cam question

Joe, you can raise the rpm right now, just leave it in neutral it and will wind higher but not make any horsepower because there is no load against it. No load, no torque, no torque, no power. HP=TQ times rpm divided by 5252.

Or just keep your foot in it under load, at a point it will keep winding higher just making less horsepower. This is because the heads/intake won't let any more air in no matter how big the camshaft is. The more rpm the more air is required to maintain that rpm. When the heads/intake are all done, the higher you wind it the more the air has to be shared for each rpm. The less air/fuel per rpm the less power developed per rpm. This is one reason the power drops off at a certain rpm. The less cfm/rpm the less horsepower. There are more reasons, one is coming up.......

But first, again. The cam could be likened to an inlet valve on a pipeline. If you have a 2" hole (heads/intake) feeding a 4" valve (cam) you can put a 5" valve (bigger cam) on there but the 2" hole wont let anymore air/fuel into the the 5" line. It won't wind any higher with power, it doesn't have the air/fuel to make any more power.

Your cubic inches and cam are big enough to max out your intake and cylinder heads around 6,000 rpm. After that, its down hill.

You can put stock iron heads and intake on your 522 engine with the present camshaft and it will make way less peak power and at a lower rpm than it does now. Why? Why is it's peak power around 4,000 rpm? Why won't it spin much beyond 4,800 rpm? Come on darn it, it's got a big cam! Well, that piston is sucking so hard on that intake valve that it's veins are standing out on it's neck and it's face is purple. It's mach index is way up there and the VE is dropping dramatically.

Then, the higher the rpm the more parasitic drag in the engine. The more parasitic drag the more power it takes to maintain the rpm........and the horsepower to the flywheel drops further still. Less power to the flywheel and the car will still accelerate but at a slower pace.

Quick, shift it into it's higher torque, lower rpm range! Taller gears, bigger tires.

One thing for you to do is change the valve lash and see if the engine wants a bigger or smaller cam. Tighten the valve lash....bigger cam. Open the valve lash....smaller cam. Tighten the intake/open the exhaust. Open the intake/tighten the exhaust. You'll see some incremental changes but nothing drastic. You might change the peak rpm 50-100 rpm or so, but I believe you may just gain or lose a few horsepower at the same rpm.