Hemi Cam recommendation !??

[davisp]

I need help selecting a good street cam for a 472 hemi crate motor. The cam that comes with the 472 is a 292 degree duration with lift approx. .500. Compression is 9/1 but I am considering bumping it up to 10.25. It will be installed in a 1970 Cuda with 3.55 gears and power brakes. I want a cam that will give me good drivability while pushing the performance envelope. But I don't want a car that is a headache to drive. "Been there done that!". I would appreciate any and all recommendations. thanks. PD

[Karl43]

Keep the cam and throw in a set of Rhoades Lifters. See post about Rhoades lifters.

We rebuilt an old 426 ('66 Vintage) for my dad's '69 Road Runner Convertible (4-speed with Dana 3.54, and 9.5:1 compression) and used the same cam. It is really not much bigger than the stock Hemi cam. When I degreed it, it was slightly below .500 lift at the valves .494/.493. Rhoades set us up with a set of their lifters (Sealed Power 812's with their groove). Haven't started it yet as we are working on transmission/starter/exhaust interference issues and finding the correct pulleys. With the Rhoades lifters it should pretty much be like a stock Hemi cam at idle.

If you want to keep it on the street, I would second think the 10.25:1 compression. Racing gas is expensive. Your 9:1 will run on any pump gas. Maybe bump it up to 9.5-9.75.

As far as driveability, this is a Hemi! It needs to run and be run hard.

[davisp]

Thanks for the advice Karl. I appreciate it. Based on your advice I think I might try the cam first and then swap it out (I make that sound easy) if I am not happy. My biggest concern is maintaining enough vacum to keep the power brakes working right ?? thanks again. pdavis

[Lee Pritchard]

Racer brown has some great hemi grinds.. I ran a stx 25 racer brown in my street hemi........It made some real power!!!!...Lee..

[KM]

Why wouldn´t you call to some cam makers: Comp cams,crane, hughes etc......
They really should know their stuff and can help you providing you have all the info they need handy !!

Kimm

[BelvedereGuy]

Originally posted by davisp
I need help selecting a good street cam for a 472 hemi crate motor. The cam that comes with the 472 is a 292 degree duration with lift approx. .500. Compression is 9/1 but I am considering bumping it up to 10.25. It will be installed in a 1970 Cuda with 3.55 gears and power brakes. I want a cam that will give me good drivability while pushing the performance envelope. But I don't want a car that is a headache to drive. "Been there done that!". I would appreciate any and all recommendations. thanks. PD

I have a 472 Hemi as well, buy it's not in the car yet. I am just curious as to why you want to take this cam out. Is it not radical enough for you....or is it to radical for what you want to do with it? From what I have read....this cam has a rough idle and may not work to well with power brakes......but it is supposed to make great power and still be quite streetable to drive.
You have a crate engine....why mess with a good thing, unless your going racing.
I'm going to leave the cam in mine and install the Crossram and a set of Holley carbs.....which is supposed to make this engine really wake up.

[davisp]

Thanks for the reply Belvedere guy. You hit the nail on the head. My concern is that the cam may be to radical! Problem is I don't know -- and quess I won't know until it's in the car. This is going to be a car mostly for show but I want it to be very streetable. It just seems to me that 292 advertised duration ( 244 at .050) might be a little hot for the car. I also share your philosophy of leaving a good thing alone. I quess my biggest concern is maintaining sufficeint vacum for my power disc brakes. I would appreciate your further thoughts. thanks. pdavis

[BelvedereGuy]

Hey PD,
Glad to help you out the best I can.
My story goes back 22 years ago when I saw a guy pull into a local hangout in a 66 Belvedere Sedan with a factory Hemi....I fell in love with the car and I have wanted one ever since. So I have decided to build a clone as a factory Hemi Belvedere Sedan cost $64,000 U.S. dollars the last time I saw one for sale.
I got out of Mopars for quite a few years as cars where getting hard to find and the good parts where even scarcer. So I ran and toyed with a few Chevy's for awhile, which is leading me to what I wanted to tell you about one of my experiences with a crate motor. About 3 years ago I decided to Pro Street my 86 Chevy Short Box truck and decided that I was going to use the ZZ502/502. It was a great motor and made tremendous power and I never had any problems with it and found it to be very streetable. The only thing I never liked was it came with a 850 Holley vacumn carb, why, I will never know.......so I ran the carb for awhile until I got pissed off and realised I could get more power from it if I had the carb reworked. I took it to a guy who builds carbs for the guy's at our local racetrack and he modded it out to a 930 cfm Double Pump with 4 corner idle........it was like night and day........now the truck was alive!!!!
So now getting back to my story.......the ZZ502 was very streetable and very fast and the specs on that cam were .527 I .544 E. lift, duration @.050 224 I/ 234 E. and 110 degree centerline. This cam is made by Speed Pro for Chevrolet and has an advertised duration of 296/308.
Competition Cams makes a cam almost identical to the one in our Hemi's that specs at 292 degrees duration .534I/ .517E and 108 degrees Lobe Separation Angle, with duration at .050 being 244/244....this is almost identical to ours except the added .010 added lift on each valve.
Competition Cams states: HYDRAULIC-Street/Strip use. 3000+ stall or 4 speed, has rough idle.
Now this cam will be streetable, but you may find that you will have to add a vacumn canister for added vacumn when needed....so all will not be lost.
I plan on using my 472 Hemi on the street as well in a Pro Street 67 Belvedere 2 dr Sedan. They only made 4,718 sedans for 67 so I feel pretty lucky to have found one and it would never have been possible if it wasn't for the internet. I found the car in Texas and had it shipped to me at my home near Vancouver Canada. The one change that I am planning on doing to the Hemi is I am going to use the new Chrysler Crossram and a set of Holley carbs that Holley makes specifically for that manifold.
Sorry the post is so long, I'll try keeping it shorter next time. LOL.
Ron.

[davisp]

Ron, this sounds like a really cool Belvedere. I am happy to report that the 472 hemi is in the Cud'a and running great. I had a couple of minor start up problems which I will detail in another email later. I stayed with the cam supplied with the 472 hemi (advertised duration 292 .534/.517) (actual at .050 is 244 duration) The results are exactly as you stated. The car is very streetable but could use a little more vacum for the power brakes. As soon as the weather warms up I am going to install a vacum resevoir. Awesome power! preston.

[vanishPt]

I have a 527 hemi with a Comp hyd 244 duration ,544 lft and 10.6 al heads. I use premium gas and have never heard it ping. It will idle at 800 in gear(11" converter) at about 8" vacumn. Car runs 11.45 at 123 at 3775 lbs in street trim. I REALLY like the cam for its sreetability.
If you want to push the envelope, another size up in cam will accomplish this.
if I were starting from scratch. i would put a Crane Hyd Roller in it. Around 238 at 580 lift

[BelvedereGuy]

Hey davisp,
I'm glad to hear you finally got your Hemi running. So, tell me how it idles? Is it fairly rough? Actually tell all about it, LOL.
Hope to hear fron you soon.
Ron.

[davisp]

Ron, just to recap the car is a 1970 Cuda. Rear is a 355 posi 8 3/4. The crate motor was an easy swap as the car had a 340 small block in it to start with. I used the Schumacher mounts (a perfect fit! along with stock 1970 exhaust manifolds into 3 " TTI exhaust system. The 292 cam gives it a pretty lumpy idle which to my ears is pure and sweet music. I am still breaking in the Center force clutch so I havn't stomped the pedal yet. The few times I have given it a little pedal from a dead stop I have spun the 9" BF Goodrich tires. I am probably going to have to find some stickier tires. Perhaps a set of drag radials. The car sounds plenty throaty and draws MUCH attention at stop lights. I still have a few issues to resolve. I seem to have developed a leak in the power steering box and I havn't been able to get the in-dash tach to work with this new electronic ignition. Doubly complicated to figure out because I installed an MSD 6AL at the same time so I am not quite sure where the problem is. All in all I am quite happy. As I said in my earlier emails I had some problems with the crate motor initially but I am holding off on writing about it until I see how Mopar Performance responds to it. Stay tuned. I will upload a few pictures when I have some time this weekend. Preston

[BelvedereGuy]

Hey Preston,
Thanks for the info and I look forward to seeing the pics.
You say you had some problems initially with the crate motor............now you have me freaked out. I know you would not want to give Chrysler a bad name.......but if there is something that you know about the engine that I should know about.....then please tell me. If you don't want to post it here then I understand. If I give you an email address could you send the info there?
Thanks, Ron.

[davisp]

Ron,email me at davisp@ix.netcom.com and I will fill you in. There are some things you will want to know. I really don't want to bad mouth the Mopar performance folks until I see how they respond to the problems I encountered. Preston

[davisp]

Here is a url with a few pictures of the 472 hemi cuda

http://photos.yahoo.com/davispreston

[BelvedereGuy]

Hey Preston,
Did you get my email? Is the email address you posted right. I sent you an email but have heard nothing back.
Ron.

[davisp]

Ron, I got your email and sent you a legnth response. If you did not recieve it I can try to send it again?? Preston

[BelvedereGuy]

Hey Preston,
Well that's funny. LOL. I never recieved it. Try sending to this email address instead. Notice the underscore in the address.....it is hard to see when it is posted here.
Thanks, Ron.

Belvedere_Guy@hotmail.com