Engine Combo's that turned out terrible?

I’m sure there are some more, but the only one that comes to mind at the moment was my first solid cam in my old 448.
Circa 1987.

My first time doing any porting. I was trying to copy some pics out of a 1984 Car Craft magazine article.
906’s, had the big valves put in, did the bowls, smoothed the pinch.
The cam was a garage sale find. Never installed....$25.
Racer Brown STX-19 on a 105lsa.
Date on the cam card was 1972.

Had the heads set up for dual springs.
First time degreeing a cam too.

Get it together and break in the cam with the headers open.
The thing sounds downright nasty!!

Nice and crisp throttle response too.

I get everything set, bolt the exhaust back up for a test drive.

Start the motor..... won’t stay running without your foot on the gas now. Hhhmmm.
Distributor moved?
Recheck timing, no..... didn’t move.

It’s so bad, it’s almost like when you let off the gas you turned the key off.
Pull the vc, check lash..... all good.
Can’t find anything wrong.
In order to not have it instantly die in gear, I have to have it idling at about 1700 in neutral.

Take it for a ride...... it is a hound.
10” converter, 4.10’s.

Prior to the head and cam swap I was running an ssh-44 and stock heads, which ran great.

With the old combo, you could go along in 2nd..... stand on it and it would fry the tires.
New combo....... nuthin. Barely squeak the tires.

I drive it like that for almost a month.
Then borrow a trailer to take the car to the track.
Uncork the headers....... it sounds like a whole different motor.
The idle went up about 500rpm.

It actually went pretty good at the track with the headers open(12.00@113).
But man, was that thing ever unhappy with mufflers on it.
I called Racer Brown after the track outing...... he kinda laughed.
Said......”yeh...... that cam’s not going to be happy with mufflers on it”.

I changed out the cam shortly after that.
Which was the beginning of my schooling for learning about cams.