I have heard ford retarded the cams in gasoline engines in the early 70's. I have a 1974 ford dumptruck with a 477. how many degrees would this cam be retarded?

 

Just guessing here. It's not likely that the cam was retarded, as that engine would/ should never had to pass smog. It may have been retarded as a design feature for the engine application, but I doubt it. Kind of contrary to its use. Low revs, high torque, etc. OBCB

 

The only thing retarded about factory cams in Ford engines is how small they are.

 

What oldbrokecowboy makes since. Ive heard on smog engines it was anywhere from 4 to 8 degrees.

 

I'm not so sure the emission stuff applied to the truck engines, so there might not be any cam retard on that engine.

 

the 477 and 475 are the same engine. engine specs for 1970 477 are 253 hp @ 3400 and 415 fp @ 2000. the 1975 475 dropped to 203 hp @ 3400 and 341 fp @ 2600. my 1974 powerband seems to drop @ 2600 RPM. I would assume my cam is retarded. my question is, how much? the cam is gear driven ,with 110 teeth on the cam, and 55 on the crankshaft how many teeth should I advance the cam?

 

Yes!....................

 

If no one has the specific info you need you will need to degree the cam as you would in any HP build. That will tell you exactly where you stand by the numbers and how much room you have to play with. Something that might shed some light on things is a check of part numbers for the cam and timing gears, (early and late models) OBCB

 

I went ahead and advanced the cam 1 tooth, 6.5 degrees. I also advanced the timing. It seems to run better, and allows me to run at a lower rpm. I don't know if another tooth advanced will help, but I am going to settle for what I got. I reused the crank seal, and siliconed the cover. a gasket set costs 200.00 !