Help me pick a cam

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mooser

mooser

273 Commando Kid
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San Jose, California
what's the best mild street cam for a stock 318 with Edelbrock SP2P-318 intake, Carter 625 AFB and headers. I want reasonable street power and a mild lopey idle for cruise night. What works with stock valve springs...this is a super low budget, high school kid hop up.
 
About the biggest you can go on stock springs is a Comp 256xe or 260 magnum or an equivalent. I don't know how much cool sound it'll make though cause it's not really very big but it should make a little noise. You really should consider replacing the springs though. Those 20+ year old springs are probably almost shot now and if you put a big cam on them they'll fade away real fast. Then you'll have a big pig with a cool sounding cam that won't spin over 4000 rpm. Single springs don't cost much.
 
Hey there youngster. You've fallen into my area of expertise. CHEAP! I live by it. Just get a cam and lifter kit. I'd say a +/- 290 duration +/-490 Lift cam is fine for a tough idle, and a nice little performance gain. You don't have to get new valve springs, you don't need to install new cam bearings. Nothing, just slam it in, and call it a day. Furthermore, don't worry about some ridiculous high end brand name cam. Most all cams are cut from the same blanks anyways. So just get a cheap brand Summit/Jegs etc. Good luck kid. Keep it cheap, and you'll go far.
 
If he goes with 290 degrees of duration it may sound neat but I bet it wouldn't even get out of it's own way considering it's going in a low compression 318. And a 290 degree duration cam on stock 25 year old springs that weren't good enough for a 270 degree cam when new???? Everytime I tried it when I was young I found I threw good money after bad cause it allways caused problems. You don't have to spend big bucks but if you go too cheap it'll bite you in the butt most of the time.

Your right about most cams being ground from the same blank but that don't mean their ground the same. The Summit cams work ok but are really not very aggressive at all. Alot of total duration and moderate lift. .050 duration is low in comparison to the Comp XE or Lunati cams that's why the Comp's and Lunati's stomp them on power.

As the old saying goes. "You gets what you pays for".
 
I had a stock '71 340 with the factory cam and it had a nice lumpy idle and made pretty good power up to about 5,500.

There have to be hundreds if not thousands of little-used OEM 340 cams floating around the used parts market that could be had for very little $$$.

Take the money you save on the cam and buy a new set of lifters and springs. The whole thing can't cost much, and should work okay with a low compression 318. It worked okay with a low compression 340 in 1972-'73.

Lift is low enough that coil bind won't be a problem, but the 340 springs may not sit in the seats on the 318 heads. Might need smaller-than 340-size diameter springs, but that shouldn't be a problem, either.

Good luck. Keep it simple...

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas
 
This cam works really well in a 318.

Speed Pro CS-1019R
adv. 288/298
at .050 214/224
lift .443/.465
LC 107/117
LSA 112

I have one in a 340 and the idle has a nice rumble, but not smooth. A little chop, sounds good. Idles as low as 600 RPM. It runs good in 318's too.

Comp 901 springs are about $60, retainers another $50 locks are about $10

Don't go too crazy on duration at .050. Advertised duration can be misleading. A good limit on a real streetable 318 would be around 220-225 at .050 on the intake. I'd think a XE262H would be about the limit. I tend to go a little bigger than smaller when in doubt. Any more than that and vacuum will start to suffer.
 
kid if ya didnt live so far away i'd give you cam lifers an springs just pulled out a small just over stock 340 cam had a good sounding idle crisp throttle response should have left in in there but went with a 284 528 purple cam this time jack the compression up to 12 to 1 just wanted something different. when you do a cam in it buy a dbl roller chain an put in it . the 318 i had it in ran low 14sec 360 heads ,headers cast iron intake an the rear was what ever came in it . one wheel wonder but i had a lot of fun in it . an thats what matters right . it was a 74 duster had it for 23 yrs an then sold it what a stupid a@@ i was . i bought it new in 1974 i want to say 2800 an some change
 
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