I have a 68 390. its a nice clean ol 30k engine, i have just went through it with new timing chain, put a factory 4bbl intake on new freeze plugs etc.

well even with going through alot of these i decided not to replace the lifters on this one, because it ran so quiet.

well it now has a weak lifter and ticks occasionally


thinking about running a aftermarket cam since ill be in doing lifters, im running 325 gears stock torque converter and a c6

i want to have a noticable lopey cam, but am not trying to put gears in or stall converters in.

anybody used or found any cams they liked and worked well with a nice sound but kept the low end torque.

ive ran a thumpr before, but they are a pain to match up and im trying not to go roller, and its seemed to lack on the performance side.

 

Make sure you have the springs to match what ever cam you decide on. I think stock springs are only good up to .510" of lift?? Cant quite remember.
The tech lines of each company are pretty good at recommending a good fit to what you're looking for. I know you're looking for experience, but these guys do it all day everyday.
The more lope or choppiness generally means less down low. Compcams has an online dyno you can check out for their grinds and application.

 

Sounds like you need a Crane 901 or 941 cam... Great torquer cams, ran 'em both before...

 

Thanks for the info, that compcam dyno sounds cool, I actually replaced the springs with better when i had the engine apart because i had them lying around, glad i did that then

ill take a look at the crane's also

 

Not entirely on-topic, but even though the stock springs can take the LIFT, they may (will) limit your RPM range because the higher profile cam will make the valves float pretty quick.

I'm of the opinion that any time you go to a bigger cam, always ALWAYS match the springs to the cam, according to the manufacturer. Especially if you expect them to honor their warranty.

 

Thats a good point Art. They wont bind the coils but they dont have the correct pressure to keep valves from floating if my thinking is correct. I know of some people that have gone up just a little over the stock to say .500" or so and didnt have a problem though. I think what he is looking for is a going to be larger than that anyways. But he has different springs that he will be trying to use with whatever cam he gets. Do you know how to check to see if springs and cam are compatible? My machinist did it for me, I'd like to know the process though.

 

It involves finding that height the spring will be "installed" on the head, and checking the "on seat" pressure, and then using the "gross lift" from the cam space, compressing the spring that far and checking pressure again.

I really don't know, I just used what the cam manufacturer suggests, and make sure the installed height of the spring is what they want it to be.

To the original poster, if you don't know what springs those were, I wouldn't go too wild on the cam, just in case.

 

May I recommend chatting diretcly with Iskenderian Racing or Crower Cams, both are family owned and are very willing to chat with you over the phone regarding your needs and talk about recommendations. in many cases, they will even re-grind the oem cam.

 

For any giving cam..the manufacturer will have a set of spect. out springs for them..Keeping in mind Valve float for the givin rpm inwhich the cam was designed..and seat pressure..to keep the valve from bouncing off the seat, and coild bind for a givin lift..