351M cam
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Senior User
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Central,IL
351M cam
I have been looking on here and really didn’t find what I was looking for, what im wanting to know is will putting a cam in a 351m really wake it up and how much power can I expect to get.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,416
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From: PacNW
Putting a higher performance cam in any engine will "wake it up". How much is a tougher question. It all depends on what you define as power and where you want it. The 351M has the same stroke as the 351C so you can build more bottom end torque but they're not designed to rev as high as the Cleveland so you're going to lose out on the top end. If you really want low end grunt and a massive torque band up to about 4500 RPM then put a 400 crank & pistons in it and a decent cam. There's a lot of threads about that in this forum.
No matter what engine you're talking about power costs money and the higher you plan to rev the engine the more it's gonna cost you since cheap parts tend to break at higher RPMs. Most street engines live in the 2000-4500 RPM range. Racing engines live in a much higher range. When you're applying power coming out of a corner at 5000 RPM you need the torque band to come in at about 4500 RPM and go up to 7000-7500 RPM. That's some serious revs on a pushrod V8 and the cam selection is totally different than a stoplight to stoplight asphalt burner. Off road dirt machines need a torque band that starts as low as you can get it, stays as flat as you can get it for as long as you can. Torque is all in by 3000 RPM. A mud racer needs a torque band that goes much higher, more like a drag racer.
So the bottom line here is there's no free lunch. A camshaft that supplies great bottom end is going to run out of breath on the top end. A cam that is weak at the bottom end is going to provide scary power at the top until the engine starts spitting parts out of the block. You need to figure out what you want to do with your truck and build it appropriately. Transmission, rear gears and your wallet all play a big part. It might be wise to invest in a dyno simulator program like DD2K and run some comparisons before you spend the dough for the hard parts.
No matter what engine you're talking about power costs money and the higher you plan to rev the engine the more it's gonna cost you since cheap parts tend to break at higher RPMs. Most street engines live in the 2000-4500 RPM range. Racing engines live in a much higher range. When you're applying power coming out of a corner at 5000 RPM you need the torque band to come in at about 4500 RPM and go up to 7000-7500 RPM. That's some serious revs on a pushrod V8 and the cam selection is totally different than a stoplight to stoplight asphalt burner. Off road dirt machines need a torque band that starts as low as you can get it, stays as flat as you can get it for as long as you can. Torque is all in by 3000 RPM. A mud racer needs a torque band that goes much higher, more like a drag racer.
So the bottom line here is there's no free lunch. A camshaft that supplies great bottom end is going to run out of breath on the top end. A cam that is weak at the bottom end is going to provide scary power at the top until the engine starts spitting parts out of the block. You need to figure out what you want to do with your truck and build it appropriately. Transmission, rear gears and your wallet all play a big part. It might be wise to invest in a dyno simulator program like DD2K and run some comparisons before you spend the dough for the hard parts.
