Travis Moore

Okay I have a 1972 Oldsmobile cutlass s 350, with 4bbl, Thornton headers, dual exhaust, dual electric radiator fans, built 200 4r transmission from performer built, posi 3.73 gearing.. And I was wondering what size aftermarket camshaft should I go with, stock engine with 7a heads. I just want a mild performance street car, I want that nice cam sound and torque, sorta Daily driver or cruiser. I just want to be able to punch it and it shows.. And new water pump. And 0.0038 head gaskets.

Fun71

If the engine has the original pistons, they have huge 24cc dishes and will give at best around 8:1 compression ratio. This means you can't go very large on the camshaft or you will hurt performance. You will have to decide on either "that nice cam sound" or "torque" as you won't be able to get both.

I recommend you get a cam with moderate duration (around 204º @ .050" lift) and as much lift as possible. That should give good torque.

olds 307 and 403

A custom tight LSA cam from Cutlassefi is the only cam to consider along with a new Cloyes Billet timing set and the cam degreed. You will be lucky to have 8 to 1 compression.

Fun71

Agreed. An 8:1 engine needs to build as much cylinder pressure as possible in order to make power.

coppercutlass

It dont take much to make em go. I had a stock 307 with a good tune and 650 double pumper and it ran amazing on the street for what it was. It would roast tires and was very quick for what it was. it had 3.73 gears and a 2400 stall with a th400.


You will soon find out that a simple cam swap sounds easy enough but realisticly you may as well freshen up the engine and or find a 73 350 to freshen up , have your heads milled and freshend up to gain some useable compression like 9 to 1 then you have a few option and will make a little more power.


I ran a 1973 350 with 72 7A heads and a comp 260 h cam and the car ran 13.8's with the exhaust on my 1972 cutlass. It comes down to what you wanna do and expectations. Its clear you want a little power but a simple cam swap will not IMO give you that power you want or expect.

With the 72 350 the biggest factor working against you is those toilet bowls they call pistons. The 73 350's all had 14 cc pistons 1970 and older had smaller dish varieties 14 cc, 7 cc and flat tops which are not as common in stock flavor but can be bought from speed pro but are heavy and out dated .

olds 307 and 403

All 73 to 80 had 14cc dish pistons, just 77 to 80 had the light weight windowed main web blocks. I am currently running 1970 #7 heads milled to 62-64cc, .028" head gaskets, a very good untouched 1976 Olds 350 short block, puts me right at 9 to 1 compression, along with a custom, degreed to specs 214/214 .472/.472 110 LSA cam from Cutlassefi with a Cloyes Street roller timing set. The Cloyes billet roller set fits better, has less slack and has more adjustment, they have discontinued my set, which is for the best, the extra $20 is worth it for the billet set.