Cam opinions 418

Nice ride. I myself would still look for a more narrow LSA.
David Vizard has a formula that works very well and was shown on Engine Masters on the cam experiments they did. The lower LSA mom er provided more torque until the engine can up on the cams intended RPM range. The narrower LSA starts the air and fuel coming in quicker. At your exact unknown cubic inch engine, a 408 with a 2.02 valve is looking for a LSA of 105.02. DV suggest going down 1 number if it’s split between the normally seen even numbers. But you can have that custom cut for you if you wish.

A 408 w/a 2.08 valve is asking for a 105.68 LSA.
Personally a degree ether way is not going to be noticed and hard to see in a dyno graph.

Now a lot of people are going to jump to a conclusion here and say the idle will be a chopping PIA to tune and drive down low with. This is simply not the truth because the amount of overlap the cam has will be small because the duration- advertised and @ .050 will be small limiting the amount of overlap.

Also, FWIW, a header collector extension the same size as the collector (not the reduced that bolts to the header at the collector) should be added into a torque cancellation box to mimic the exhaust exiting into the open air. This makes max torque down low which a heavy vehicle like the Ram Charger will really like at no extra fuel used. Your just making the most of what is available with minor fabrication work.

PS, if your more than 408 cubes, it’s not going to matter much. If you were at 434 cubes, there is a small difference worth looking into.


What finishes the engine up? RPM & a 750? 1-3/4 headers?
Yes, it is 418 cubic inch, but close enough with a 2.02 valve to your 408 example with the tighter lsa.
I knew i would be forgetting something on the specs.,
I have the hooker ceramic coated 1 5/8" headers for exhaust connected to 2 1/2" duel exhaust with walker.
The weak link is the intake and carburetor. I am using the straight performer intake because it allows the use of the center mounted ac compressor due it its offset gooseneck. I gasket matched it maybe a 1/2" just so there wouldn't be such a large port mismatch between the trick flow ports and the manifold. I would like to swap out to the rpm air gap as soon as I can figure out the bracketry for it that will allow me to keep my ac, as you know, a necessity in Florida.
I do have a holly 750 vacuum second carburetor for it, but I have been using a summit 650 carburetor with the annular boosters. It hasn't been running long enough to swap and compare, but i thought the boosters might make it more responsive and get better fuel economy on long trip north.