230s at .050 and it ran HARD for what it was, so im already feeling like the smaller of the 2 I posted is small lol...but I know over camming is easy, so that one may be a contender too.

partsmonsta said
The MP 474 RV Cam is one helluva cam for a 360 large vehicle.
Installed it in my 81 Dodge Truck and outran motorcycles with it (not the ninjas).
It has a wicked idle and will need a better than stock convertor to work.
The MP cams are no longer available, but the specs are.
You will never use another cam after you install this one...AMAZING.

Duration seems high on that grind. Who still offers those old MP lobes?

Bewy said
The best lifters are the ones in the engine. Have them re-faced & avoid a lifter/lobe failure.

I didnt even know that was a thing. May be another option as well, thanks for that.

92b said
If you are going to mill the heads for compression you might consider milling the deck instead. It has the potential to gain more compression.

I had thought about that too, but more than likely unless there is an issue on teardown and inspection, I want to try and avoid machine work if possible.