Help with Camshaft!

[DodgeFan79]

I have a 92 Dodge Dakota extended cab with a 5.2. It has the OD tranny and is rwd. Has 3.55 gears but those are going to be getting swapped out to 4.10s. Also has a limited slip.

My questions are has anybody used these cams on Ebay? | eBay

as you can see he has a huge selection for the Magnum motors. I plan on dropping a bone stock 5.9 in the truck with upgraded valve springs and a air gap intake clone manifold. Will be running a carb. What camshaft from this company would be best for my application??? I will also upgrade the torque converter to a 2800rpm stall when I swap the motor out.

Would this truck run good with the 5.2 and a cam swap? It runs good but I want more power so I was thinking 5.9 swap but may consider just keeping the 5.2. Definitely going to go to 4.10 gears and run a carb.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Just wanna make sure I pick the right cam. Thanks

 

[rumblefish360]

Picking the right cam is a personal choice as well as a exercise of getting to the goal of the project. You can use calculators for the “Perfect” cam for this endeavor but finding this cam may be impossible or as quick as a phone call because it is on a shelf somewhere.

Know for sure which engine your going to use. The displacement will change the cam specs if a calculator is used or you yourself get down and dirty with getting the absolute best cam in there.

As far as these EBay sellers of reground cams are concerned, I’ve never used them and have not entertained the idea of there use. If you can find out more about the cam specs and timing events, this would go a long way in deciding if the cam is what you want to use.

If this were I doing this Dakota for a hot rod truck, I would run with a 5.9 Magnum. As long as your cylinder heads are in good shape to run, then I would run the following set up/build.

IF! The stock long block is ready to run, it would be a 750 cfm carb, rpm intake, largest than 1-5/8 tube headers into a 2-1/2 exhaust (min.) then top it off with a well tuned up, high energy ignition.

If the pistons need to be replaced, you need to do some figuring on what piston will deliver a ratio of not more than 10-1 for safe pump gas use. If the cylinder heads need replacing, Edelbrock or Trickflow heads are your only two aluminum choices which offer a terrific upgrade over stock replacement heads.

When you select a cam, the basic advertised rpm operating band should not exceed 2500 on the low end (and that’s pushing it a little bit) since your converter range is 2800.

As a “In general” duration @050, the intake duration should not exceed 230@050. Or exceed it by a small amount at most.

The 318 would be a OK & decent performer, the 360 will be much better!

 

[Bewy]

^^^^^Very good advice.