Free cam build...

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If your building the motor around a cam, and that cam has .600 lift.........you need to start looking at heads that are still gaining cfm at or above .600 lift.
 
I’m opened to getting most heads...would like them to be aluminum...but I don’t think I will go as far as the Indy heads...they are a bit rich for a free cam build and should really be used with a roller cam
 
As for the BB or SB 446........ it was 30 years ago........I don’t think anyone was building 446” SB mopars in 1990.
Don’t you port heads? What do you have on the shelf?
 
I’m opened to getting most heads...would like them to be aluminum...but I don’t think I will go as far as the Indy heads...they are a bit rich for a free cam build and should really be used with a roller cam
How about a pair of Trick Flow 190 ?
 
So i'm going to go way off into left field, but here goes!!!
Everyone always say get a custom cam that fits the heads/combo your Building....................

So sence this it a eng build around a "camshaft".........Why not have a head build around your camshaft............

This is Way More complicated than it sound. AND would cost you more money then buying a Indy 360-1... but it would make that out dated cam............Maybe, more updated performance............

Now i think about it a little longer.....I'm really taking out my Asss(which i new before i started this)
Just like in the day when that cam was the latest and grates. A head would have had to be ported, run and then re evaluated for what works and what didn't, and then re ported, OR started over new to find the right combo.

I was thinking that if the % was moved around for the exh, compared to the intake, you could kill some reversion and make it more happy.......but there is just way more to it then that. And everything is a compromise. If you could get it to breath better at a lower rpm, it would probably kill the mid/top end that cam was designed for.
 
The purple beater is currently running a 340 with a crane 691191 ported J heads and 4:10 gears...runs low 12s...this combo makes no power until 4500rpm but I drive it around all the time... so I’m not to worried about bottom end

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PRH post above
I was involved with a 4 1/4 x 4 1/8 327 chevy in 62 6" rod
3.79 sbm cranks were available
some offset ground the 360 cranks
when did the 4" cast cranks appear?
 
So could someone explain why this cam is frowned upon... nobody really likes it
 
Mostly because of the very slow lifter rates off the seat. A chevy cam (and a slow rate one at that) that doesn't take advantage of the mopar lifter diameter. And, it's not really much of a street grind, unless you can stand to live with 4.56 gears and build it with 12:1 or better. But a 408 or 416 will tame it down a little more than if it were in a 340 or 360 and will drop the upper rpm range a few hundred rpm. You'll need to plan on oil and cooling system improvements. It would also be a good idea to look at a B3 racing engines rocker correction setup with the projected rpm range. And it's going to take a lot of cylinder head to flow over 400 inches at 7 large. TFS, Victor, Indy or W2, maybe Brodix B1-BA. A build around this much cam can get "spendy" pretty quickly. But if you've got the cubic dollars and really want to make it happen, it would make a plenty hairy street engine. I like this stuff based on "pick a cam from near the bottom of the page, that's where they hide the good stuff" mentality. Practical, it aint, but it sure can be a lot of fun!
 
So could someone explain why this cam is frowned upon... nobody really likes it

Because they're sissies and think it's too big for the street. It can work fine, but you'll simply have closer to a race bred engine on the street. With the proper converter and rear gears and all the other matching components, it'll run great. It IS a big cam, but people run .750 lift rollers on the street everyday. It CAN be made to work and work well.

What it AINT gonna do is run smooth at the drive in or get good mileage.
 
And I'll add to what Garrett said. As for "slow rates of lift", it's much ado about nothing. Use what you have and enjoy it. It'll be easier on the valve train than a comparable "modern" fast rate of lift, which is a plus. In the end, all things equal, the difference between your cam and a "modern" grind might be 20 HP. Then again, it might not be. Absolutely zero cause for alarm. Run what you brung.
 
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After you’ve spent the thousands building the stroker to go along with that cam....... there aren’t many things you can buy for $200(the price of a cam) that would pick up the power 10-20hp, with no other changes.
An intake manifold could do it if the first one just isn’t cutting it.

My suggestion:
SM heads, single plane intake, cast 4” crank, flat tops, etc..... and then iiwii.

Here’s a good illustration of how the cam can make a pretty noticeable difference:

Mopar Performance Purple Shaft Camshaft - Mopar Muscle Magazine - Hot Rod

There’s a pretty noticeable spread from the best to worst, even if you don’t count the two “smaller” cams at the beginning.
 
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I have the 4:56 gears on the shelf and don’t care if I have to run a 4500 stall as the car will never go too far from home…( unless I do Drag Week again ) I would like it to run on pump gas so 12:1 may be pushing it…but by run on pump gas I mean as long as it can drive to the burger stand on pump gas that’s good enough…if I take it to the track I have no problem running race gas when I beat on it…

I’m going to stop at the machine shop this week and talk about heads…should I go with off the shelf or order bare and have them install larger valves…

Anyone want to do one of those cam timing cylinder pressure calculations for me to see what I should shoot for as far as compression?
 
So PRH for someone like me who doesn’t speak camshaft …what will my free cam do right or wrong?
 
I have the 4:56 gears on the shelf and don’t care if I have to run a 4500 stall as the car will never go too far from home…( unless I do Drag Week again ) I would like it to run on pump gas so 12:1 may be pushing it…but by run on pump gas I mean as long as it can drive to the burger stand on pump gas that’s good enough…if I take it to the track I have no problem running race gas when I beat on it…

I’m going to stop at the machine shop this week and talk about heads…should I go with off the shelf or order bare and have them install larger valves…

Anyone want to do one of those cam timing cylinder pressure calculations for me to see what I should shoot for as far as compression?


I'm pretty sure 12:1 on pump gas is doable. You just need to account for it.
 
So PRH for someone like me who doesn’t speak camshaft …what will my free cam do right or wrong?

If you build a motor where that would be a suitable cam...... it shouldn’t do anything “wrong”.
There will just be other options that could make more power.

One thing that’s going for it....... it doesn’t look like it needs a lot of spring to maintain valvetrain control...... so it should be relatively easy on parts.

Did you read the article in the link?

There was a 37hp difference between two of the bigger cams.
That’s a pretty big difference considering they probably cost within $20 of each other.
(The two Comp cams they tried were off the shelf grinds. IMO, the off the shelf drag stuff from Comp leaves something to be desired. Way better options could have been used, that would have resulted in noticeablely better power.
Those were poor choices, as evidenced by the lower power output).

The point being, there isn’t likely going to be some magic combination of parts where that Crane cam is the “best” cam you could use, in terms of tq/hp.

If you had all the parts for the build laying in a pile, except the cam.
And you could put any cam you wanted in it........ would that be your number one choice?

If you had a bunch of stuff laying around that you wanted to slap together to go bracket racing....... sure. I’d use it.
But....... build a motor from scratch around it? I can’t see myself doing that.
 
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408 with flat tops, zero deck, 60cc heads will put you right at about 12:1.
I’m going to go with a 340 block as I already have a new 4” forged crank for one that I purchased a few years ago when I was going to buy some Bloomer heads...I will take your advice and do flat top pistons although I will likely get them custom made to match the combustion chamber to get the quench tight
 
Well, it’s what I call an “Honest Build” anyway. It doesn’t have a clever cam marketed under a fad name to make it sound like it has a drag race cam in it. It’s going to sound like it has a drag racing cam in it because the cam was actually designed for drag racing, even if it was back in the eighties. Very few things are more fun than a than this level of street brawler.
 
Well, it’s what I call an “Honest Build” anyway. It doesn’t have a clever cam marketed under a fad name to make it sound like it has a drag race cam in it. It’s going to sound like it has a drag racing cam in it because the cam was actually designed for drag racing, even if it was back in the eighties. Very few things are more fun than a than this level of street brawler.
The car is a complete 80s throw back so the engine may as well be too... I have to figure out the heads soon as the Canadian dollar is tanking fast
 
I built a similar motor a few years ago for a local bracket racer.
He bought a used set of RPM heads, and had some used Crane iron rockers, an 850 Holley and a 340 block, and I built a motor around those items.

To help insure there wouldn’t be any issues with the rockers galling on the shafts I used a cam with even slower ramps than the OP’s Crane piece.
I built a 12:1 416, Scat cast crank & I beam rods, and Pro-True forged pistons.
With a little tweaking on the heads, SV intake, his 850 carb and a cam that was like 265/270-106, .560 lift....... tested with 1 3/4 - 1 7/8 x 3 dyno headers it made about 560hp.
Ran 10.70’s in a Dart.
 
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