I'd go bigger on duration than any of the off the shelf cams listed here ('cept for maybe the XE282HR) The 408 cam make better use of the duration numbers over a smaller engine and still remain streetable. The Ford Z303 I used is perfectly suited to my 331 with a straight 228 @ .050 to create a strong midrange. (oh and it only cost me $75 new in the box)
exactly right. Going to all this trouble and expense just to leave 30 horses on the table with hardly any loss of usable rpm range would be a bit of a waste, imo. And if you boil it down enough.. with a 4 inch stroke.. do you really care about having much more torque below 1,800 rpm anyways? Fatten up the midrange.. extend the rpm range by 300-500 rpm.. and give it just enough gear to let it eat out of the hole. Then go have fun. I have that same XE282HR grind # in a 385 Chevy(2 sizes down from the previous solid roller and I lost 65 horses) and can pull over 15 inches of manifold vacuum. Had to tune the bejesus out of it and use sky high spark advance to get it.. but it certainly shows how bigger cubes.. especially involving longer strokes.. eats up cam duration. I see medium/large strokers running stage 1 cams almost every year and they're usually stuffed in there to save cash or somehow "prove what a mild cam can do". Problem is.. cubic inches or not.. rpm equals air flow and those small cams fall over a cliff just past redline like an old truck motor. Keeps you wanting more and feeling like you didn't stretch your dollar in the best way possible. PS. in your combo.. that 282 would be a good choice for a low-midrange torque motor and likely be all done by about 6,000 rpm. If you do go custom cam here.. keep in mind that moderately under-valved engines(400 cubes with a standard 2 inch valve) usually almost always prefer tighter lobe centers/more overlap.. whereas a more proportionate ratio found in a 300 inch motor with 2.10 inch valve can get by with a wider lobe separation angle. An aggressive intake lobe with quick ramps combined with around 106-108 LSA and not much more than 230'ish* duration will make that thing a mid-range torque monster with a decent enough top end. Go 240'ish if you want to stretch it out a little more on the top.
I have that Lunati cam in my 331, 10.5 comp, Trick Flow 185 heads. It is not choppy in my engine because in part of the 112 LSA. My engine will idle down to 850 RPM no problem. Way to small for a big displacement Windsor.
Your engine should idle lower than that. That cam's specs aren't that much different than the Z cam I've got in my 331. and it idles at 500-600 rpms. What intake/carb setup are you running ?
I have that Lunati cam in my 331, 10.5 comp, Trick Flow 185 heads. It is not choppy in my engine because in part of the 112 LSA. My engine will idle down to 850 RPM no problem. Way to small for a big displacement Windsor.
Weber 48mm IDF's, don't like to idle real low, at least I can't get them much lower. As with most carbs you set the base idle screw as low as low as it will run and then adjust the mixture screws for speed...times 8. Kind of a challenge. I tell people if you own Webers you better have patience and you better have a lot of money to spend on jets/tubes. Lol I'm limited on cam profiles because of reversion issues with IR. Can't run much overlap, it tends to send pressure back up the runners. Kelly
IR is a totally different animal and 850 rpm idle speeds tend to calm a cams lope pretty quickly. I always dig IR and have been eyeing Kasse's P38 IR system up since it was released but need a shorter intake for maximum top end.
I missed the part about the Webers.........I'll stick with my triple deuces. They're extremely easy to live with.
Hey ,if you don`t think you would like the xe 282,then shoot for the whole ball of wax & get the xe294.300 degrees of duration & a 600 lift will wake that 408 right up.Put some 3.80 or 4.10 gears out back & get ready to really burn some rubber.
I just noticed this sentence, sounds to me like you need to focus on the EFI cams with their wide LSA's. After running several with carbs, I've come to the conclusion that overlap is over rated anyway.
I'm running a 349 with elder Brock heads and I'm using small base circle roller cam with the 282 comp cam grind 6200 rpms is about it . killer bottom and I'm sure na 408 you would need more duration.
