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Dartboy52; Good add in. Of course, all things in balance and within reason. I can see where BJR was going with the statement.
BJR said; Sorry for being so long but I hope that I stated it in such a way that you can understand it.
Sometimes, you can't be short and sometimes, you can't jam enuff info in a couple of posts even if coffee and crumpetrs are served. Cam's, of all topics, is not so easy to explain quickly without generating a ton-o-questions more.
1moparman. Sometimes more seasoned guys will pull my chain and complain I allways choose/recomend a off the shelf cam. These fellas balk at this idea of off the shelf cams. Not good enuff.
Well, most people here do choose them for the simple reason of they'll work and do well for there application. Chooseing a cam for the most part is not hard to do for a street ride or a street strip ride. But once your into racing heads up at the track for money, well, this may not be what you want to run in your engine.
The first thing that you, the purchaser needs to decide is what the car is going to be used for, at what RPM your engine is going to operate in, what gear ratio and size tire is going to be used to calculate the intended driving RPM of the car at the speed you OK with. Like Hwy. driving. Is 55 mph ok or should you consider 75 mph?
When you know that, you have preety much selected two out of 3 items of a cam needed to be known for your selection. Duration and centerline/overlap.
Then I tell people you need to know how well the head flows and where it doesn't flow so well. When you know that, that helps you in the valve lift department and depending on the purpose of the vehicle, how high the lift can go.
Everybody has an opinion on what cam is best. Everyone can argue there cam is better. Few will agree.