[BuzzLOL]

. That 218/224 cam likes about 10.0-11.0:1 compression ratio and wants to make about 400-425HP...

. You're 283 is prolly about 8:1 if stock rebuild and the stock heads prolly die by about 290HP...

. The engine is going to run like it has a vacuum leak up to about 2,000 RPMs... and then never be real strong... a bit of a mismatch of parts... you could go domed pistons and better heads if this is a racer...

. Or for street use as is something more like a 194/202 cam...

 

[BuzzLOL]

Even if it's 8.5 I would think it should run ok.

. Yes, any motor with any cam will start and run... old OilPull engines with 3:1 compression ratio will chug along at 160 RPMs flat out... will it perform very well power curve wise and MPGwise in the modern sense? No, to one extent or the other...

. Hublee, where are you located, might put that in your profile... prolly members here near you...

. Sorry if we got carried away in a discussion here that maybe you didn't understand... to put it simply, you have a good engine... you have a good cam... but they don't work well together... as you've discovered...

. If you want to put a minimal amount more money in it to fix it, you need a smaller cam... sell the other one... it will prolly cover the cost of the smaller one... like a Summit K1101... (you'll be out labor costs if not doing it yourself)... your engine came stock with something like a K1100...

. If you want to keep the current cam, which at

 

[BuzzLOL]

If you want to keep the current cam...

(time to edit ran out)

. If you want to keep the current cam, and are able and willing to put more money into the engine, then you will need to change the engine to be like an old stock 250HP or 283HP 283", your 218/224 hydraulic cam is kinda close to the 228/230 solid lifter cam those engines used once the lash is taken out of the spec.s... those engines used "9.75:1" compression ratio (I think they called it '10:1') and for your engine (8:1) to run well and properly it would need to be modified to be close to the same... like 9.75 - 10.5:1... this would mean flat top or mini-domed pistons as a minimum... most anything else we mentioned above really isn't needed... it would help, but not required to be a strong 'driver'...

 

[BuzzLOL]

. Manufacturers never standardized on advertised durations, what lift to use to calculate them, so it's hard to know if numbers from one brand to another actually compare... even in the same brand, numbers may vary, in the 1960's everyone wanted long duration that was gentle on the valvetrain and would last forever, so manufacturers put out big advertised duration numbers... in the 1980's, everyone wanted short durations for better MPG, so manufacturers magically came up with shorter durations on the same lobes by measuring them differently... that's why we look first at the durations at standardized .050" lift...

 

[BuzzLOL]

.
. We need to wait and see how much more money the OP wants to throw at this engine... if any...