Navarrat619@gmail.com

Hey everyone. Well, I'm building a 1970 cutlass supreme. I'm essentially going for a race car that has air conditioning. I live in south Texas so i will be needing my AC.

I've got a 70-72 F block 455 bored .030 over
18cc dished forged aluminum pistons

I have a set of C casting heads that are fresh from the machine shop. I don't know much about what was done to them but it looks to me like they had some port matching on the intake side and the full smoothing porting on the exhaust side. The heads also appear to have been milled down.

I'll be running a ProComp air gap intake and going with fuel injection. Probably FiTechs 600 hp system.

I also have a pair of x and z casting exhaust manifolds.

Pretty much just need to beat the pants out of a 396 ss nova.

Any advice is appreciated and if there is any interest i can take pictures of the motor or car/project.

Fun71

I think you need to know the compression ratio before you can select an appropriate camshaft.

Since the heads are off it should be easy to measure the combustion chamber volume as well as how far the pistons are below the block deck. These measurements will be crucial to calculating the CR.

Navarrat619@gmail.com

Thanks for the tip. I'll figure out how to do that. According to the piston specs it should be 9.3 compression with 80 cc heads.

cutlassefi

What gear, trans, and cam are going to run?

Navarrat619@gmail.com

Trans is a th 350. Gears I think somewhere around 373 although it probably has 273 currently. The cam is what I was hoping for some guidance on.

Firewalker

Maybe you had better tell us about this "396 Nova" and the guy that owns it, including his age. Does he have a rep?

Navarrat619@gmail.com

It's my step dad and his 1968 nova ss 396 clone. It's the High hp 396. He thinks it's close to 400hp. It's all stock solid lifter motor with High flow stock manifolds. He has EFI. 4 speed Muncie M22. 373 10 bolt open differential.

My step dad is 53 I think. His car is basically a garage ornament. Also he missed 3 gear last time he got on it. I wouldn't exactly say he has a rep lol.

I'm 31 if it matters. I daily drive a hemi police package charger. It gets 26 mpg if you drive it like a normal human.

Firewalker

Thats a little better picture though still a little foggy. That might be a 396 or it might be over 500 cubes. He sounds like he has plenty of power, but if he is like most his weakness is getting off the line and he will depend on his top end charge to catch anyone. If you can get him out of the hole and put enough car lengths on him he will not catch you. Low and midrange power is your strength. Suspension, and the right tires, and converter with a smallish cam.

But I would just play with him rather than running him. Its easier and cheaper. A race from a dead stop, to 30 or 60 can be quiet enjoyable and over in seconds. If you have 3 or 5 car lengths on him when you get out of it...He may come flying by but the race is over, and he knows you had him LOL

215-220 duration at .050, plus a good 3000 stall converter. 9 inch slicks about 28 inches tall and about a 4.66 gear in back should do it for southern Texas. Front suspension loose to pull the front wheels. Just no fast cornering LOL Your power will be in the 4500-5000 range tops. Play to that strength and shift.

Run to Rund

Comp Cams XE 268 or 274 but have them custom grind it on 112 degree lobe centers.

Navarrat619@gmail.com

Thanks for the input guys. It's all been helpful. I'm at work and doing what research I can without getting hassled. I discovered the xe 268 like you said. Will the custom lsa grind be a noticeable difference? The 112 versus the 110 regular grind? Is it an extra cost for a custom grind?

Firewalker

I think the 268 at 110 would be fine. One thing you have to remember is that mean sound of race cars is overlap. The bleeding off of intake and exhaust (overlap), and is really meant for higher rpms. It hurts mileage and vacuum, and low end torque moving it higher in the rpms. Better to have a small cam then a big one on the street, and they can go well into the 11s in a 455. This cam is even smaller yet hits 11s in a well set up 455

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

Is also widely available, and even companies like Mellings have it. It is 112 and less duration than the 268 XE.

My442

Headers - Engle EP 22-25

Manifolds - Engle EP 20-22

Both are great street cams.

You will need the right rear gear, converter (if auto), carb and distributor curve to optimize.

cutlassefi

Most of the generic stuff is on the lazy side. That doesn't necessarily show up on the dyno.
What you hear with a "wild" camshaft is actually the combustion process, based on whether or not you have ample cyl pressure. Lots of overlap with no cylinder pressure will sound like your grandmas' Cutlass Ciera.

Firewalker

That cam runs 11s, in DW's J headed 455 with a Quadrajet. It has trial by fire, and not advertising claims of new and better. High vacuum and good gas mileage.

cutlassefi

I know I've heard. I said most.