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A bit confused on which cam I need. Please go easy on me as I'm trying to learn as much as I can by reading reading around on this forum and good old youtube. Any suggestions would be great.
Possibly narrowing it down to these dual profile cams.
XE262
XE256H
Here is what I have:
L83 Engine
Edelbrock 2701 Low Rise Dual Plane Intake
Holley Sniper EFI
Promaxx Aluminum Heads 64cc Heads Flat tappet Springs 2.02/1.6 (Flow at 28" 500 249 CFM intake, 195 CFM exhaust)
Comp Cams Magnum 1.6 Roller Tip Rockers
Stock 700R4 Transmission
Flowtech Ceramic Headers (dual 2.5" exhaust in the near future)
Looking to get as close to 325hp-350hp
Wanting to keep stock stall converter
Not a daily driver, good idle, street cruising and having some seat of the pants fun 1,000 - 5,200+ rpm
I used a dual pattern crane cam awhile ago that was good for street. I think it's not in the catalog. This one sounds good....see pic Look at the highlighted one.
With those 64cc chambers on your L83 bottom end, your CR should be very close to 10:1. Given this CR the XE262 would be a better suited cam that should still work with your stock TC.
I used a XE268 with AFR 180 heads and stock TC and wished i would have used the XE262 instead as the 268 powerband and the stock TC stall were the same and that made it feel weak on takeoff launches....................but after that you better hang on !
both of those are pretty mild so you will be fine. I would always go for more lift and duration of the 2 choices. With the 1.6 rockers they will feel bigger which is nice so you should check piston clearance. That being said I had plenty with a bigger cam and domed pistons on my 327
both of those are pretty mild so you will be fine. I would always go for more lift and duration of the 2 choices. With the 1.6 rockers they will feel bigger which is nice so you should check piston clearance. That being said I had plenty with a bigger cam and domed pistons on my 327
Of those two choices I think you would be better off with the 212/218 cam. With a 10:1 compression ratio and that cam you end up with a dynamic compression of about 8.5:1 which should be ok with aluminum heads. The 218/224 cam gives you 7.97 which I think might be a little lazy on the bottom end, but either would be within the range of acceptable.
I use the XE262 with almost identical combo down to the heads . It can pull 1450 rpm full Lockup with my 700R4 with 3.08 gear and pulls hard to 5300 rpm
If I had to guess I would guess 425 to 450 ft lbs , Comp claims 415 ft lbs with Dart SR ( stock replacement) and my bet is the aluminum heads easily out perform the SR’s .. scroll down the chart for the Dyno test and add 75 hp for the aluminum heads
This looks like almost the same scenerio I was in 6 years ago... I built a 355 with 7cc flat tops and 64cc dart heads. Dyno 2000 actually showed the torque and HP was better for my combo with the voodoo 262 cam vs the voodoo 268 cam.. of course right now I am considering jumping to a larger howards retro roller cam as the dyno software show pretty substantial gains with it. And yes these numbers are highly optomistic and likely much higher than real world performance but when comparing both options using the math its still worth something. BTW DCR is a concern so you want a can that will bleed off enough to run pump gas. I took Reelav8rs advice 6 years ago and aimed for a small quench area of about .039. My deck is not decked so I use a .015 steel shim gasket. I have no issues running 89 octane with the iron eagle heads. I have sidepipes with vettepacks, a th400 with stock (2000rpm?) stall and 3.08 rear gears.. I still wish I had more power at takeoff and regret not building a 383 or 400.. I wish I had a 700r4 or 200r4 and its on my bucket list for the lower 1st gear and OD.
PS my lift numbers dont match the cams specs due to the 1.6 rockers im running.
Last edited by augiedoggy; Dec 28, 2020 at 08:55 AM.
IF you are set on these CC cams, the only other piece of advice i can offer is this: Their very aggressive cam lobes "slam" the valves open/shut making a sort of sewing machine noise at low RPMs that you may/may not like. Other than that, they perform well
IMHO the Lunati Voodoo 262 cam (designed by the same engineer after he left CC) performs as well/better without that valvetrain noise/stress
Well, I thank everybody for their input. It is so confusing to choose a cam and hoping this will work with that without have to change these . I decided to go with the Lunati 262. Had to make a decision to go forward. Now I'm just trying to crack the code on some reliable lifters. I've read a few nightmare stories. Any suggestions for those would be great. If I use a Lunati Cam do I have to go with Lunati lifters?
I don't remember the cam used in the L-83 but you likely have 325 horsepower already.
I went with a Racer Brown cam because 40 years ago thier stuff ran as good and sometimes better than anybody else's and the valvetrain didn't need as much maintenance.
I think calling a few tech lines is a smart idea go with the one who can answer your questions best
Well, I thank everybody for their input. It is so confusing to choose a cam and hoping this will work with that without have to change these . I decided to go with the Lunati 262. Had to make a decision to go forward. Now I'm just trying to crack the code on some reliable lifters. I've read a few nightmare stories. Any suggestions for those would be great. If I use a Lunati Cam do I have to go with Lunati lifters?
Thanks,
Jeff
Too bad the l83 is an ecotec 5.3 and not the traditional SBC. I'm about to pull the voodoo 262 cam and lifter from my build to put this cam in https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hrs-cl111145-10... Could have made you a good deal on the used combo with 6000 miles on them.. Realistically any decent quality brand of hydraulic roller lifters speced for your engine will work fine especially a roller cam like you already have.. in fact Id just stick with the roller lifters you have. The worries come with flat tappet cams like I currently have on the older pre 1986 engines.
You are sure you have a newer smaller 5.3L L83 in your car and not an older 5.7L L82 like it would have came with right?
Last edited by augiedoggy; Jan 2, 2021 at 11:17 PM.
Help choosing a cam for SBC
. I decided to go with the Lunati 262. Had to make a decision to go forward. Now I'm just trying to crack the code on some reliable lifters. I've read a few nightmare stories. Any suggestions for those would be great. If I use a Lunati Cam do I have to go with Lunati lifters?