bizjetmech
Active Member
The saga continues........
To recap........
Car = 73 Dart Sport street car, 340, A/T, 3.23, stock TF except for Turbo Action 11 inch street type converter.
Engine = 340 +.030, Ross pistons, CR = approx 9.6 to 1, stock heads with 2.02 intakes, 340 springs/dampers, stock rods, stock forged crank, TTIs, M-1 dual plane.
Goal: Look stock. Sound stock. Run better than stock, with no "quirks", within the limitations of the heads and piss-water they call pump unleaded gasoline.......if I've got to run a little race gas, or 100LL avgas, no problemo.
Initial cam.....old Lunati 00043, 230/230 @ .050, .480 lift I&E 109 degree centerline. After I got the engine running, obviously(?) too much cam. Will idle all day at 1100rpm and 18-20 degrees of initial advance. Dies as soon as I drop it into gear, or if I back the idle/advance lower than above.......can watch it die on the vacuum gage. Ran like crap, when I managed to keep it running while in gear......wouldn't stay running long enough to sort things out.
Initially had an RPM Air Gap intake: won't work, won't let me close the hood with the air cleaner on. As I had to pull the intake anyway (to check for an intake leak in the lifter valley....none found), decided to change the cam.
After doing some quick research, decided to order a P4452992 cam from Mancini. Pull it out of the box, check the specs; specs @.050 don't look that much different than the cam I just pulled out. Did a forum search, 3 out of 4 comments indicate that this cam SUCKS, unless I have: 1) a looser converter, and 2) more gear. Neither one of which I'm interested in changing at this point in time. Evidently, this thing is more radical than it's specs indicate.
For grins, I checked out the Lunati website, where they sell a "Stock Replacement" cam: Dur @ .050 = 232/242, lift .462/.473, LSA = 112 degrees. WTF? Other than more lift and LSA, the specs aren't much different than the cam I just pulled out!!!!!!
I'm just a simple caveman, and all of this has me very confused. I'd prefer not to continue adding to my collection of camshafts and aftermarket intakes I can't use. At this point, I'm just about resigned to sticking a stock 340 cam back in it. I'm going to be pretty pissed if I spent all of this money on this POS, and it doesn't run any better than my old, bone stock low compression 340. Or worse, the junkyard, church-van 1992 360 I pulled out.
Any suggestions/recommendations for a new cam? (other than Hughes......I have my reasons). Preferably something readily available from Advance/O'Reilly's/etc., can't wait a week for one to show up via UPS.
To recap........
Car = 73 Dart Sport street car, 340, A/T, 3.23, stock TF except for Turbo Action 11 inch street type converter.
Engine = 340 +.030, Ross pistons, CR = approx 9.6 to 1, stock heads with 2.02 intakes, 340 springs/dampers, stock rods, stock forged crank, TTIs, M-1 dual plane.
Goal: Look stock. Sound stock. Run better than stock, with no "quirks", within the limitations of the heads and piss-water they call pump unleaded gasoline.......if I've got to run a little race gas, or 100LL avgas, no problemo.
Initial cam.....old Lunati 00043, 230/230 @ .050, .480 lift I&E 109 degree centerline. After I got the engine running, obviously(?) too much cam. Will idle all day at 1100rpm and 18-20 degrees of initial advance. Dies as soon as I drop it into gear, or if I back the idle/advance lower than above.......can watch it die on the vacuum gage. Ran like crap, when I managed to keep it running while in gear......wouldn't stay running long enough to sort things out.
Initially had an RPM Air Gap intake: won't work, won't let me close the hood with the air cleaner on. As I had to pull the intake anyway (to check for an intake leak in the lifter valley....none found), decided to change the cam.
After doing some quick research, decided to order a P4452992 cam from Mancini. Pull it out of the box, check the specs; specs @.050 don't look that much different than the cam I just pulled out. Did a forum search, 3 out of 4 comments indicate that this cam SUCKS, unless I have: 1) a looser converter, and 2) more gear. Neither one of which I'm interested in changing at this point in time. Evidently, this thing is more radical than it's specs indicate.
For grins, I checked out the Lunati website, where they sell a "Stock Replacement" cam: Dur @ .050 = 232/242, lift .462/.473, LSA = 112 degrees. WTF? Other than more lift and LSA, the specs aren't much different than the cam I just pulled out!!!!!!
I'm just a simple caveman, and all of this has me very confused. I'd prefer not to continue adding to my collection of camshafts and aftermarket intakes I can't use. At this point, I'm just about resigned to sticking a stock 340 cam back in it. I'm going to be pretty pissed if I spent all of this money on this POS, and it doesn't run any better than my old, bone stock low compression 340. Or worse, the junkyard, church-van 1992 360 I pulled out.
Any suggestions/recommendations for a new cam? (other than Hughes......I have my reasons). Preferably something readily available from Advance/O'Reilly's/etc., can't wait a week for one to show up via UPS.