Globeguy

Hey guy's I was wondering in all of your experience's who makes a good w 30 like camshaft for a 455 rebuild in my 66 442 ? Any and all suggestion for a 375 - 400 hp rebuild would be helpful . this is going to be a street cruiser only. Thanks for your input

cutlassefi

Me

I have some more modern grinds that will still work with your stock valvetrain. Thanks!

Mark

R-body_mopar

As an oldtime Olds guy, I can only offer my limited opinion; I had 2 1970 442's with 455 engines, both 4-speeds; one was a W-25 with stock cam, and was great for everyday driving. The W-30 car I bought had cam problems (three bad lobes), and I decided to rebuild the other engine, and swap.

I bought a factory W-30 Olds cam for the rebuild, and did the whole 9 yards with rebuild, bored .030" over, new HC forged pistons, competition 3 angle valve job, proper valve springs, new everything. I drove the car for two years as a daily driver.....but, in my climate (upstate NY), the W-30 cam was a little too finicky in cold weather, and I spent most of my time cleaning/replacing spark plugs; finally swapped back to the stock 442 4 speed cam, and it was extremely driveable!! The 455 has TONS of torque, but the W-30 cam really wakes it up above 3000 rpm's.....like you hit a button for "boost" on the dash...! Anything below that is a hassle on the street, which is where most of my driving was!

I guess it depends on just what you consider to be a street cruiser, as I assume you are not going to drive in bad and/or cold weather??

As for aftermarket cams, I can't supply any info, but I'm sure many people here will have suggestions!

One big thing to take into consideration is the available fuel, as this will seriously affect your choices for cam, timing, compression, etc.

I spent many hours trying to find suitable fuel, from racing fuel (Sunoco Cam 2), avgas, real tetraethyl lead additives.......on and on!

I know.....not much help.....just food for thought!

507OLDS

Are you looking for the right sound?
I would not build a modern engine with yesterday's technology.There is a very wide variety of cam grinds out there today,plus you can even have one ground for your application.You can make better power,better drivability,and yet,still get the sound you are looking for.I have some of the original W30 cams from some of my cars,but I did not,and will not put them back in there,simply because there is a better alternative out there.

Run to Rund

Comp Cams makes both an exact reproduction of the W31/early W30 cam, and modern grinds in the same size range.

Mikes442

I'm with Joe on this.
There are really 2 W-30 cams.
One is the 328 degree 4 speed cam(1970)
and the other is the 308 degree W-30 Automatic or W-31 cam(more street able).


Mike

Joeolds71

I agree with most of the above. There are a lot of modern grinds that work so much better than the single pattern 70 w30 4 speed cam. I actually have a new one of these (w30 4 spd cam) that I didn't want to use. It was made by melling and installed in a motor that I bought from a guy that never installed because his car burned up. I pulled it and installed a dual pattern cam 280/290 adv duration .472/.496 lift which works really well.

costpenn

I have about 5 of the EPC manufactured early W-30/W-31 402194 cams left. If you are interested in one let me know.

costpenn

Mike, I think the W-30 auto cam is the 400165 cam that is the 294 degree job.

BlackGold

It's more complicated than that. All depends on what year you're talking about.

Aquaholic

Hey guys ... I just signed up after coming across this thread.

I have a buget build going on and the cam in my short block is the W-30 cam.

I wanted to keep the cam too ...

How much of a difference are we really talking about from 'the newer grinds'

oldsmobiledave

More than enough to justify pulling your cam. Modern day grinds are far superior to anything OEM. The cam is the heart & soul of your engine and needs to be matched to your heads, intake, carb, converter & gear ratio to ensure a balanced well performing drivetrain.