Everybody seems to be enjoying their new radical big blocks and the like.

So I have been philosophizing, and have my own set of thinking. Flat tappet cams are cheap. I can get a flat tappet cam and lifters for what a hyd roller cam costs.

So lets think a moment, how would you make a radical 355.

The requirements:
Iron heads
flat top pistons
Mechanical flat tappet camshaft

Personally I am leaning towards some Dart 200 Platinum Iron Eagles with the 64cc chambers and a Crane 113861 and a single plane intake.

An LT-1 with the 370hp camshaft had an overlap of 26 degrees at .05, and the cam above has an overlap 25 degrees.

Its just a fun thinking exercise.

 

Whatever turns your crank

I had a 355ci with Sportsman II heads on it with a solid flat tappet cam and I loved it, put down 300RWHP

BTW you should be able to get 2 cams and 2 sets of flat tappet lifters for what a roller cam costs

 

The cam I was looking at was 279 bucks.

The crane saturday night special cam kits are like 275
But the above crane cam is 120 bucks and lifters are like 83.

 

OK 1 cam 2 sets of lifters for you,

I have seen cam and lifter kits for $150 and not crappy stuff either

 

If I wanted to have fun with a cheap 355.....I'd crank stupid compression in it, like 14.0+.....use a big by large solid flat tappet...work those heads real nice and set a peak HP range at 7500 or so with a shift point over 8000 rpm. THAT's what I'd call a radical 355!!

You're describing a mild street motor there. On pump gas it's hard to beat cubes. The only way is with more RPM...or boost or N20.


JIM

 

I have the 113861 cam new in a box never did use it, had it since about 1985 should be a little out dated.

 

I agree. The 355 is going to be a bridge motor. I figure with that cam and the heads I will use every ounce of my 7000rpm tach.

I did some thinking and an aluminum big block weighs about the same as an Iron Small Block. So my NEXT motor is going to be a pump gas 632 with an aluminum block. (also assuming I win the lottery for a 6000 dollar block)

 

Wanna make a deal?

 

What's in your car now? Weren't you going to build a turbo car?

 

There is nothing worse than building a motor for street car that is no fun to drive on the street. You have to rev the crap out of it to get it moving and you can't cruise below 3000 RPM because you are into cam "lump"

Just my 3 cents on the whole matter, if you building a race engine then never mind

 

I run a comp cam with allmost the same specs as the crane you mentoned above, it"s hyd flat tappet an idles at 700 rpm. It"s a long way from radical, but it"s driven daily an a lot of fun. Want radical try something closer to 700 lift.

 

You mean drive my vette like every 4 cylinder car I have ever owned?

 

I had a 355 with Sportman II heads, RPM intake and cam, was a fun and reliable engine

 

What cam did you have?

 

My guess would be Edelbrock's Performer RPM...

 

Last night I got the pleasure of firing up for breakin and then 8 dyno runs on a brand new solid cammed motor that meets HMSA Historic racing rules. So it had 487X iron heads with pocket porting, solid lifter cam, stamped rockers, 11ish compression with domed forged pistons. Dry sump oiling for road racing

Intake was 4 webber DCOE side draft 50mm /44mm chokes. The comp cams mech solid was 248/252@.050 with .557/.557 and 108 LC for that lump idle. The Bizzarini that it goes in is 2800 lbs with driver and fuel.

It originally came with a 327 chevy and with the rules allows an over bore so this motor was 337 ci. The headers were racing stepped 1 3/4 - 1 7/8th with borla race pack mufflers. The fuel was 110 leaded Sunnoco.

this motor has two strikes against it: I don't care what anybody says about their double hump heads. The dyno does not lie. They just don't flow enough even with proflow tulip valve stems. The second is the stock stamped rockers by the rules limit how radical the lobe can be and not break.

So after a breakin 30 minute period. We were off to adjustments. We have a couple others like this and all the dyno data from previous runs. So we were in the ball park on jetting and timing we tried 36, 38, 40 and 38 degrees worked the best.

The best settings produced over 400 foot pounds of TQ from 3900 - 5900 and max hp of 424 @6100. what wins races is not just the peak numbers, but the highest average power. So when we shut it down for installation we had gained 12 foot pounds of TQ average from 3900 to 6300 and hp had a higher average with a peak at 5900 of 411 dropping to 402@6300. all test were run with 180 degree oil temp at the dry sump two gallon tank.

 

The more I read the more I am convinced I am on the right track. My compression might be a little high though.

anybody get 10.4:1 to work with iron heads on good ol' 93 octane?

Chamber technology has improved quite a bit.

If I assume the Crane 113861, crane recommends 11-12.5:1 compression. Should I plan on 11:1 compression to go with the minimum compression or stick with the 10.4:1?

 

I had around 10-10.5:1 compression with the iron heads with no problems. I used the Edelbrock RPM cam which is a hydraulic cam, it is a nice mid range power cam with a nice idle, but lacks a bit down low, some say that it is a old design cam and there are better choices but worked fine for me with at the time 4spd & 3.90 gears. It is now in a Chevelle vert with an auto trans and he's been very happy with it

Here's some clips of the 355, horrible video but gives you an idea of how it sounded:
http://s401.photobucket.com/albums/p...rvetteJCL2.flv

http://s401.photobucket.com/albums/p...rvetteJCL1.flv

You won't see much difference in power with the higher compression, IMO the lower would be better for street driving with pump gas and less worry of detonation.

 

Thats awesome!

 

Indeed it is!

So, what year is the car? It has the 80-82 tail piece but I was unable to see the front or side gills because the vid is pretty dark.

Regardless... I think the video clip is AWESOME!