Ok, I got back my 455 FA block back from the machine shop. The block is +60 over, lined honed and decked. I settled on a set of L2323F60 Pistons a Nodular crank cross drilled and chamfered and big valve C heads. The heads are good castings that im using to teach my son how to port and polish, then they will get milled and new hardware. The cam is where im confussed, has anyone had a setup like this with a certain cam that worked well?
I will fill in the blanks the best I can.
The car is, and im sorry my Oldsmobile friends a
79 Firebird Formula
TH350 Trans
2000 stall
273 posi gear
Hooker modified long tube headers
750 Edelbrock quickfuel carb
Thanks for any advise in advance​​​​​​.

 

Sorry but there’s no such thing as an Edelbrock Quick fuel carb. But if that’s the biggest mistake you make you’ll be fine��
I did a cam for my buddy’s ‘78 with a 455, but his had Edelbrock heads and so on so I wouldn’t do exactly the same cam for you. Have you purchased the converter yet? If not I’d get something closer to 2800 or so for a stall.
Your 2.73 gear will be your biggest limiting factor. If you’re going to stay with that I’d do 1 sort of cam. If you’re going to change it then I’d do another.

 

Double checked the carb and its a QTF Slayer and says quickfuel technologies on thw other side, came with the car.Im open to changing the stall. The block in the car at this point is a 455 but internals are all a question mark and is a smoker. Previous owner gave me a piece of paper of whats in it but I don't want to assume anything so I found another block and started from scratch. It will be a street machine and maybe occasional strip. With the 350 trans im not sure of how muvh gear to hang in it without killing all streetability but again open to chsnging it. I had an old Nova with 410s and a 350 trans and it wasn't so streetable.

 

Retraction quickfuel carb

 

Well I would recommend this cam available from different sources, from mellings to Comp Cams

214 224 .472 .496

And here is why

http://www.dragtimes.com/Oldsmobile-...slip-9738.html

Won't sound mean, but should have a nice idle and about 18 inches of vacuum, at idle, and gets around 20 mpg. And it can be had cheap and should be able to roast the tires. Even better, if you wanted to throw a lot of money at it, then have it done as a roller cam.

Looking good and being good are not always the same thing....

 

Thats a good ET for a mild cam. I would have to change my rear end gear ratio for sure.

 

People think bigger cam means better ETs, when in fact the opposite might be true. You may lose all the way around.

Gears is also one of his secrets, with the 3.07 first gear of his TH700 times his 3.42 rear equals a starting ratio of 10.4994. With a TH 400 that would equal having about a 4.23 in the back,in first gear

 

Here is his "rear wheels" dyno sheet

http://www.dragtimes.com/images_dyno...preme-Dyno.jpg

 

Good point. So with my TH 350 trans and 2.73 rear gear I would have gotten smoked unless I added quite a bit more power and got that power to stick to the ground. Even if I equalled his rear gear because of the trans it still probably wouldnt be close.

 

With that cam, and the same head flow on intake and exhaust and at the same weight it might be closer than you think. The high gear allows you to stay in the transmissions lower gears LONGER in a run, and to stay in the converter stall LONGER and be able to hook easier. This can all be great for ETS and most people miss this. He is running MTs and hundreds of pounds of ballast in his trunk, to get traction he says and traction is a must, to be fast.

A nice tight 2200-2500 stall would work out nice probably for you. One more thing is the 455s usually have there power sooner and little is gained shifting above about 4,500.

 

This is all good advice. This is my first 455 olds engine. Actually I bought 2 just in case I ever find the right 66 F85 I've wanted for a long time. Mostly was a small block guy until recently.So a bit of a learning curve for now, but fun.The Firebird I will title to my son when he is older.

 

I have a ton of experience, with different cars and engines from 2.0L Fords to 6-71 blown Alcohol Hemis and I have nothing to "sell you".
I would recommend a secret rev limiter around 4,000 for Jr to save you and him grief be installed, as well. Tell him years later LOL

When I last built mine I installed a 5 inch Tach available cheap back in the 80s and mounted it in my dash. It has a shift light dial and a rpms limiter dial on its face. Well, the trans built for it was bad and made a terrible racket, like a buzzsaw once started up and put it in gear, and it was probably from the switch pitch converter in it. Well, that meant the young hot rodder trans guys would have it back but running this time with my fresh motor, in their hands. So I set the dial on the tach, to cut power above 3600. They brought it back fixed but nervously told me there was something wrong because it was cutting out like crazy when they tried to "test it" and wasn't their fault. I smiled and said that OK I know what it is and I knew it wasn't anything they did. That may have saved that new engine. RPMs kill these engines, unless built for them, and even then the heads don't breath good enough to make power up higher.

 

Not a bad idea. Since the worn motor in it eats the tires I can imagine what the new one will do.

 

I have had this cam in the 455 in my 1972 442 W-30 since 1993. At the time it was a good choice but today there are better choices that utilize modern cam grands.


Look through the Erson Cam catalogue & at the Voodo cams....get some help from a qualified engine builder to match your combo. Most importantly know as many details about your driveline components & how you use the car before you pick a cam.

 

"Modern cams" have faster ramps and may not last as long before wiping a lobe at 5-10-20,000 miles.

More on cams, but what do these guys know.


http://www.hotrod.com/articles/camsh...rison-testing/

 

Good article. Leaning towards the Lunati Bracket Master II 214/224 .472/.496

 

I think that is the same cam the guy (DW) that owns the rear wheel dyno sheet used and the same one good for low 12s with a similar setup. One thing not generally known is many cams are the same copies across different companies, and their advertised specs may be a little different, to hide this fact. It seems to be a very good cam, though I run one slightly larger because of my lighter weight and higher compression. It would be closer to the "small cam" in the video.

 

All the 204/214, 214/224, and 224/234 cams are done by Camshaft Machine for a host of people under different brands. Those are all old GM lobes.
And not all “faster” lobes will fail in 10-20k miles. That’s an old wives tail.
However you do have to make sure you’re entire valve train is matched correctly.
The pieces I offer are designed to work together with stock type valvetrains and proven to do so for quite some time.
Verify your compression ratio, get a handle on EXACTLY what you want then go from there.