MEGALADON

Anyone run this cam without having problems with the stock converter.
Its RPM range is 1500 to 5500, and sez you dont need a stall to run this cam.. Would this cam be ok with stock 82 heads with a gasket port match???

ltlevil

Ran one in an '81 Z-28 with no trouble. A little heavier than our cars but I don't see any trouble running this cam, actually with the car a little lighter I think the cam would appear a tad more aggressive. Not much-but a little.

LiveandLetDrive

No problem. I got it cheap but a XE260 would probably be a better choice. Some similar numbers but a more modern grind.

-Chris

71Sunflower

Chris:

The H cams are symmetrical grinds and are therefore a bit more traditional than the XE line. I think "modern" things are good, but sometimes I feel that they are mainly good for the company that sells them, so they can get you to ditch your perfectly good old item and replace it with a "modern" one.

Why wouldn't you want to stay with something that fits the vintage of your car? I have had and still have H grind cams in a couple of cars (260 and a 280) and they both are great. It may be me, but I imagined that the idle on the 280H is more raw / classic muscle than the XE stuff I have experienced on other folks rides.

If you want to keep discussing this, you should list the exact specs of both cams, and I am sure that you will be hard pressed to see much of a difference, even in the specs. You basically said this yourself. Also, in my opinion performance will be so similar that your seat of the pants dyno won't notice a difference...

It is a no brainer. You have this cam already and it fits the vintage of your car 100%, put it in!
George

bobs77vet

i'm running an xe268 in my new engine i did the tranny swap at the same time. the 1400 rpm stall speed was a problem and went to a 2500 stall speed torque converter and it is working well.

The Money Pit

I ran the 268H for years in my stock 350 with the stock tranny and converter. No problem with the converter.Top rpm was around 5500.

MEGALADON

Sorry, I should have noted, I have a 700R-4

The_Dude

I have been running this cam for several years now. I have a manual transmission, so I can't help with the torque converter question, but the cam is working well for me with the stock heads.

NHvette

The "H" should be OK, but the XE (PowerMax by Crane, and others)
has asymmetric grind to help compensate for the small exhaust valve.
It's not about 'vintage' - so much as fixing the inadequecies
of a symmetric grind and unequal valve sizes.

With all the work you are doing ... I'd think you want a "modern" grind.

MEGALADON

Like what???? help me out here

i know diddly about cams
I have the weiand stealth manifold with a holley 750

I was also thinking of the VOODOO line up

isosceles

270H cam here. 1800 stall converter feels stock. Very tight. No problems with idle here. In drive sounds like glug-glug-glug. In park or neutral, slightly rumpity-rumpity, but it doesn't shake the car like my 383.

73, Dark Blue 454

Can't respond to the converter question, but I agree with those who support the "H" series line...I'm using a 270H in a 69 and a 280H in another...love them both. Do a seach on camaros.net (I did) and you'll learn of valve train noise and problems with the XE line. It's thought the ramps are too steep for flat tap cams.

Good luck,
Wes

NHvette

I'm a cam-diddly person, too.
New grinds are "assymetric" between the intake and exhaust.
From what I understand, leave exhaust valve open longer to help
overcome the small valve size.

Here is the cam I was considering when I finally bump up the compression:

http://www.cranecams.com/?show=brows...tNumber=113802

Here is their latest line ... http://www.cranecams.com/?show=promo...7964d5cfc38e25

This one looks like a nice street/performance candidate:
http://www.cranecams.com/?show=brows...tType=camshaft

There was a formula in a recent post ... to determine if the lobe ramp
is too aggresive and prone to wiping. The XE line eclipsed the threshold,
where the Crane Powermax was close - but still considered safe. I'm not
sure about the new Zcam series.

mandm1200

The cam should be good choice. It should somewhat similiar to the L-82 specs. It takes some restraint when picking cams. Since cams in the same category typically cost the same, some people will decide they'll go up a couple of notches. The XE series should make a little more power. Partly because they designed the cam for better exhaust flow, but I also think the ramps are a little more aggressive. There have been some failures on these XE cams, which get posted here. Some of that could be from improper installation and some of attributed to the manufacuter pushing the envelope of the ramp.
I don't think you'll have to change the conveter. The duration is not that long. What happens with long duration camshafts is that they also need to idle at higher rpms. In an automatic, that means idle while in gear, not just in nuetral or park. A higher stall speed while idleing in gear will better at 900 rpms then a lower stall speed converter. What that does is allow the engine to idle at a lower rpm when in neutral/park. The car will not have the 500rpm drop while going from neutral to drive or reverse.

bobs77vet

i'm running the XE268 and i don't buy the poor design talk.... i have seen only one post where someone wiped a lobe, everything else is second hand talk....as i have said before. a cam swap is easy to do and cheap...it becomes more expensive to do it correctly with correct springs, new lifters and to break it in correctly...i suspect most issues with these come from half *** installations and people mis matching components....Lars said he has an XE series cam that he has been trying to kill and has not been able to...

mandm1200

Who said the XE was a poor design? They probably knew there would be additional failures by increasing the ramps to give more area under the lobe. I would assume they designed them as best as they could. If best engineering pratices say a certain ramp number should not be exceeded for maximum longevity, it's a calculated risk the manufacture takes on. Their bottom line may be better by increasing sales and replacing a few cam when they fail. To save face, all they have to do is replace the cam and tell other customers that mechanic didn't install it correctly. Any manufacture can have lobes worn off. Some of it may be due to improper installation and some due to the engine it's in (poor oiling). Not everyone buys an XE cam, but a lot all the failures seem to come from this series of camshafts. I'm sure the pertcentage of failures is small, but they seem to fail more often than the other more conservative cams.

bobs77vet

I based my observation on the above posts. My intention is not to start a pissing contest on cam design that i am ill equipped to argue since i do not have any technical expertise on this subject other then being an XE consumer. I will again state that there is more anectodatal evidence of XE cam failure then there is direct evidence of it...Again as i have done in the past I invite people with direct first hand knowledge of XE cam failure on there car to tell us about it . in the past there has been one maybe two people who have first hand knowledge of this failure. what I am saying is that i believe there are too many variables associated with Cam installations to castigate a whole series of cams based on annectodal and second hand information. Not to mention i seriously hope they are a good product since i have one.


edit heres a previous thread, post 34 is very informative
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...cam+wiped+lobe

73, Dark Blue 454

If you'll notice on the spec sheets, the XE line of cams has the same intake lobe as their traditional Magnum brothers. But the exhaust lobe is considered by some to be too steep. Please note, that almost always, the XE failures occur on the exhaust lobes. That's more than anecdotal evidence of a problem.

Here's some excellent advise from Vissard, Isky, and others regarding dual-pattern cams in general:

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showth...t=dual+pattern

These are pretty solid opinions which steered me to traditional single pattern cams.

I'm still looking for a thread that referenced Isky regarding steep ramps...that anything less than 47.5% (duration @ .50/lift) was too harsh for a flat tap valve train...a test was cited. It may be on the chevelles.com page. Stay tuned.

73, Dark Blue 454

Sorry, the above link was abbreviated and won't work. Go to camaros.net , then to the tech discussion, and search "Dual Pattern Cams" (must use the caps...and search for the title, not the entire posts) in their performance section.

Good info from some legends.

bobs77vet

i'll look at that website, i am a fan of Vizard's

edit .....well been there and looked at the site, interesting thks, lot of those guys love the XEseries and i saw no mention in the three pages i reviewed (from the caption you sent me to) of any wiped lobes. seems some guys complained of noise and others had no noise problems...i have no noise problem. i found one reference to Vizards book that said a single pattern cam in a certain application would produce more power. (he was not critical of the XE design )