Looking for recommendations for a cam for my base '72 350.

I'm keeping the car completely stock while trying to find horsepower working with what I've got. The stock heads will get a 3-angle grind, pocket porting & gasket porting.
The carb & distributor are stock (rebuilt by Lars). Stock exhaust, low compression, power brakes, no air, wide ratio 4-spd.

The car is not for racing. It's a weekend, nice weather cruiser. I am trying to maintain a smooth idle, while trying to squeeze some low end power out of this stock '72.
I'm trying to achieve 350hp if possible. I thought about the current GM 962 replacement cam, but was told the ramp angle may be too high.

What are your suggestions? Thanks much.

 

I ran a comp cam 268 in my 327 for YEARS. It had excellent street manners, great vacuum, sounded great at idle. I daily drove the car with this can and never had any issues.

 

The 350/350 cam is fairly high in duration believe it was 222 ..050
int. dur. the 350 hp cars had domed pistons 64cc chamber heads closer to 11.0 compression to support the high duration cam, your L/48 came with dished pistons 76cc heads would be lucky to have a true 8.00 compression, the original L/48 cam had 195 .050 int. dur. you would be better off picking a cam milder then the 350/350 cam with the combination of parts you have.

on a 350 every 10 degrees you raise the duration on the int. your raising the power band up close to 500 rpm, the 350 hp cam with almost 30 degrees more int. duration would raise your power band up about 1500 rpm regardless what compression you have and with no compression both the lower end would really drop out on you and the mid range that should be there with the higher duration cam will never be there for you like it should. you need to come up with more compression to get anywhere.

I highly suggest if you are going to keep the dish pistons not go into the short block that you don't spend a penny on those 76 cc chamber heads and buy yourself some smaller chamber aftermarket heads. If your determined to keep the stock heads ( highly suggest you don't do it put them in a corner of the garage only keep them for resale value of your car on down the road ) jackson has a part number for i believe its a cast mild domed piston to work with the big 76 chamber heads.

 

sc301
sealed power aka speed pro brand ... hypereutectic piston w/ small dome ... dome volume = +3.5cc ... p/n H618CP. Most any small town has a parts store or machine shop that sells sealed power.

Suggest include "Z28" valve springs & 2.02" & 1.60" valves.

Suggest thin shim felpro p/n 1094 head gaskets.

Suggest sealed power hydraulic flat tappet cam p/n KC-1062R. about .468/.480 220*/231*

if massage heads as you said, add z28 springs & valves, run the pistons, gaskets and cam I suggest ... that'll make 350 to 360 streetable, durable flywheel horsepower & at about 9.7:1 scr on pump gas .

you do Not need roller nor roller tip rockers for this.

 

Thanks jackson for coming on telling the part number on the pistons.

As per usual jackson is giving you some common sense recomendations both in a combo that will work and in cost value.
I may have come off a little hard saying not to put money in the heads you have, from air flow and chamber size aftermaket heads would be the best thing you could do for yourself, I told you the truth but it may not be what you wanted to hear, I relise no one has a money tree in the backyard that may not be do-able. But I read your post clearly that you wanted preferably low end torque a cruiser with some more overall power, whatever you do DON'T stick a higher duration mid range cam in it with your almost nothing 8.0 compression. Do something to get your compression up.

 

Little Mouse, Corey 68, & Jackson, thanks for the info.