So I'm building a 455 and have the original camshaft and was planning on using it, but upon further inspection she is a little bit rough and I'm not sure a polish will do the trick.

However I have another camshaft I was thinking of using but it has much rowdier specs on it. My only concern is the motor is going to be completely stock and I just want to make sure these specs aren't too much for it too handle.

standard bore 455
standard pistons and crank
stock E heads
stock intake manifold
stock quadrajet
stock exhaust manifolds

it's going to be mated to a TH350 with a stock torque converter out of a 1978 delta 88, it has 2.73 gears in the rear, with tires - P205 / 75R15 97S M+S. The car with me in it will weigh about 3,500lbs to 4,000lbs

the cam specs are
520 IN / 540 EX
Duration @ .050 234 INT / 244 EXH

Not sure on the brand but those are the specs, the car is going to be a cruiser with some down low torque. I'm not gonna race nor drag nor abuse it, so if the cam is too hot for what I'm gonna be using the car for I'll pick something else.

Thanks

 

Yeah, that wouldn't be a great combo. It'd be better to pick up an "RV" cam, something in the 210-ish advertised duration.

 

alright, that's kinda what I figured the cam was a bit too radical. I have a pdf file that has all the cam specs from factory olds motors and I noticed that none of them have anywhere near this cams specs so I was expecting it to be a little too hot for what I'm using.

Thanks for the reply.

 

What compression will the 455 have?

 

Should be roughly 8:1

The motor is a 76 I believe and the only thing different would be the E heads I'm putting on. Other than that, she is as stock as they come

 

That factory stall will be 1600 rpm with tall gears, so pick a cam that has a lower power band. Even the generic 204/214 cam is a step up from the factory 76 455 200ish duration with .433/.433 lift camshaft. Any 455 will make the heavy Delta much more fun.

 

That compression won't support much cam at all, and unfortunately the E heads won't be able to improve matters much and if they are the large valve ones, might actually make things worse.

Limit duration to not much more than 200° @ 0.050. Using a cam with modern ramp design the engine may be able tolerate more lift, but probably no more than 0.450".

 

So the other cam I have is the 400117 cam which specs are

INT 258
EXH 272
Lift at .50 .435 INT .435 EXH

this cam would be ideal to put in? or should I go less duration?

 

The only other heads I have are J heads and I wouldn't think that those would help me more than my E heads do? I could be wrong

I believe they are the small valves because I had compared the E valves to the J valves and they looked pretty much the same size. So since I have the small valve E heads they should be an improvement over the J's? Or should I just keep the J heads on it?

 

Use the E’s. And the duration specs you listed for the 400117 cam are “advertised”, not @.050. In addition your lift specs for that cam are wrong as well. You have all that mixed up.
Apples and oranges comparison.

 

Ok gotcha, so just use the E heads and use the 400117 cam and I should be good? I'm not trying to squeeze out maximium power just trying to use the best of what I have access too is all.

 

Mark is right, as usual. E heads will definitely be better than J's in any case. Find out if they are large or small valve, though. Also confirm the 0.050 duration and correct lift of the cam ... you might be able to get by with it.

 

Gotcha ok I'll use the E heads. The cam is a stock cam for the 455 so I shouldn't have any issues. The motor came out of a gmc motorhome so it may be a "rv" cam I'm not sure though.

I'm gonna be ressambling the motor and dropping it in my delta here pretty soon so a stock baseline of parts should be a good start then I can kinda experiment with different stuff down the road.

Thanks for all the help guys.