looking for some input from some of you who know on a camshaft choice for a bb 454...would like to have a lopey idle and decent performance...flat top pistons...closed chamber heads with enlarged valves...850 holley..manual tranny..

 

Flat tappet or roller? Solid or hyd?

Straub Technologies has some that work very well with that combo.


JIM

 

go with a roller cam for longer life, you wont have to search for magic oil. The lope will come with a shorter cam centerline overlap. most comp cams are 110, center of the road cams or turbo cams tend to be around 112 now a days, I would say you are looking in the 108 or lower area.
theres a good explaination on what you want
I would read this then call comp cams , isky, or whomever you want to buy a cam from, atleast you will have an idea of what they are saying
https://mgispeedware.com/camshaft-calculator/

 

Call Isky or Crower and get their suggestion on a cam. They will have a good selection of old school cams that can give you the sound and performance you want and still be easy on your valve train.
.

 

flat tappet hyd...have never heard of Straub...

 

It's really the whole packege:
How & where you gonna drive it?
Rear?
Trans?
Convertor?

 

straubtechnologies.com

 

W/wilcar, some real good grinds were made back in that era. Call them old tech but they work...literally any performance cam will sound good so pick the best one for your application, the exh will sound however it does.

Make sure and get the proper springs. Are you running a 3.31 rear ratio?

 

Will be running a 3.70 rear ratio with a tremec 6 speed...was hoping someone would chime in on a cam they ran in a similar set up...springs are good for 565 lift..

 

So are you looking for a torquey cruiser for highway or boulevard cruising?
Or a strong top end for racing?
Or an in-between, kind of a do it all compromise?

 

Im guessing without looking it up a 6 speed tremec has 2 overdrive gears with a lot of overdrive in 6th gear and lot of overall spread between first to 6th gear. Think you should use a wider lobe center cam for more wide range of tq. Narrow LSA causes just that a more narrow range. No doubt roller cam will also widen your tq band flatter. Would be worth your while to call straub and talk to them.

 

most likely will be a cruiser...won't have enough hp to compete with some of these street cars...good sounds and moderate performance...

 

Ok really nice 1st gear overall and still 2000 rpm 70mph cruise. Hope you are looking at the close-ratio.

So if you are not going to race it, and want to cruise at 2000 rpm, I suggest a 5300-5600 rpm peak, fast ramp, tight lobe center to build low rpm TQ. Could be 30-50lbs stronger than other cams at 3500, and if done right is almost flat down to 2500. I run a 230/240 dur @ .050 and WA2fast runs a 240/250. We both have 110LC and they rev to 5800 very well.We both run really small Solid rollers for the fast ramps which builds low end. You could do the same with a FT modern cam, but they get pretty touchy on break-in, and you need Zinc oil/additives For longevity with a FT I would go slightly bigger on adv. dur. Mine is only 260/270 for a difference or hydraulic intensity of only 40. Some of the Vodoo FT go down to 33 and I would not recommend them for longevity. Stay with near 40-50 or so for some more longevity. Like an older school grind. Still faster than the OEM grinds at 50-60.
For .050 dur 220-230 will give you the rpm target, I wouldn't go over 235. The 390 HP motor only had 214/218. 110LC will make it idle with a rumble, make good power, and good low end TQ. Win-Win..Any cam in that range probably won't make 10 HP difference from one to another, myths aside. Old 350-350 L46 had 224 dur and was a terrific all-around cam. BB can take just a little more, so 230-232.
Your .565 lift target limits you to older FT as well. Final HP won't mean that much unless you are racing but should be 470 to 540 depending on intake, heads, hood, carb, headers.
TQ should be over 500 almost off-idle. Great fun! May cruise at 1600-1800 ish. Mine made 555 tq on the dyno.

Cams that fit:
Here's 4 that fit.

Either of the Comp Cams or anything similar from another mfgr would fit the bill.
The Summit & Melling are very very old school with very slow ramps, and live well, but they trade off low end TQ for that large adv dur & hydr intensity.

Here's a Howards 54 hydr intensity



And here's a Lunati. I like it's 50 hydr intensity vs it's sisters around it



Have fun!

 

thank you...thats the kind of info I was looking for...Ive been running this engine on a stand...the cam that I was given with it was a 5.19 lift but had a 320 duration...the idle was wicked but it didn't seem to rev real well...I'm not a engine genius..I can build one but when it comes to cams I'm lost..I bought the block crank and heads and cam from an old school guy...he thought it would make in the low 500s in hp which was good with me..I was thinking that the cams we ran back in the day were in the 250 to 280 range as far as duration...and had it in the back of my mind that it was too much duration for a slightly over stock motor..I am building this car to enjoy...want it to sound good but have no intention of drag racing it..if anything...I'd like to get it somewhere and see what kind of top speed it might have...

 

A 320 duration cam sounds like a real old school cam with very slow ramps. They idle badly, have a lot of overlap, and cost you low end TQ. A 320 is a huge cam, probably bigger than an LS6 and bleeds off a lot of cylinder pressure, making it soggy bottom. The .050 number is more important to power, and rpm range. The "spread" between the two determines how the low end behaves.

What is you static Compression Ratio?
Oval port heads?

With that motor, and your overdrive, your top speed will be limited by how much your front end floats around, not the motor.
5000rpm is like 175mph LOL!

Based on what you are saying, I think you would love the Howards above.or the 274 Comp

 

I would go with what Jim said. I went to Chris for my big block cam, and so far it idles very nice.

 

Dozens of ways to go to get advice on this. Chris Straub, all the Cam mfgrs tech lines, personal advice/experience, etc.etc. More than enough to be very confusing. You will get a dozen different cams recommended. It's kind of hard to know which way to go, when they will all differ, unless you arm yourself with a little knowledge and understanding.

Selecting a cam can be fun, or very bewildering & frustrating.

 

I'm not sure what the compression ratio is..tried to use the summit compression calculator but didn't have all the info..the guy that built the heads guesstimated low to mid 9s...it has speedpro flat tops with 97cc (3872702 casting) heads. 219/188 stainless valves and there was some unshrouding done around the exhaust valve which leads me to believe that the cc's maybe more than 97 but what that number is I don't know...was trying to get some fair horse power out of the cheapie gas that we have...a friend of a friend had built a similar 454 some years back and put it in a SS 454 pickup..he brought it by the shop one day and it sounded great and would do a number on those rear tires...I have the exact same heads he was running. I've tried to copy the engine as best as I remember him telling me...ran well on pump gas..I went to a 850 carb instead of the 750 he had...the only piece missing was the cam...he couldn't remember the specs and never found the cam card...he had it dino tuned and if I remember right it was putting out in the 520's on hp and 550's in torque..

 

I suggest a Howards cam/lifters with duration @ .050 of no more than .235

 

What do you think about the howards big momma rattler at 235/243 @.50. The lift falls within the limits of my springs..