Cam match to intake

Brian Donahue said
Guys I recently acquired an A body Duster with 440. Previous owner just gave me the cam #'s. The engine ha a very recent rebuild, with compression ratio around 9:1. There is an Edelbrock, Performer manifold and #1411, 750cfm carburetor. Cam numbers he gave me are 284/.484 lift. It is running stock, cast iron exhaust manifolds. I am estimating this set up to be about 375 hp. The exhaust, (Dura Max) is not suggesting a very lobe sound at idle. Is this the optimum cam for this set up. It is a street driver, not a strip car, but I also don't want a pussy street car if you know what I mean. The engine was built down from the early Trouper, Highway Patrol issue engines. It ran higher compression and a 1500cfm carb putting out about 390 hp. and drinking as much 93 octane as the state could buy. Thanks for any suggestions, including Intake manifold as well as cam.

Kern Dog said
I'm not a fan of that cam. I ran the next size smaller, a 280/474 in a 9.0 to 1 440 in my 70 Charger. It was a decent idling cam and tire smoker. I ran 14 seconds flat at 101 with a terrible 2.6 60 foot time. More practice or a better driver could have clipped a 13.6 with the car.
I built another 440, a 9.2 CR mill with the 284/484 cam. Idle was rougher than the first cam but there wasn't much if any increase in power. It threw a rod at 846 miles due to a crack in the middle of #4 rod that was undetected at the time of the build.
For my stroked 440/493, I went with the 292/509 cam. This idled a bit rough but with almost 500 inches, it would have been worse in a smaller engine. This engine was a real killer. Fast, quick, fair idle and fun to drive.
If you want honesty, here we go:
The cam isn't what I would pick for a strong street build. It needs more compression to run to ts potential but if you are not willing to swap in something else, you can still make it work with a few changes to the combination. The intake is barely better than the stock iron intake. Small ports, small plenum and mediocre flow. The 484 cam needs a bigger intake to feed it. A Holley Street Dominator or the Edelbrock Performer RPM are really tough to beat for a street Big Block. The Edelbrock carburetors are okay for stock or nearly stock engines but beyond that, they often are hard to tune. A Holley 750 with vacuum secondaries is another proven performer and has HUGE support in terms of tuning parts and advice. Next up.... exhaust! Many people choose to retain the stock exhaust manifolds but the truth is, even a stock engine benefits from headers. The further you deviate from stock, the greater the benefits you will see with headers. I laugh and shake my head at the old timers that swear they make just as much power with their "Magnum" manifolds as others with full length headers. The HP gain between log manifolds to Magnum manifolds is less than 10 in a stock engine. The gain of headers on a stock 440 Magnum is 19-23 HP depending on a few other factors.
Finally, the 484 cam needs a bit more transmission torque converter stall speed than a stock 440 cam. A converter vendor will have better advice for that than I can give.
Oh yeah....GEARS! I hope for your sake you are running a 3.55 gear or thereabouts.

Thanks Kern Dog. The truth only hurts if you're not looking for it. Right now we are running about a 3.55 gear. I agree fully regarding headers, and I am suspicious of this intake just by looking at the profile. The car runs good and seems to take off well, but it doesn't have the feel of a big block when I punch it hard. Carb is burning fat and very hard to lean out except for the jet changes. I think the previous owner was looking for a comfortable ride more than maximizing performance. They built the engine down from 12:1 compression. I'm OK with a more civil engine, it just needs to pop more. I don't know fully what they did with the heads, but they used the set that had been on the Trouper block. I imagine they cleaned them up a bit and put them back on. I can still talk to the owner and get some more background info. His car was sold by a family member due to his age etc. It seems I could gain what I want with intake and headers. I don't know specific cam make or duration which would give me more to go on.