Cam Selection Help

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Benfica73

Benfica73

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Hi Folks, My son and I have a 73 Swinger, 318 / 904 lock up torque and 7.25 rear. 2.76 gear, that we've been playing around with. Engine for now is pretty well stock except an Edelbrock Performer intake and Edelbrock 600 carb. Factory manifolds to dual exhaust.

We just picked up a 1968 B-Body 8.75 rear with 3.23's that will be going in the car so I can get rid of the billet spacers I'm presently using to run my 17" Bullitt wheels. Also picked up a nice set of rebuilt 302 heads (stock size valves though) that I plan on installing along with a cam and lifters. The boxes that the heads came in say "spring and retainer .450". Which I assume is the max lift height the heads will take.

Therefore I am looking at the .441 lift cam from Summit SUM-K6901.

Any thoughts on this selection? or any suggestions on something else to run ?

Looking to pick up some power across the board but still hoping to have decent mileage and vacuum for the power brakes. Car is just our toy / summer fun car.

Thanks
 
Benfica73 said:
Hi Folks, My son and I have a 73 Swinger, 318 / 904 lock up torque and 7.25 rear. 2.76 gear, that we've been playing around with. Engine for now is pretty well stock except an Edelbrock Performer intake and Edelbrock 600 carb. Factory manifolds to dual exhaust.

We just picked up a 1968 B-Body 8.75 rear with 3.23's that will be going in the car so I can get rid of the billet spacers I'm presently using to run my 17" Bullitt wheels. Also picked up a nice set of rebuilt 302 heads (stock size valves though) that I plan on installing along with a cam and lifters. The boxes that the heads came in say "spring and retainer .450". Which I assume is the max lift height the heads will take.

Therefore I am looking at the .441 lift cam from Summit SUM-K6901.

Any thoughts on this selection? or any suggestions on something else to run ?

Looking to pick up some power across the board but still hoping to have decent mileage and vacuum for the power brakes. Car is just our toy / summer fun car.

Thanks
Click to expand...
this is the exact set up i had on my 67 dart. i went with the eddy performer cam. had .420 lift and 204, 214 duration. car had tons of low end torque and was done by 5500 rpm. i had the stock 318 heads with the steel shim gaskets. had 3.55 rear gear and 3000stall. car with 13.76 at 101mph all day long. only car i had and i beat the hell out of it. just kept going. was a total blast to drive.
 
Good cam to use for a dual purpose machine. I've run the Crane Cam equal with good results. I also ran a stock tire with 3.21 gears. A good bit of tire spin. Could have used 60 series tires for sure.
 
The only problem I can see is that cam recommends 9:1CR and even with 302 heads you may still only have mid 8's CR, you may have to do a little milling.
 
I'm running this combination in the Demon. 318, SUM-6901 (aka Crane Fireball), 904 non-lockup, 302 heads, 3-angle valve job, double roller timing chain, Performer, and a Carter 625 cfm AFB. Heads were cut .010 to get rid of a little warp and provide a good seat for the head gasket. I'm also running a 7¼ so I have not really tested the engine against a tree. (I need to be able to drive it home. A 3.55:1 489 8.75 SG is in the works.)

When I built the engine, I installed 67-71 flat-top pistons. These sit a little higher in the bore than the 72 and later, so compression is a bit higher. The way it is tuned, it will ping under brisk acceleration on regular gas, the ping goes away on the mid-grade stuff.

The Summit cam works well for my purposes. It allows the engine to take advantage of the AFB. The specs on the cam are a little more sporty than the 68 340 with a 4-speed. The idle is aggressive without being overly rough. At idle it will let you know, this is not yo mama's Mopar. (Running Dynomax 2¼ duals, no cross-over) I haven't had any quality of materials/workmanship complaints at all.

If you can find a new cam with these specs for a better price, buy it. Otherwise, consider this one.
 
Thanks for all the tips and suggestions fellas. I was thinking about the compression ratio but I know the heads have been planed to true them up. So I was hoping to be get by with just running some thin head gaskets. But I should probably pull the heads off and measure how far the pistons are in the holes and then measure the cc's of the combustion chamber to calculate the true ratio. Hopefully I can get this all done while Summit still has their free shipping offer on. Looking forward to some more HP's and a cool sounding idle. Thanks again
 
Im running that cam in my 302 headed 318. My heads have been heavily ported and milled, with bigger exh valves. Great lopey idle, pulls hard from 1500 up. Be careful though, as it will pull hard all the way up to 6k. I blew my #3 main on my old stock shortblock in only 2 weeks by revving the snot out of it and having too much fun. If the cam survived the blowout, it will be going in the next shortblock! Great cam for the money, just make sure you break it in properly and use break in additive in the oil.
 
If your a little light on compression, don't worry about it. Milling the head is OK, but not a must do.
 
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