Small block combo suggestions

YR's idea of calling a cam grinder may be a good thing to do. I am not sure I mentioned it in this thread, but Crane had a series of cams in the 70's call HE cams (hydraulic efficiency). These were designed and sold after the 1st Arab oil embargo, so guys with hotter engines could tame it down for better fuel mileage. They had veeery slow ramps between .005" (advertised) and .050"; there was more than 60* difference between advertised and .050" durations, whereas 44 to 50 degrees is normal in typical cams. LSA was a very wide 114 degrees or thereabouts.

The cam card for one has .005" durations at 190/200* and .050" durations at 254/264*, a difference of 64* (!), with a 114 LSA.

This all would make the intake closure late despite a narrow .050" duration (to help mileage) so that you could keep the dynamic CR's down with a higher compression engine and run street gas in a 10 to 11 SCR engine. Idle was smooth, torque was especially good, and idle vacuum was 18-19".

The ramps were faster between .050" and peak lift to help keep decent lift. The down side would be that peak lift with a 1.5 rocker ratio was not as high as you have presently. A 1.6 rocker would help recover some of that. But I suspect you would still be down around .410ish intake lift with this type of cam.

I have looked for something similar in today's cam listing, and the Racer Brown EH series lobes are 'nudging' towards this idea. Maybe he could widen the LSA with one. Comp Dual Energy has a .050" to advertised duration difference above 50* but the LSA's are too narrow. (I tried one for your present combo and it did not help much.) And it would not hurt to call Crane and see if they still have their HE grinds around.