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I think I've chosen my cam- 454 bbc. Tell me if I'm an idiot

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2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  cdminter59  
F
#1 · (Edited)
I think I've chosen my cam- 454 bbc.--- Big enough?

Been looking to bump up the 454 in my 64 chevelle wagon. It's a 79 truck engine. Probably 8:1 is what I understand..
781 oval ports with 2.06 valves. Edelbrock performer intake and a Holley 750 vacuum carb. Small tube headers (I don't recall- 1 3/4 or 1 7/8"?).
Super T10 four speed and 3.08 rear gears. It's just a play car to run around and a couple runs down the quarter mile every season. Budget is the key word here.

Cam that I'm looking at is 218/226 duration and 522/527 lift on 112 lsa, hydraulic of course. Someday I'd like to build a real engine with a roller and some compression, etc, but for now this is what I have to work with.

What do y'all think of this cams specs? I looked up the stock cams specs and imagine that anything I put in there will be way better than that tiny thing. I'm looking for good power, I don't give a rip about the "sound at idle". Still trying to imagine why you'd choose a cam by how poorly it idles.. But it won't bother me if as Tech Inspector says it goes "potato potato potato"
Thanks guys- fourspeedwagon
 
#2 ·
Not a big cam by any means, but with poor comp ratio and the tall gear ratio to much more than that and without a stall convertor it will end up being a dog at bottom end so that cam will work well for your set up, should run fairly smooth with the LSA listed too. Nice heads to bad you didn't have a bit more compression to actually get some use out of them. Could always drop to a thinner head gasket and bring the comp up closer to the mid 8's closer to 9:1.
 
M
#3 ·
i agree with F-bird 88, the first thing i would change would be the rear gears. you will get some more hp out of the cam swap but it wont feel anything like it would if you just changed the rear gears to say 3.90-4.10. i would think that those 3.08 gears in a 4000lbs+ chevelle wagon would be a dog.

i dont quite understand why mud.man.rj would recomend that you pull your heads to put a thinner head gasket in there just to get a slight bump in compression ratio. without knowing what the quench is running right now i wouldn't not advise that, you could quickly end up with a few bent valves.

the cam sounds like it fits your needs well, but seriously change your rear gears, that is where you will see that most improvement.
 
C
#5 ·
my87Z said:
i agree with F-bird 88, the first thing i would change would be the rear gears. you will get some more hp out of the cam swap but it wont feel anything like it would if you just changed the rear gears to say 3.90-4.10. i would think that those 3.08 gears in a 4000lbs+ chevelle wagon would be a dog.

i dont quite understand why mud.man.rj would recomend that you pull your heads to put a thinner head gasket in there just to get a slight bump in compression ratio. without knowing what the quench is running right now i wouldn't not advise that, you could quickly end up with a few bent valves.

the cam sounds like it fits your needs well, but seriously change your rear gears, that is where you will see that most improvement.
Click to expand...
If you don't understand why not ask. A 79 454 truck motor which probably has flat top or dished pistons. The pistons are probably .020 to .025 down in the hole + another .039 for the head gasket = .059 to .064 quench. Increasing the compression he could get a little better cam. I agree with you about the gear change it is definitely needed.
 
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