Will this camshaft run well.

[rampage_82]

Hey guys, I just bought an 1988 Ramcharger from my buddy. He retrofitted it, and put a 440 in it. This thing feels like a total dog, however I think it is because it is such a poor state of tune, and it has a fuel delivery problem. Here are the specs on the truck.. The 440 is a 1976 block, with cast crank, stock pistons, there is absolutely no cylinder-wall wear (ring groove), it had a problem with the head gasket sealing, so we switched to a very nice set of rebuilt 346 casting heads. They had a 3 angle valve job, new bronze guides, resurfaced, and had comp springs put on them. The cranking psi on the motor is 150lbs on all cylinders. It has a stock 76 dual plane intake, with a 750 Eddy carb, stock igniton, with a very sloppy distributor(found this out when I took the cap off).

I know i can make the base motor run well, I just don't know about this camshaft, because you all know that I'm a mud racer, and this camshaft looks to be way to tame, but I wanna ask here before I go switching it out. The cam is a Mopar purple cam P4452783. Here are the specs on it.

Brand: Mopar Performance
Product Line: Mopar Performance Purple Camshaft Kits
Part Type: Camshaft and Lifter Kits
Part Number: DCC-4452783
Cam Style: Hydraulic flat tappet
Basic Operating RPM Range: Idle-5,800
Intake Duration at 050 inch Lift: 228
Exhaust Duration at 050 inch Lift: 241
Duration at 050 inch Lift: 228 int./241 exh.
Advertised Intake Duration: 268
Advertised Exhaust Duration: 284
Advertised Duration: 268 int./284 exh.
Intake Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.450 in.
Exhaust Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.458 in.
Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.450 int./0.458 exh. lift
Lobe Separation (degrees): 115

Now I do like the duration @.050, however I am wondering about that wide lobe separation, and the lift of only in the .450" range. The truck has a 4 speed NP435 tranny, and Dana 60 axles front and rear, with 4.11 gears, and 35" tires. So all of these components are heavy, but I still think it should run better than it does. Oh it also has Hedman headers, with 3" pipes and Flowmaster 40 series mufflers.

The truck just bobbles when you lay into it, (i think that is the distributor and stock ignition's fault), and absolutely falls on it's face anywhere above 4,000.

Here are the changes upcoming. I just bought a new ProComp magnetic distributor (Another one of my buddies bought this exact distributor to replace his stock one and it worked miracles on his truck, and he even was running a MSD with his stock distributor), with a MSD 6a box, I am putting my Eddy Torker 2 intake on it, I have a Holley Mechanical Fuel pump w/ 110 gph free flow.

Will these components fix what ails my truck, or should I just go with a hotter cam while I'm at it? I don't need the truck to pull no 6500 rpm, but not having a total dog would help a lot. BTW don't preach to me about the single plane intake being evil, I've used them on stock motors (Mopar 440's) and it made a world of improvement, over the POS stock dual plane. Also I know the compression ratio wasn't great back in 76, however I have run this same basic motor with a ISKY 280 megacam, the Lunati 292 adv. cam, and the Comp 280 Magnum cam, and they all ran very well.

Any thoughts here?

[DartGT66]

First of all, a '76 440 is a dog. The true compression ratio is most likely deep in the 7's, the cam may occasionally open the valves a little etc. NHRA rates it at 200-205 hp. The flat top pistons are about 0.18" in hte hole at TDC and the heads from factory are about 90cc. You do the math. You should have milled the heck out of the 346's, some .060" off and the Cr would have rose to between 8.5 and 9:1. At the same time, a pocket port job and a performance valve job, adn the cam you suggested, adn the whole engine would have been like from a different planet. The cam below is just a stock high performance cam for a BB, used in magnum engines. Don't rely on MP's advertisements about the cam degrees, especially at .050" They just multiply the advertised duration aith 0.85 to get the .050" lift duration, it doesn't hold true. Pretty accyurate in many MP cases, but not with this stock cam.

[namvet67a1f]

Mega dittos on it being a dog and looooooow compression. THIS is perfect candidate for a set of 30 over 6 pack pistons !!

[ply6369]

the 284-484 is a bad choice for a low comp. mtr. 68* overlap bleeds too much comp. a comp xe268h or crane powermax 278 would work better IMO

[fox]

That cam will do well for what you need IF you had some compression. I'd say change those pistons, maybe a set of Keith Blacks.
Also tune that carb. I'v seen them way off, out of the box.

[63Fury]

Yep change the pistons or slap on a set of closed chamber heads. A buddy of mine used a set of the old chamber heads with a the small exhaust valves but it ran great in his bogger. No he couldn't crank it to 7000 rpm but with a 440 all you need is the low end torque.

[DartGT66]

The best solution would be changing the pistons. The old closed chamber heads (except 915's) flow slightly worse than the open chamber heads and theirthe chambers are only marginally smaller. The only thing "missing" in that chamber is the 0.1" deep open chamber portion, which in factory BB heads is pretty small. Except around 4cc difference in reality, just like the difference in closed and open Chamber Edelbrock RPM heads, the open chambers with a machined 0.1" deep portion. No matter what the factory blueprint specs say abourt the chamber cc's.
Anyway, you need some CR so the engine can respond to some needed cam degrees.

[rampage_82]

Yeah, I shoulda been a little more specific, this truck is not a bogger, I will just be using it for playing, such as rock crawling, trail riding, and general purpose truck, I don't need gobs of power, I just think it should do better than what it does, cause I've had smog 440's and even seen some 400's that would kick this thing in the nuts. I really thing the problem lays more in the ignition and fuel delivery, than anything else. Even with this cam, being mild it shouldn't fall flat on it's face at anything above 3,500 rpms should it?

[RacerHog]

I say.....VooDoo cam it.......

[rampage_82]

Well after my last experience with flat tappet camshafts going flat and ruining my last engine, I will never go that way again, unless it is something like this, where, the cam is already there, and working. I don't care if it does cost $1,000 to retrofit to roller, it is cheaper than ruining a 2,000 short block, plus it last forever. I think i'll try the new distributor, intake, wires, MSD, and fuel pump then I'll see if the motor is a complete dog or not. Cause like i said before, I've seen smog 440's and even some 400's that would kick this trucks butt.

[rampage_82]

Sorry guys this is an old thread, but I just wanted to update you. I did all of the improvements above, and holy lord what a difference. The motor pulls cleanly to 5,500, it doesn't have any power above this (which is what I expected), but it is like night and day compared to what it was. I know a lot of you guys like the MP orange / chrome boxes, but for my purposes I won't ever run anything besides aftermarket ignitions. After fighting with this same MSD 6A box for two race seasons with a stock distributor (in my other truck), I just plugged the box into this (supposedly crappy procomp billet 8000 distributor) and this thing runs like it has EFI compared to what it was before, and compared to all of my other experiences with the stock style distributors, I won't be going back to those again. There is no timing fluctuations at high rpms or low rpms for that matter. The timing stays exactly where I want it to. By far the best $110 I've spent yet.

[rampage_82]

Oh and to answer my own question, yeah the cam is tame, but it wasn't what was killing the truck.

[RacerHog]

The e-coil from ProComp, also works very well when it comes time to replace your old one..... Just had a friend test one on a dyno'd motor and it did not miss 1 beat....