Stock 360- except for Ford 4v manifold and Holley 600.

I have a C6 tranny and 3.25 gears in the rear with 31" tires. It's a daily driver with no RPM's above 3500.

I was wondering if there would be any benefit to me advancing my cam timing, since I don't do any "high end" driving. I have an Edelbrock timing set installed and right now it is set straight up.

Thanks for any input-

Joe

 

What year is the engine? Some of the later model 360's had their cams 8 degrees retarded from the factory so the edel timing chain has possibly already advanced you 8 degrees. Advancing it more will more than likely give you a little better bottom end. You will only get 2 degrees out of the edel set.

 

I'm not sure of the engine year- I bought this unit from a local engine builder. When I asked him about his practices, he told me he builds them to factory specs for a reman engine. He didn't tell me (I might have never asked) what year model parts he used. So it may be possible that he installed a later model cam in it.

Sounds funny, but I don't think I've ever heard the tires so much as chirp when taking off at full throttle. Runs great, though- it just seems that I get the most response out of it at highway speeds. It seems to pull stronger when pasing on the highway, too. Advancing the cam came to mind when I began to realize that my engine might be making power too far up the power band for my particular application. Possible?

Thanks for you help-

Joe

 

Advancing your cam will help your bottom end.
By advancing the cam the intake valve is closing sooner and developing more dynamic compression.

The question is how much.
As stated before, some of the older cams were retarded from the factory.
Put a degree wheel on it and check your specs, then compare to
some of the modern cams.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 14-Dec-02 AT 03:46 PM (EST)]How much? Four degrees of advance is a good general rule of thumb for what he wants. You've got to find out what its set at now though. As was mentioned, it was typically retarded from the factory starting in the emissions era, but if its got an aftermarket cam then it could have advance ground into it. Sounds all stock though so I'm sure it could use a fair bit of advance. If you are really happy with the way your engine runs, you might think about changine your gearing instead. 3.25 are highway gears for cars in my opinion. I guarentee you'll be able to chirp your tires with some 4.11 gears, without any change to your cam timing.

Almost forgot....you'd mentioned you thought your truck might be making power to high in its powerband and were thinking about advancing your cam timing to recitfy the situation. The more you advance your cam the higher up you shift the rpm of peak power. I'm I right in thinking you had this backwards? The reason @4 degrees of advance is good is because that is typically where your engine would make the most power without the limitations of worrying about emissions. I just wanted you to realize that if you advance your cam timing you won't be lowering your powerband, you'll just be making more power than if it remained retarded.

 

uh...one comment, I shouldn't make posts after three hours of sleep. You still want about four degrees of advance, but my little addendum after that was a result of foggy dyslexic thinking. Advancing equals better low end at the cost of high end, and retarding equals better high end at the cost of low end. Just ignore me, you were right