Cam advice wanted

[bbrroowwnn]

Autopar,

What Casting Numbers are on those 360 Cylinder Heads {#4027596}. ???

Having the head surface 'cleaned up' is probably a smart thing to do, especially
if you're going to use a thin 'shim-type' Head Gasket.

The thin 'shim-type' Head Gasket {.025"} versus the Fel-Pro Head Gasket {.039"}
is about {.25} in Compression difference.

If you have the #4027596 '360 Heads', you should have no problem getting the
surface 'cleaned-up' with the valves in-place, to provide for a proper micro-finish' surface.

If you want them milled in any significant amount........different story.

There is my infamous maytag! LOL

 

[flyfish]

Hey guys,

So I got the engine all back together now. The new cam certainly is different from the old one. The engine sounds WAY different than it used to; before it was very beastly sounding, with a pretty rough idle. It sounded like a vintage engine and people could hear me coming from a mile away. NOW, it's much smoother at idle, and in fact it's much smoother all the way up the RPM range. Somehow, the engine sounds like a more modern engine. And QUIET! I can't believe how quiet the car is now, especially at crusing speeds! Headers with 2.5 inch and flow through mufflers, and I can barely hear the exhust growl at 50 mph.

I haven't wound it out to max RPM just yet. I'm still running the break in additive in the oil and I want to give it a few more miles before I start beating the hell out of it. So at this point I can't really tell if the car is any faster or slower than it used to be.

But one thing is for sure - the timing needs to be adjusted. I had the car out in the rain yesterday and I had trouble breaking the tires loose! I figure the brutally poor power at the low end can't be becuase of this cam (it should be better on the low end, given how wild the old cam was + 2 wiped lobes), so it must be the timing.

Given what you guys know about my setup, how do you think I should have the timing set?

Did you ever take apart the bottom end to see where all the metal from those 2 cam lobes went, and see how much damage was done?...notice I said how much damage, not if there was damage.... If you didn't check (which is what I'm assuming since you didn't mention it anywhere), then I think I know where a most of the power loss is.

Yes, having the timing off will drastically kill power too....but wow, not being able to spin the tires in the rain.....wow, that's WAY bad.
Small blocks like 32-35° total timing, good luck.

 

[autopar3000]

Hey flyfish,

I wasn't exactly clear with my initial post. The 1978 0.30 over 318 short block is actually a replacement engine that a friend of my gave me. The original 1972 standard bore 318 short block that was in my car was very tired and worn, so it went bye-bye.

Here's my final post on this. Now that the cam is all broken in I took the car to the mechanic that put the engine in to do a little timing work. He hooks up his timing light and it flashes for a second, then nothing. It's dead.

OK, no big deal... so we play around and adjust the timing with no light. After a few adjustments and subsequent test drives, the power is right where it should be. I can blaze the tires most of the way through first gear, and it pulls pretty hard all the way up to 5500 RPM.

I would say this new cam is slightly better than the old one at the bottom end, and significantly better throughout the mid-range and upper end. It will be interesting to see if my fuel consumption changes at all.

I want to thank everyone that chimed in and provided advice on this, both in the forum and through PMs. Like I said before, FABO is the best forum on the internet.

 

[Abodybomber]

Nice job....