I have this -72 Malibu 350 and she's in need of some more go...

The engine is fairly stock with just a Edelbrock Performer intake.
She also has a th350 tranny with stock converter and the rear is a posi 12bolt with somewhere likef 2.73 or 3.0 gears.
I'm going to add a pair of headers and now I'm thinking of sticking in a Edelbrock Performer camshaft I have lying.

Will it work or do I have too little compression?

regards.

R.D.

I have a similar setup to yours in my 69 Camaro: 1972 Stock 350, 600 cfm Holley Carburetor Eldelbrock Performer Intake and Dynomax Long Tube Headers with Dual Exhaust.

The only difference is that my rear end has a 3.73 Posi.

After several posts, I just place my order with Summit for a Crane Cams Energizer 266H, the price was right at $99 for the Cam and Lifters.

I should have it in the car in a week or so.

Good luck with your Cam selection,
Daniel.

If that is a Performer, and NOT a Performer RPM cam, it is practically made for a combo like yours.

I had one of those cams (204/214 @ 0.050) w/ 1.6 rockers, RPM intake, Q-jet, and headers in a 150k mile '78 350 short block. It was good for 14.2 @ 98 mph in a full weight '70 Nova with a TH350, stock converter, and 3.08 gears.

It's supposed to be a Performer cam.
When changing cam should I change springs/rockers as well?

The plan is to do a quick 'n dirty stick-it-in kinda swap.
I'm going for a new timing chain though...

thanks guys!

R.D.

It would be a good idea to change springs, although that cam is "lazy" enough that you can get by with stockers if they are in good shape (low miles without a lot of over-rev abuse). I was running fresh stock replacements with mine.

That cam LOVES 1.6 rockers. I'd highly recommend the comp magnum 1.6's. One thing to watch though... often the pushrods will rub against the pushrod holes in the heads when you switch to 1.6 rockers. Mine were OK, and did not require clearancing, however, you gotta be careful, as all engines are not the same.

If this is a "quick and dirty" job, you might as well reuse your stock rockers for now. You can always upgrade to something else easily on that car.

Ihave no idea in what shape the springs are.. probably not too good. She's got over 40.000 kilometers on the odometer..
Probably a good idea to change them aswell, ut then I have to pull the heads and from there things really would get out of hand...

Thanks novadude!

//R.D.

The reason it likes the 1.6 is that the acceleration is greater, and the Performer isn't an intense lobe at all. Better than stock, for sure. Please do make sure your cam is installed advanced, else I'm afraid you'd lose too much cylinder pressure.

Look up Harold's Quick and Dirty method. You might have to drill out the pin locator hole and bush it is all. Defintely use the +4 keyway on your new timing set if it comes that way.

If I'm correct the 1.6 rockers will enhance both lift and duration, correct? And advancing the cam +4 makes the exh. valve close earlier to build up more cyl. preassure?

It sounds like a really good idea to swap in 1.6 rockers.
But, then I definetly need to change valvesprings and if I do that the heads have to be pulled and I know this guy who's really good at porting heads.... things would get waaaay out of hand :D

thanks!

R.D.

I was running 1.6 rockers with stock GM springs (the basic 80 lb seat pressure ones). The stock springs had about 30k miles on them with this cam when I added the 1.6's. I never really saw any float.

This cam with stock heads will "sign off" at 5k rpm, so hi-revs are not a concern. With the lazy ramps, I would think you'd be fine with stock springs provided you have a relatively low mile engine and the springs are not already shot, especially with stock rockers.

BTW... you can swap springs without pulling heads.

Sounds good, NovaDude!

But, changing the springs without pulling the head?
I'm fairly new att wrenching so how do you do it?

//R.D.