440 what am I missing here?

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As far as headers go I have manifolds on it.

Houston.....we have a problem.

The cam is a very poor choice for ex manifold use.

The choices:
-Put real headers on it
-Put a noticeably different cam in it
-Do neither and live with the performance not being what it could be
 
If the only thing that will fit are manifolds then you need a different cam. You'll need something smaller and with less overlap. Changing the converter isn't going to solve the cam issue. A big cam with restrictive exhaust causes a lot of problems. At low speed the overlap results in a lot of reversion. At higher speeds the restrictive exhaust causes reversion. The engine can never get up on the cam.
 
You have several of the most knowledgeable members on this site giving you great advice. You would spend a lot of money to hire experts like these to help. It may not be what you want to hear but its what you should hear. Hope you put it to good use. BTW awesome ride!
 
Beat me to it, but I'll go ahead post to back up what PRH and AndyF are saying about the manifolds and reversion: You not only have pumping loss from the piston having to push the exhaust gasses out, but you also have a big single plane intake and 108 degree LSA. Now at low rpm when the cam hits overlap, It's going to be pushing exhaust back into the intake where it's going to sucked into nearest available cylinder that's on the intake stroke. Built in EGR is as bad cylinder pressure loss, but combine the two and you've got a real slug... although it's not absolutely necessary, I myself would also be upgrading to some three inch exhaust too.
But aside from all that, I'd still like you to run a compression test and log the numbers for yourself at your convenience. Always good to test and log what you have with a fresh engine in case you have any trouble in the future. And oh yeah, definitely a great looking ride, I'm sure we'd all like to see some more pics!
:thumbsup:
 
Here is a cam test that I ran 20 years ago using a Mopar big block with HP manifolds. The engine was very sensitive to the camshaft design. Smaller worked a lot better than bigger that is for sure. If the cam was too big then it lost power down low and it couldn't make power up high. If the cam was too small it made great power, just not a lot of it. With the correct cam it would fry the tires.

http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/bb/550hp.html
 
Beat me to it, but I'll go ahead post to back up what PRH and AndyF are saying about the manifolds and reversion: You not only have pumping loss from the piston having to push the exhaust gasses out, but you also have a big single plane intake and 108 degree LSA. Now at low rpm when the cam hits overlap, It's going to be pushing exhaust back into the intake where it's going to sucked into nearest available cylinder that's on the intake stroke. Built in EGR is as bad cylinder pressure loss, but combine the two and you've got a real slug... although it's not absolutely necessary, I myself would also be upgrading to some three inch exhaust too.
But aside from all that, I'd still like you to run a compression test and log the numbers for yourself at your convenience. Always good to test and log what you have with a fresh engine in case you have any trouble in the future. And oh yeah, definitely a great looking ride, I'm sure we'd all like to see some more pics!
:thumbsup:
Since we built this truck I have had a bit of experience building headers plus there are a few more options out there I didnt have time to find while we where under the sema crunch. Everyone I talked to when we built the truck remarked that the mopar manifolds flowed quite well and I would only be losing a few horses. Not noticeable with the torque that engine should be making. Anyway it looks like I have some work to do next time the truck comes out. I'm still gonna do the convertor swap and add some headers to the list as well as have my guy come by and we will do some tuning,and testing. I will post more pics
 
Compression is a very large part of this scenario also. Please post cranking compression numbers when you can.
 
Since we built this truck I have had a bit of experience building headers plus there are a few more options out there I didnt have time to find while we where under the sema crunch. Everyone I talked to when we built the truck remarked that the mopar manifolds flowed quite well and I would only be losing a few horses. Not noticeable with the torque that engine should be making. Anyway it looks like I have some work to do next time the truck comes out. I'm still gonna do the convertor swap and add some headers to the list as well as have my guy come by and we will do some tuning,and testing. I will post more pics
Not sure why I'm Resisting a cam change is there a recommendation that doesnt require pushrods, and alot of other changes. Again I really appreciate the knowledge
 
There is no cam change that doesn’t require checking the pushrod length or checking the geometry if you want to do it correctly.
 
There is no cam change that doesn’t require checking the pushrod length or checking the geometry if you want to do it correctly.
It seems from what I'm reading that the LSA seems to be the issue. So a cam with more separation shouldn't change pushrod length correct
 
Schneider cam out of California developed the original purple shaft cam line. They can do a custom cam for your specs to maximize performance. Be ready to answer a bunch of questions. Keith is great. Schneider Racing Cams
 
It seems from what I'm reading that the LSA seems to be the issue. So a cam with more separation shouldn't change pushrod length correct
It’s not just the LSA. The cam you have is not suited for a low rpm small cube big block with a single plane intake and exhaust manifolds. The @050 duration wants that engine to be spinning 3500-7000 and 11:1 compression to be optimal. You need a large step backwards. That cam was originally cut by Howard’s cams and my opinion is you should contact them and see if they’ll cut you a more appropriate cam for your combo on the same base circle. Then MAYBE your pushrod length and geometry might work out. But it does not excuse you from measuring and checking.
 
There is nothing wrong with the TF cam....... when used in the correct application.
Which can be said for pretty much any cam.

A cam swap “shouldn’t” require different pushrods provided the base circle diameter of the cam doesn’t change much.

The current cam, run with exhaust manifolds, really isn’t a good match at all for the EFI.
That, combined with the large single plane intake, low stall speed and mild gearing....... and you end up with....... well, you know what you end up with.
 
There is nothing wrong with the TF cam....... when used in the correct application.
Which can be said for pretty much any cam.

A cam swap “shouldn’t” require different pushrods provided the base circle diameter of the cam doesn’t change much.

The current cam, run with exhaust manifolds, really isn’t a good match at all for the EFI.
That, combined with the large single plane intake, low stall speed and mild gearing....... and you end up with....... well, you know what you end up with.
Absolutely correct. There is a lot of good information and suggestions here @Cool Hand from some people who should be regarded as “gurus”. Follow the advice by @PRH and @AndyF and you will be happy with the end result. In my opinion you need to start by verifying the compression ratio of the current long block so better decisions can be made with regards to part replacement. There is no reason why, with your current “hard parts” that you can’t put together a great package for your goals with some careful selection of supporting parts; cam, intake, headers, fall into the major supporting parts categories. Converter and gearing following closely behind.
 
Not sure why I'm Resisting a cam change is there a recommendation that doesnt require pushrods, and alot of other changes. Again I really appreciate the knowledge

A cam change with a hyd roller should be about as simple as it gets since you shouldn't need to change anything other than the cam. Comp has several different shelf cams for BB Mopar. Something like the XR280HR-10 or the next size smaller XR274HR-10 would work. If you want something that really works with your parts then get a custom grind. If it was me I'd spread the lobes out a little bit to 112 or 114 just so it idles better with the FiTech. I'd probably also swap to a Performer RPM. The exhaust manifolds and the FiTech will both work okay with a much smaller cam and a dual plane intake. At that point your existing converter might just be fine.
 
A cam change with a hyd roller should be about as simple as it gets since you shouldn't need to change anything other than the cam. Comp has several different shelf cams for BB Mopar. Something like the XR280HR-10 or the next size smaller XR274HR-10 would work. If you want something that really works with your parts then get a custom grind. If it was me I'd spread the lobes out a little bit to 112 or 114 just so it idles better with the FiTech. I'd probably also swap to a Performer RPM. The exhaust manifolds and the FiTech will both work okay with a much smaller cam and a dual plane intake. At that point your existing converter might just be fine.
 
I will call them ,and give that a shot. Think I have a friend or two at comp. Really appreciate you taking the time. I will post my plan,and results
 
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I will call them ,and give that a shot. Think I have a friend or two at comp. Really appreciate you taking the time. I will post my plan,and results

The Trick Flow heads have excellent flow at low lift which seems like a good idea but it can be too much of a good thing with a long duration cam. At low engine speeds you can blow the intake right out the exhaust since it flows so good. On a race engine you never notice it but on a street engine it will cause problems. For that truck I'd lean towards the small size for the cam. That truck probably isn't super heavy and I doubt that you want to go really fast in it so just focus on making 0 to 90 fun. 90 mph is probably 4500 rpm so no need to use a cam that has a powerband from 3500 to 6500. I doubt you want to see the high side of 6000 rpm in a truck like that.
 
All the more reason to switch to an Edelbrock performer rpm. Optimal rpm rating of 1500-6500 (keyword is rating, YRMV) as opposed to the 3000 to 7500 rpm rated manifold. You had also mentioned the possibility of fabricating headers for it. I’m curious if Andy thinks it would be worth the trouble and if so what size & length of tubes would work best.
 
All the more reason to switch to an Edelbrock performer rpm. Optimal rpm rating of 1500-6500 (keyword is rating, YRMV) as opposed to the 3000 to 7500 rpm rated manifold. You had also mentioned the possibility of fabricating headers for it. I’m curious if Andy thinks it would be worth the trouble and if so what size & length of tubes would work best.
That was gonna be my next question? I am gonna call comp today, and see on a cam. I think with that head design 1 5/8 is the largest header tube I can use,and still bolt them on. I could step them up to 1 7/8, or 3/4 but I don't think that ever makes a difference. I also will have to physically lay them out to figure out lengths, and that is generally up to the truck,and the space I have. Sounds like I should see what comp says they might have something that will work great with the exhaust the way it is.
 
The Trick Flow heads have excellent flow at low lift which seems like a good idea but it can be too much of a good thing with a long duration cam. At low engine speeds you can blow the intake right out the exhaust since it flows so good. On a race engine you never notice it but on a street engine it will cause problems. For that truck I'd lean towards the small size for the cam. That truck probably isn't super heavy and I doubt that you want to go really fast in it so just focus on making 0 to 90 fun. 90 mph is probably 4500 rpm so no need to use a cam that has a powerband from 3500 to 6500. I doubt you want to see the high side of 6000 rpm in a truck like that.
You are correct. On the track we will do well over 100 but that is for a short time,and she won't see the track very often. Mostly highway ,and light to light in town. Want the lower end torque.
 
Manifolds will work just fine if you want low end torque. A set of custom headers will add some power but not a lot from 0 to 4500 rpm. If you want to build headers then that is fine but keep them small. 1 3/4 at the largest. I have 1 3/4 inch headers on my Pro Street Duster and it makes plenty of power. Way more than I need on the street.

A small cam will help your combo a lot. I used the Mopar .528 in my Coronet with ported Edelbrock heads and HP manifolds. That engine would spin the tires all the way thru first and second gear. It made 475 hp at the rear tires on the chassis dyno. That was with a Performer RPM intake and a 800 cfm Edelbrock carb. A cam in that range would wake up your truck.

This is all assuming that you don't have some other big problem with the engine. I still think you need to double check everything on the engine before you start swapping parts. If the engine was put together by someone without a lot of experience then there are all sorts of things that could happen. The cam can be retarded a tooth, the firing order can be wrong, the rings put in upside down, etc. The list of possible mistakes is endless......
 
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