... cam choice for 360? I need advice.

-
bighammer

bighammer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
2,389
Reaction score
143
Location
Northwest Oregon
After I get the LA 360 engine removed from the donor truck, I would like to put some type of performance cam in it. I have no idea about doing this; should I leave it up to a mechanic? I have limited mechanic skills... don't want to damage the cam or lifters.

Is the cam replaced by itself, or do I need to replace the lifters at the same time? Sorry for my ignorance. :newb:

Does this job require a valve adjust afterward?

BTW the engine is a low mile (38k) remanufactured roller cam long block from a 1990 pickup.

As far as my cam choice, I need help there too. I don't plan on changing anything on the bottom end. I have a 600 Holley on its way, as well as an intake. The exhaust manifolds are 2 1/4" outlets (340) and i plan on 2 1/2" dual exhaust.

I rarely drive the car, but I want it to be quick, torquey, and capable! Just a weekend cruiser that has balls!

I anxiously await your most awesome advice :prayer:

Mark
 
Get a performance regrind for your roller engine, no worries about all the flat lobe problems that way. But dont go crazy on the size, you could get into coilbind/ valve guide clearance problems, as well as making the engine run worse than with the stock cam..
 
what is a performance regrind? Remember, I'm ignorant about this... are you saying to send my existing cam in to have it reground? To what spec's?
 
That is correct..... as far as specs, some of the others on here might have more input on that, Hughes engines has lots of grinds that would work well also.
 
Also, the car is an auto trans with an 8 3/4 (both stock / original) I don't particularly care what is going to happen with my economy (mpg's), and I'm not too concerned with how it sounds, although I like the 'lope' of a cam... I could always pull off a vacuum line to provide the lope :finga:

I don't plan on a performance stall torque converter, but I don't really know anything about that either :scratch:
 
Hammer, you need to read a few books to get some speed in never mind get up to speed. Your questions are honest ones a d there good but they also generate a lot more questions. Some things should be a known before you attempt what your doing. They really are basics to be known.

Grab a book titled "How to rebuild your small block MoPar" a d read up.
This will answer all questions you have posted on this and every thread here so far.
 
If you don't want to change the torque converter or have to do any mods to the heads (for clearance) you need to stay pretty small on size. Something on the order of about 212-216 degrees at .050" lift with .450 lift ground on a 110 lobe center will do you good. It should have a nice little lope to it so you can "hear" the cam but not be radical which would necessitate replacing the torque converter and possibly doing some head work. I'm not sure if they can re-grind your stock cam that big but it's worth asking. If i were you I'd call a few good cam companies such as Bullet, Racer Brown, Clay Smith, etc and talk to them about it. The good thing is it's a roller cam so you won't have to go through all the rigamoro of installing new lifters and breaking in the cam like you do on a flat tappet cam. Plus a roller generally makes more power.

BTW: even a small'ish cam no bigger than what I said will allow your engine to make a good bit more power.

As for if you can do it without any experience it's one of the easier things to do, but not knowing your mechanical ability/experience it's hard for me to say but I think you'd be best off getting help just so you have a 2nd set of eyes. I'm sure if you go on YouTube you can search "Mopar cam replacement" or something of the sort and a video (or 500, LOL) will pop up showing how it's done. Just remember the main rule when working on engines, "Cleanliness is of utmost importance". When you take it apart to replace the cam make absolutely sure you get all the crap out that falls down inside the einge. I've found a shop vac works good to suck the crap out. Cleaning the outside good before you take it apart helps a lot too.
 
get the motor changed drive it see what it feels like mabee you dont have to do any thing then decide what you want and what you expect from the car
 
No wonder I have seen so many posts on cam choices! I did some looking, there is apparently no specific answer! It depends on waaaay too many variables I guess.

My intended use is a fun weekend cruiser that will make some power when I want to kick it down to pass another vehicle, a burnout once in a while, you know....

But maybe the stock cam will be fine. I don't want to risk putting in the wrong cam, losing the advantage of low end torque. My 318 supposedly had a 340 cam, I can't confirm, but it seemed to perform well.

Might there be a similar cam choice for the 360? Maybe that is similar to what Fishy68 is referring to? Is there a so called 340 cam grind for the 360? From what I read online, it would seem that I really only need a 'stage 1' cam, possibly a stage 2. (Stages 3 & 4 clearly not appropriate).

Thanks for all your help, it is greatly appreciated, and really good answers. I am now going to YouTube to check on cam installations...
 
Videos on cam installations? Good idea. If you can find a MoPar small block spec vid, your in like flint. Do you know your gear ratio?

MoPar used the 340 cam in 318 & 360 4bbl. App's. You can get the cam from MoPar. It is a extremely mello cam. For increased intensity and performance, grab the updated replacement 340 cam from MoPar. A similar cam from Comp Cams is the XE268.

It may be a bit much cam for hwy. gears like a 2.76 ratio. Use with a 3.23 gear at a min. 3.55 and up would be better.
 
Lol in the same boat I just put in a 90 360 into my duster has less then 5k on the rebuild but I'm thinking bigger cam. I have the ld340 intake 650cfm carb and 2 1/2 dual pipes with 727 and 7 1/4 sure grip so I guess if I figure out what I'm going to use it will probably be around the same as what your looking for.
 
Was the truck fuel injected or carbureted? An EFI engine has a roller cam. Carb will not.
If It was an EFI - a "regrind" is just that. You send them your cam, they grind it into more of a performance piece, and you get it back and put it in. Lifters are fine to re-use - just keep them and the retainers in the same order they came out (it might not be considered "a must" to keep the order - but I like to).
If it was cabrureted - a new flat tappet cam and lifter package is avilable from a lot of places. Budget wise you can't go wrong with the small Summit brand set. If you want a little more romp the Com XE262 is a great one too.
Regardless of the cam design - you'll need to replace the valve springs and seals, and you'll need to replcae the exh valve spring retainers and locks. Lots of guys here have spares so they're cheap or free...lol.
 
Yes, tbi with roller cam, not carb / flat tappets. So maybe a XE262 or XE268 from Competition Cams? I will check their website.

MWLS73Duster, you go first and let me know how it goes!!
 
rumblefish360 said:
Videos on cam installations? Good idea. If you can find a MoPar small block spec vid, your in like flint. Do you know your gear ratio?

MoPar used the 340 cam in 318 & 360 4bbl. App's. You can get the cam from MoPar. It is a extremely mello cam. For increased intensity and performance, grab the updated replacement 340 cam from MoPar. A similar cam from Comp Cams is the XE268.

It may be a bit much cam for hwy. gears like a 2.76 ratio. Use with a 3.23 gear at a min. 3.55 and up would be better.
Click to expand...

He states in his first post that it is a roller cam 360.

Personally I wouldn't get too wild if you intend to drive it a lot. I think a lot of newbies and Chebby people tend to overcam street cars but I'd rather be able to drive right by them than sound like a race car idling through a cruise-in. 10 MPG vs. 15? Your choice but the price of gas has not been going down lately. The stock 360 will make plenty of torque to spin the tires if that's important to you. But the truck 360 is set up as a low RPM, high torque combo because it is afterall.......a truck engine for use in heavy vehicles carrying or towing payloads. It's done by 4500-5000 rpms.

I personally never looked for 360 roller cams but I know COMP has a downloadable cam selector and the Hughes people are Mopar so I'd start there. I know the COMP descriptions tell you what gear ratio and converter work best with a particular grind. And be honest in your intended usage. It sounds like you won't be doing 80% of your driving on a dragstrip.

Just my 2 cents so don't castrate me.
 
This going in your Dart?

Call bullet cams and ask what they can do with the original roller cam core. Problems arise when you try to move the LSA. I absolutely WOULD NOT swap a roller cam block to a flat tappet, JMO. Why bother finding a roller cam block and go backwards putting a hyd flat tappet in it. Stock roller lifters are CHEAP and will turn some RPM with a good spring.

Comp could possibly regrind it, there's a place in Oregon that does them too.

Low compression engine, get it cut on a tight LSA and install it ahead a bunch to build cylinder pressure. Run like a whole different engine even if it doesn't have a bunch of lift. ~220 at .050, cut on a 106, installed at 100-102 with around .500 lift and it will run well.
 
You have all made valid points, I definately dont want to go backwards on performance. Maybe I can check on a regrind, just a mild grind.

MWLS73Duster, that cam is defiantely too aggessive for my needs. I dont plan on changing the torque converter.
 
when they regrind a cam, they basically grind away material to make it have a lower "floor" so the cam has a higher lift as seen from the rockers. If you look at a Mopar cam, the lobes barely fit into the bearing journals so they cant add anything, so they drop the floor, get it? And a regrind has to use the basic shape of the stock core it uses, as they cant really manipulate the lobe seperation (you cant grind that) al you can do is raise the lift potential and maybe add few degrees of duration as the lobe is now "thinner" than it was so they is added duration. Roller cams are expensive, but you can get away with using the same roller lifters. With a tappet lifter cam, you always need to purchase new lifters with a new cam as it "laps them in" during cam break-in. Rare cases can a lifter be reground, mainly solids. VW amd mushroom lifters come to mind. Check Oregoncamshaft.com. I got a quote recently for $75 for a regrind for a slanty, and they had a few different flavors too.
 
The cam MWLS suggested is not very aggressive and a dinky cam IMO. That would be a puppy dog in a 360.

Even if it was going into the truck, that's not a big camshaft.

Member OU812 just finished a 360 for an acquaintance with that cam and it ran pretty darn good. Not sure if he has a video of it.
 
Has anyone suggested just put the motor in your car and enjoy it for a while? If not, thats my vote until you have time to read up on this stuff and learn more
 
Baxter61 said:
Has anyone suggested just put the motor in your car and enjoy it for a while? If not, thats my vote until you have time to read up on this stuff and learn more
Click to expand...

That's not really a bad idea. As mentioned earlier the stock cam runs out of steam by 4500'ish rpm but if the car it's going in has 2 something gears and a stock converter it'd still run good. It would be a tire burner for sure. A common misconception is that a stock cam won't run good. It's really all about the combination. If your car has 4.10 gears with a 4000 stall converter you for sure don't want a stock cam but if the car has 2.76 gears with a low stall converter a stock cam can perform good.

Bighammer do you know what rear gears your car has? And what rearend does it have? I ask that because if it's the dinky 7-1/4 it won't last long at all with a 360
 
You guys are awesome. I'm actually absorbing all this feedback. This site is great, awesome contributors, a huge help for somebody like me! If you ever need to know anything about rocks, I'm your guy!

The car cam from the factory with an 8 3/4, but I don't know what the gears are. Would the build sheet have that info? I have it, or is it on the axle itself? I'll have to find out somehow, spin the tires, count the rev's of the driveshaft? ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top