Cam decision

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noah_t

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Wanting to know which cam would be the right one for my truck. It’s a 1986 Chevy k20 has a 350 with a turbo 400 tranny. Has Hedman headers 1-5/8, Holley contender intake, 650 Holley carb, and dart II heads. It has a small cam in it right now but it’s to small for the heads. I cam swapped before I got the deal on the heads. Wanting a nice choppy lope and good power gain and is there anything else I should do to the truck like gearing, stall converter, etc?
 
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Honky Kong jr

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268 or 274 Comp Magnum series.
 

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what cam is in it? If you want great low and mid torque then I would recommend a comp cams 12-235-2. I had one of these in my 400 before I blew it up and it was great for low end torque. You won't get any of that lopey sound with it, but it is a great cam and with my dart SHP heads, flowtech headers, 2.5" exhaust, a set of super 10 mufflers and a $hit rebuilt quadrajet I was able to get around 20 mpg with it empty. Truck has a 700r4 trans and 3.73 gears.

The 350 I just rebuilt and put in after blowing the 400 I went with a different cam. Can't remember which one, but it's got a bit of lope to it and not quite the same low end grunt. Only reason I went that route is because the truck is now a hunting/fun truck. I have a 2014 mega cab cummins that does all my pulling now.
 

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85 CUCV

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What gears are you running and what do you want from the truck
ie Tow/trails or street performance
These are both important to cam selection.
The camshaft is essentially the brain of your engine and determines where in the RPM range torque and horsepower occur.
That said if towing consider Tourque in the rpm range (Power Band) you want to operate in as your primary goal (appropriate HP will follow).
Generally a shorter duration will produce low end torque and as you increase duration the whole powerband moves up
A trail engine with say a 4:10 gear likes the 268_272 duration previously mentioned.
You can call COMP CAMS or send them a spec sheet and they will guide you to the right cam for you.
Sorry so long winded but from experience I know that cam selection critical to having the engine you want and it revolves around many variables
 

noah_t

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The trucks more of a weekend toy that sees the mud sometimes so I would definitely need low end torque. The truck has 4.10 gears and 35’s. Was also debating on whether to upgrade to 4.56 gears
 

noah_t

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Would the dart II heads be better with a hydraulic roller cam or a mechanical flat tappet?
 

85 CUCV

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A Roller cam is always better for a couple of reasons. However they are spendy and unless you're looking for a very quick throttle response or higher rpm (above 6500 rpm) not really necessary. They are Kool though. I am using a GM 350 HP Hyd rollerin an engine my wife is building because I have it on hand.
So here are a list of factors for choosing a cam for your 350
Compression ratio, alum or iron heads, cyl head airflow capability (no sense buying more cam than you can use, that always hurts performance), chosen carb airflow (for example a stock 350 ci engine will max out airflow at about 500_600 cfm so a 650 cfm carb is about all you want)
Gear choice, tire size in height,
Purpose (mud requires Xtra HP to keep tire speed up for clean the tread).
I use a computer program designed by Scooter Davis of COMP CAMS.
I love playing with it and if you like could plug some realistic numbers and off the shelf heads, cams,headers etc. If you know the actual compression ratio that would be very helpful as (CR) is a big factor in cam Selection as it effects how much cam you can use.
If you want to play around with some different ideas let me know and I will be glad to help you find what does what you want.
The 4:56 will allow more cam because it will raise the engine rpm (erpm) thus making more cam usable at lower wheel speed
Do i have you confused yet.

FYI I have built many engines from 16 ton Marine Diesels to 1cyk 2 strokes and truly enjoy sharing the knowledge that has given me.
So if you want let's get you the right cam for this one or build one in the program Then buy parts and build something just for you
 

noah_t

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How do I check the compression ratio?
 

85 CUCV

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That requires some special tools, math and heads off at least 1 for getting measurements.
You must know the measured volume in CC's of the Combustion chamber, the Head gasket and the area in the cylinder and lastly the dish or valve notch volume.
That compared to the swept volume (cylinder volume) in a formula tells you true CR.
My Dyno program does the math for me. Easier that way and fewer mistakes.

Other than that it's a calucated guess. In a stock engine of your ERA 1986 you can figure about 9 to 9.5:1

Hope I'm helping you and not getting to technically deep
 

85 CUCV

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BTW a different stall may well be in there also. Depends on your Cam choice
 

75gmck25

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In your first post you said you wanted a cam with a nice choppy lope, so you need to decide what is more important - sounds good or actually performs. Its easy to get a choppy lope, but the performance of those cams may suck if they are not matched to the rest of your engine. Go for performance, and consider the choppy idle a side benefit.

The big advantage you have is that you already have much better heads than most smog era engines. That provides a good basis for performance improvement.

A stock smog era 350 head usually has 72-75cc heads with about 8.0-8.2 compression. When you switch to 64cc performance heads you usually get about 1 point increase in compression, and you get a lot better flow than stock. It sounds like this is what you have.

Try using the Comp Cams tool and entering the specs as a 9.2 compression engine with 64cc heads and whatever valve sizes and flow you have on the Dart heads. Also enter the weight and axle ratio of your truck. Then look at the results for various cam durations.

My guess is that you will find that a cam with duration of about 218-222 will give you a really good RPM power range; however, you might go up and down in duration from there. If you need low end torque for 4 wheeling with big tires, a little less duration (214, etc.) might be better. If you want to run it harder at high RPM, you might use duration up to about 225-230. If you want to go bigger than that you need a high stall converter to get the RPM up into the power band faster. If this was a lighter car with a 4 speed you could go up as high as 235 duration, but that is probably not a good match for your truck. I have seen a lot of recommendations for high stall converters from a company called Freak Show Performance, but have no personal experience with them.

FYI - I chose to go with a Howards retrofit roller cam just for durability and low friction, but it does cost a lot more than a standard hydraulic cam. If you decide to also use roller rockers or other upgrades it gets even more expensive.

Bruce
 

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I'm going to recommend that you decide what company you want to buy a cam from, and then call them and ask them for their support. It's free and far more accurate than the internet pro-literate can offer. They know their products and have probably done far more testing with various configurations and whats-more a phone call now days is practically free....

Comp cams is a good company, as is Texas Speed and Brain Tooly Racing and they will all answer the phone and ask questions about what you have so as to provide the best combo without having to swap a ton of other parts, plus they know what questions to ask...

Just my .02 $$.
 

shiftpro

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A Roller cam is always better for a couple of reasons. However they are spendy and unless you're looking for a very quick throttle response or higher rpm (above 6500 rpm) not really necessary. They are Kool though. I am using a GM 350 HP Hyd rollerin an engine my wife is building because I have it on hand.
So here are a list of factors for choosing a cam for your 350
Compression ratio, alum or iron heads, cyl head airflow capability (no sense buying more cam than you can use, that always hurts performance), chosen carb airflow (for example a stock 350 ci engine will max out airflow at about 500_600 cfm so a 650 cfm carb is about all you want)
Gear choice, tire size in height,
Purpose (mud requires Xtra HP to keep tire speed up for clean the tread).
I use a computer program designed by Scooter Davis of COMP CAMS.
I love playing with it and if you like could plug some realistic numbers and off the shelf heads, cams,headers etc. If you know the actual compression ratio that would be very helpful as (CR) is a big factor in cam Selection as it effects how much cam you can use.
If you want to play around with some different ideas let me know and I will be glad to help you find what does what you want.
The 4:56 will allow more cam because it will raise the engine rpm (erpm) thus making more cam usable at lower wheel speed
Do i have you confused yet.

FYI I have built many engines from 16 ton Marine Diesels to 1cyk 2 strokes and truly enjoy sharing the knowledge that has given me.
So if you want let's get you the right cam for this one or build one in the program Then buy parts and build something just for you

I most likely wouldn't completely agree with your first sentence, and I hope to discuss this further at some point... I do however really appreciate another new member with experience to share, and look forward to your posts. Welcome again..
 

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