Will this cam work ?

[sailpanel]

O.K. I ruled out the 451  and I'll be looking at bumping up the C.R. in the 400. I picked up this cam and lifter combo sometime back and now I'm wondering if I have allready gotten off on the wrong foot. Firefighter I know you like and suggested the engle K56 but what about this one. Int.adv.dur. 270 @ 50 214, lift .443,  Exh.adv. dur. 280 @ 50 224 lift,.465, lobe sep.112. I wanted a cam that was better than stock but still mild enough to use a stock converter and have enough vac. signal for power brakes. So do I need to E-bay this thing and start over or will this work for me? I much more concerned with low end grunt than anything else. So what do ya think?

[jg68]

O.K. I ruled out the 451  and I'll be looking at bumping up the C.R. in the 400. I picked up this cam and lifter combo sometime back and now I'm wondering if I have allready gotten off on the wrong foot. Firefighter I know you like and suggested the engle K56 but what about this one. Int.adv.dur. 270 @ 50 214, lift .443,  Exh.adv. dur. 280 @ 50 224 lift,.465, lobe sep.112. I wanted a cam that was better than stock but still mild enough to use a stock converter and have enough vac. signal for power brakes. So do I need to E-bay this thing and start over or will this work for me? I much more concerned with low end grunt than anything else. So what do ya think?

If low-end torque is what your after, i wouldn't change the cam, those 400s run pretty good in stock form, but once you change out something as imported as the cam (brain of the engine) you need to tailer in the rest, just going a step or so over stock won't benefit you much for all the work thats involved, now compression will give you torque , those 400s are on the low side when stock, gears will also wake it up, even in stock trim, so it all depends on what your really after

[firefighter3931]

  That cam will be better than the stocker and if you're looking for torque.....it will get the job done. Short stroke motors (383-400) are tricky in terms of cam selection.....you need to keep them conservative unless the gears are deep and the stall is loose. 



Ron

[sailpanel]

Thanks, that makes me feel better about the direction I'm heading. I hope to get the C.R. up a little from stock so that should be some help. Brought my headers home today ( hedman 78070 shortys) so the parts are starting to come together.

[supserdave]

We built a very similar 400, with a comp 21-215-4 cam. Runs very well. It would run better if we would have bumped the compression up, but we used stock replacement pistons so we are still in the 8's for compression.

Ours has a lot of torque, and a ton of midrange power.

[oldkimmer]

If u offset grind the crank .060 u will gain approx 1.2 comp points +more cubes, its a win win situation........kim........be sure to rebalance the assambly......