just one more cam selection thread

IMO
a cam of about 224/230/***@.050 is a sweet street cam
But if it's on a 268/114.... like the Mopar, it makes the intake closing angle very late, so it need a lotta Scr to pick up the bottom-end. The 114LSA makes the overlap less compared to a cam of less LSA. Some folks think that overlap kills fuel economy, but
IMO the later closing intake/ earlier opening exhaust kills fuel mileage faster in two ways.
First the piston on compression stroke, at low rpm, is driving some of the just-inducted mixture back up into the intake manifold making low-rpm AFR about impossible to get right.It's gonna be rich, and so city fuel economy just doesn't exist.
And second, on the power stroke, the early opening exhaust sends a lot of energy straight out the tailpipe, instead of delivering it to the crank.
With log manifolds it just gets crazy in there, but worse is the logs kill the overlap anyway so why would anyone sacrifice the pressure and the extraction, for a non issue on the overlap.
IMO, when running logs, I would tighten the chit out of the LSA to reap the benefits of the earlier closing intake/ later opening exhaust and killed overlap, .... on a low-compression engine.
Now if a guy is running headers and cruises at more than about 2200, then the overlap cycle of a [email protected] cam is already cleaned up and all the air in the intake is moving in the same direction, so now you can lean out the carb for hiway fuel-economy.
The 224 cam
IMO is right on the borderline of making excellent street power in a 360, and with manipulation of the LSA and ICa, can also make a great power WITH economy choice. There are just so many ways to make it work. And the higher the compression ratio the better it performs.... until you run outta anti-knock headroom.
But here's the thing; If you could get a 224* cam with a slo-ramp 268 advertised, or you could get a 228* fastramp 268... or even a 230* faster ramp 268* ....
Or more importantly for a low-compression engine. What if you had a choice between a 224/268 or a 224/264 or a 224/260? In some 360 combos each 1* of intake closing can be 1 to 1.25 psi., so among these three, you can pick up an easy 5psi cylinder pressure.
Then if you factor in the difference between a 114LSA and a 108 LSA, each timed say 4* advanced, you can maybe pick up another 8psi. Now in a low-C engine that comes to the difference of 123psi@104VP and 135psi@123VP..
And I know 104VP is a total dog V8 at low-rpm, while 123VP is a tuff as nails 318Streeter
So while a 224* cam can be a heck of a nice street cam; as you can see without cylinder pressure it needs help, cuz 124VP is still crap for a 360.
Now if you pump it up to 9.8Scr you might enjoy 166Psi@144VP, and now it's getting interesting.
Or if you put some alloy heads on it, then at 10.8Scr you might be enjoying a ripper at 187psi@163VP... and I can tell you that 163VP feels like a 440Magnum of yesteryear.
All three examples with same 268/110 cam in at 106

The point is;
with a low-compression 360 it is very easy to pick the wrong cam.

And part two is that it is easy to pump up a 360 to get the compression to where you want it. Not always cheap, but pretty darn easy.

But I just gotta say one thing for this combo a 268 is too big
and the reason is this;
the 224* cam power-peaks at ~ 5200 which with 3.23s is 49mph with 26.4 tires.
The torque peak will be around 3900 or 37mph.
The low-c 360 with a 268 cam is gonna be dead, dead, dead below ~2000, dead dead to 2800 and a lil dead to 3200. So pretty much any 4bbl-318 streeter with a bit of a TC and 3.55s is gonna waste it, to probably 50 mph.... or more; how embarrassing would that be.
Oh I know, just put a 3000TC behind it and 3.91s. Standard answer. Well there goes another grand. You might as well put that money where it does the most good,into Hi-C pistons.
Or for the cheapest solution of all;
leave the engine alone and just put 4.10s in the back and nothing else. The stock cam torque peaks at maybe 2800, and with 4.10s that is now 21mph. But with 4.10s it will spin right from the get-go, and that spells ton-O-fun.
'Course hiway cruising is out, except maybe, 50mph=2600. Oh well, think of it this way; with about a 23% reduction in roadspeed from 65mph, you mpgs will go up about half that so 11%. Hey it only costs you 23% more time to go from A to B,lol. It's like paying yourself, to drive but with before income tax dollars, finger to the man.