So I've had my 1972 D200 pickup for a couple years now and have been doing repairs and upgrades here and there. It has a 360 which so far I've replaced the heads with rebuilt late-70s pieces (stock heads were severely worn) and when the heads were off, the cylinders were in fantastic shape, no ridge to speak of and still some visible crosshatch. Forgot to measure the bores to check if it's been rebuilt though darn.
Anyway it's originally a 2-bbl engine I've upgraded with a Performer intake and 600-cfm Edelbrock carb, Hedman 1-5/8" longtube headers into 2-1/4" true dual exhaust and a simple Pertronix Ignitor I module so I don't have to deal with points (yes I know how to maintain them but the replacement parts are junk OOTB). It runs great as-is, the truck isn't light at around 4600 lbs with me in it so it's clearly no "muscle truck" but being a power fiend I'm considering doing a cam swap. I also get the feeling this stock cam with almost 130k miles on it has some wear as the engine doesn't run quite as smooth as other SBMs I've had even after going through the entire top end and super-tuning it getting the timing and jetting dialed in.
I'm wondering if it's possible to go to a slightly bigger cam without losing that crucial off-idle grunt to get this truck moving? I've used a Lunati Voodoo cam in the past with great results and thought about going with this one:
Voodoo Hydraulic Flat Tappet Cam - Chrysler 273-360 253/258 Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 253/258 ;Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 208/213 ;Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .454/.454 ;LSA/ICL: 112/108 ;Valve Lash (Int/Exh): Hyd/Hyd ;RPM Range: idle-5000
My thinking is the advertised duration (not really a standard to go off, I know) is about the same as the stock 2-bbl cam but with more duration at .050" lift and much higher overall lift with undoubtedly better lobe profile. I really just want to at least retain (or increase if I'm lucky) the off-idle grunt but have more mid-range torque and not run out of breath at 4000 RPM. The truck has a HD 727 trans with stock converter (I assume the larger 12" unit by how tight it is and how low the stall speed is) and 3.55 gears with 33" tires so it needs as much grunt as it can get. Also not keen on using a factory 4-bbl cam, I'd like to take advantage of modern cam technology not just go up in size on the same lobe design.
