Hello I've got a 355 with 882 casting heads,the cam I've got is a ertel and its "special". All I know about it is it pulls hard from 1900-5700rpm.
For my winter project I can get my hands on some cast iron after market vortec heads that are supposed to flow more than stock. Also looking at a cam swap to utilize these heads. Been looking at the ex274 for its rpm range 2500-6000rpm. Looking for advice from the vortec guys what cam turs these heads on? the rest of my combo will be performer vortec rpm, 600cfm edelbrock carb, dynomax shortie headers. Threw a th350, and 2.73 posi.

Acording to a lot of guys on the board the XE cams seem to respond well on the Vortec heads.
The 274 is one of them...

BUT NOT WITH 2.73 GEARS :eek:
That's way out of that cams operating range.
You might be able to get away with the 262 but it's not something I'd do.

You'd be much better off with the XE256 because of those gears.

When changing the cam the most important things to consider are the compression ratio and the gears.If they don't complement the cam, sad, dissapointing performance will be the result.

If you wanted to change those gears to a 3.73 or so and had AT LEAST 9.5:1 compression you could run the 274.
And if I'm not mistaken the Vortec heads need machining work when the cam lift is over 475.
I think that is.

You can run a search and find out.
Maybe if you used those new CompCams Bee Hive springs you wouldn't need machining work.

Dunno use the search...

Little big for a 350 and 2.73's.

Might go with a Lunati 272/272 Solid on a 112 LSA.
Or a 301A6LUN 221/221 276/276 Hyd.
You going to pick up about 1 point of CR with the head swap too.
If your already at 9-1, then you'll need to go bigger on the cam, XE274 minimum and change gears.

That's a good point about the raise in compression with the head swap.

If you end up with 9-9.5:1 with the head swap I would go with the 262, because of the gears.

I really don't think the 262 will get you into detonation with that compression.

what about a 2500 stall and the 2.73's i had 454 and 2100 stall in my prevous car and it was nuts. Before the 454 i had this 350 with 2.56 bone stock converter it was a dog off the line but not for long once she got rolling she'd blow most any thing off the road i like 80mph in 1st. I like the idea of getting peak a 6000 rpm thats why I'm looking at the ex274 or ex268 . With the stall and getting er to hook is somthing I wish i did with my first car. 2.73 and 2.56 should be quick they are more efficient gear its getting the power down. With the 454 my 1st car was crazy it would go door to door with a viper and top end fun too out on open road i had my Steward warner speedo past 155mph.

Oh also when I had the 350 rebuilt the heads were shaved and there was port work done. I think the compresion is near 9.5:1. The cam in it the "special" ertel likes the advance impossible to light set but is high ping under load then back off method but boy does it run good!
Thanks for the advise. I'm being a cement head about the gears because I can;t afford a 6spd at the moment. And high gears are the only alt,to not to bad milage 24mpg range. A friend of mine had a 4spd 4.11 car 350 as well and can;t keep up with me now.

I am running the EX256 with Vortecs and 3.08s. It will work fine with 2.73s. It makes power from 1000rpm to 5700rpm actually a really good combo for an auto and tall gears.