Hey,

I have a 350 short block bored .030" over with flat top JE's that will give the motor 10:1 compression with vortec heads from scoggin dickey. I'm just wondering about a nice camshaft that'll really rock but still work with a 2200 stall and 3.73 gears...its going in a '79.

Crane cams suggested this cam... H-278-2

INTAKE @CAM 3114 @VALVE 467 ROCKER ARM RATIO
EXHAUST @CAM 3294 @VALVE 494 1.50
ALL LIFTS ARE BASED ON ZERO LASH AND THEORETICAL ROCKER ARM RATIOS

CAM TIMING OPENS CLOSES ADV DURATION
@ .004 INTAKE 26 BTDC 72 ABDC 278 °
TAPPET LIFT EXHAUST 80 BBDC 30 ATDC 290 °

SPRING REQUIREMENTS
TRIPLE DUAL OUTER INNER
PART NUMBER 99848

LOADS:
CLOSED 105 LBS @ 1.700 OR 1 45/64
OPEN 280 LBS @ 1.240

anyone every use something similar? and does anyone suggest a solid cam...if the performance is worth adjusting the valve lash alot ill do it.

thanks

I always suggest hydraulic for the street. If it was strickly a race motor, solid.

I highly recomend you run as fast as you can away from Crane !!!!! A friend put one in a 327 and one of the lobes was off by so meny degrees. It coused the valve to punch a hole in a piston Crane addmitted thier screw up, offered to replace the cam, but refuced to pay for the damaged piston and cost for repair. I personally like Comp Cams. I would go hydrolic.

For the Street I would recommend a Hydralic Flat tappet I just did a small block 400 and used the Comp Cams Xtreme energy cam with roller tip rockers and put a Edelbrock Airgap intake also and it was like night and Day the difference in the performance. It had a mild cam before with a Edelbrock Performer EPS Intake and it run good then but now it is a lot more fun to drive.Go to Comp Cams website and get their Phone # and tell them what combination you are going to run ( Motor,Trans ,Stall Converter,Rear, Type of car , and What you are looking for in performance) and they can point you in the right direction on Cam choice. I had a cam problem 1 time and I sent it back and had another cam & lifter set at the house in 2 days at no charge with no hassles.

That cam is on the ragged edge of street duty. If you are going to use the El Camino as a daily driver you will probably be happier with a milder cam. I have used several Comp Cams and have always been happy with them although I did have problems with their solid roller lifters. Stick with hydraulic lifters for street duty and if you can swing it, a hydraulic roller cam.

If your willing to spend a little more, go with hydraulic roller lifters and cam.

Those heads have screw in rocker studs for the spring you want to use?
I'd use a hyd.for a driver and a solid for a weekend car. Lynati also has some good cams,check out there site,talk to Mr.Brookshire there he is a cam designer not a salesman.
My .02
steve

This is the first engine I ever built with hydraulic lifters, don't like them at all, especially the Comp extreme series, very noisey. I have always run solid or solid roller in my engines, but when this one spun a lifter it was at a bad time so I went the cheap route with a deal from Jegs on this Comp Xtreme 274-it sounds OK at idle as far as the lope but I don't like the powerband, I shift around 6500 and this thing is done by 5K. We run solids in all the B/B we build and nobody has ever had anything but smiles to say about them. Personal gaurantee-solid cam will always make more power across the board than any hydraulic--just have to lash them once in awhile.

No it's definitely not true that a hydraulic cam makes less power than a solid lifter cam. If your engine doesn't make power above 5500 rpm there is no advantage to a solid lifter cam. Only engines that need rpm levels above 5500 are going to benefit. If you graph the cam opening and the areas under the graph are equal than everything else being the same both solid and hydraulic cams will be equally powerful. This is not my opinion as any cam designer will verify this.

Solid Roller lifters are great. Hydraulic lifter will tend to brake down at or around 6000 RPM and the higher you go the more bleed back you going to get from hydraulic and valve float is more prevalent. There is a reason the race cars use solid lifters be them roller or flat tappet. They are better and with a good set of Roller Rockers and posi locks the adjustments will only be needed about once maybe twice a year so as far as maintenance is concerned they are not as bad as they use to be.

Either way if you got the cash the stick with roller lifter and rockers, you gain 10ths overall in the time slips its measurable, the difference between flat tappet and rollers. Friction is your enemy with engines and transmissions the least amount is the best way to go. I'd almost suggest using low tension oil rings but for a street driven car you'll go through so much oil normally driving that it will suck hard. So don't do that unless its pure race. Perfect seal piston rings are the best on the market up to 400 horses after that or with Nos don't use them.

I don't care for Crane Cams but the Comp SR cams are good cams and the XE series are good cams also for torque. A mild cam that is a good street cam and helps produce up to about 400 (with 1.5:1 rockers) is the XE268 flat tappet hydraulic cam. It produces just under a half inch lift. The next one up should be bypassed (XE274) it is flat on the low end even with an Airgap intake but the XE284 is a real kicker and can produce, with the right combo, up to around 500 Horses. Vortec heads will limit what you can use. With stock springs then I'd only go to the XE 268 cam.

Just my opinion.

Both solid and hydraulic roller lifters are heavier than flat tappet lifters and consequently heavier valve springs are needed to obtain high rpms and this increases friction losses. The higher valve spring rates balance off the decreased frictional losses. The real benefit of roller lifters is that the opening and closing rates can be made much higher than flat tappets. If you compare the lobes of a flat lifter cam and that of a roller lifter cam you will immediately see that the ramps are much sharper which means at the same engine speed the roller cam will have the valve lifted furthur off the seat which increases the airflow. I've run solid roller cams on street weekend "toys", not a daily driver, and with stud girdles and polylocks cam adjustments are virtually eliminated. However for a daily driven street car a hydraulic lifter roller cam is the best choice.

Sorry guys but after building dozens of high HP engines I'm sticking to solids. BTW, we only run solid in the marine engines and they max at 5500, so that kinda blows the lower RPM theory-yes they have been dynoed-everytime solids win across the board.

If you check with any of the major cam manufacturers I assure you they will verify that a solid and a hydraulic cam of identical specs will make virtually the same horsepower until you reach the higher rpms where the hydraulic cam will have valve float. Look at all the factory high performance engines in production now; Dodge Viper V10, Corvette ZO6 and the Ford Cobra all use hydraulic lifters. Are you telling me that the engineers who designed these engines don't know what they are doing? You are living in the past if you think that a hydraulic cam can't be high performance. If you are talking about a max effort, very high rpm racing engine then I will agree--go solid. But high performance street engines are best with hydraulic cams, and hydraulic roller in particular.

Since my full-time job is with one of the big 3 I can answer that with some level of background. When the auto manufacter designs its product for public consumption one of the biggest areas it looks at is maintence. In a world of 100K cooloant, 100K, trans fluid, 100K spark plugs, what customer is going to accept 20K valve lash maintence---none. Customers won't stand for it. Also we need to address NVH-how quiet does the engine operate, how smooth is the idle, what are the emissions on the dyno. The Viper could easily put out 700HP if we didn't have to work around the EPA. Have you figured out yet which of the 3 I work for. There are many variables to building a production car, lots of give and take, the Cummins gives up about 150HP for the purpose of keeping particulates at acceptable levels. BTW you answered your own question-call the cam grinders and they will tell you that make about the same until the hydraulic cam falls off, sounds like the solid cam wins. Besides like profiles on like engines the solid still wins, hydraulic cams can't be ground with that aggressive a lift ramp, thats why most successful bracket cars run solids. I don't think it is a huge gain but getting 10-15 horse just by running a solid is a pretty good deal I think.

The vortec heads are only good for .550 lift in stock trim. IMHO rollers are better than flat tappets but more money. Solids are better than hydraulic (more hp) but more work...you gotta adjust them, if you don't mind. But as far as I'm concerned the best install it,close the hood and drive like you stole it cam is the Isky mega 280 hyd. It's cheap (under $200.00 for cam and lifters), the power brakes still work...reasonable idle, and makes good power.
George