My plans to replace heads and cam on the 355 are moving forward. But I'm leaving the cam in for now just to see how it acts with the new heads. My question is how does the existing cam look to be compatiable with the new vortecs? I'm at 9 to 1 compresion with 75 CC heads and I'll be moving up to 10 to 1 with the 64 CC vortecs. Here are the cam specs:

.480 lift intake and exhaust
.292 adv.duration, .230 @ 50
109 degree Sep.
107 degree C/L

I've been told this cam is OK, but old school. :confused: How do you think it will perform with the new heads? It will be paired with headers, 3.55 gears, 5-speed, and a 600 CFM Eddy which ran in the high 13's. I'm looking for low 13's graemlins/hurray.gif

I have about that same cam except it's a Melling grind in my about 9.5 to 1 CR., 406 SB!! It is doggy out of the hole with my M-20, 3.31's and 26.5" tall, old-fashioned L-60/14's until she would hit about 25 to 3000 rpm..

Then she ran just fine!!

I figure it really needs at the minimum, 10 to 1 and preferrably 11 to 1 CR. to run it's best..

IMHO, it's too much cam for a 10 to 1 CR., 355" SB...

They make a 280/230, .480" lift hy- cam that would be a lot better, again, imho..

pdq67

I'm running that cam in a 355 with Sportsman II's an RPM Airgap and a 650 dp. It makes good power for a cheap cam and it does need 10 to 1 or more, I'm running 11:1 on pump gas with 38 degrees total timing. I'm running 4.30 gears with a 28" slick but when I was setting this rear end up I had a 3.55 posi in it and seemed to do ok. With an automatic trans, this cam needs a 3500 converter.

Vortecs are often 62cc. So a 280 @.006 will be fine. 11-1 would probably work better with your current cam.
Might try a 276/284 solid...

Thanks for the response guys. The car runs pretty well right now for having 9:1 compression what that cam. I think I'll just leave the cam alone and tune with the new heads to see what I can get out of it. It was pretty doggy out of the hole with a TH-350, but that problem was solved when I installed the Tremec 5-speed. Steep 1st gear = much more torque off the line!

No, same motor torque, just different gearing to make it seem peppier, that's all.

Drop the right smaller cam for your CR. in her AND she may just become EXPLOSIVE outta the hole!!

pdq67