first off thanks harold for the cam specs. i plan on using them when i can afford to rebuild the motor for performance and do it right.


i have just found a flat cam lobe in my 454. i don't have alot of cash so i am replacing it with a freebie erson cam given to me. it has the cam, lifters, timming cover gasket, oil pan gasket, water pump gaskets, intake and valve cover gaskets included so i got everything for free. well it was all originally bought for the elky by the previous owner and he felt bad for me so he went ahead and gave it to me. i was wondering if anyone can tell me what it will be like and how it will perform. i want to know if it will give a lope at idle or at least be noticed. and will it be a good performance cam till i can get something else in there later down the road. any hp/tq guess would be great. thanks in advance. i just want to really be able to drive her around and start enjoying it. motor build will be a BSE build when money allows. but till then this freebie stuff will have to work.

motor specs :

454 bored .030
stock big oval 049 casting heads
flat top pistons
edelbrock performer intake
holley 750 cfm carb (3310)
hooker super comp headers

Cam Specs :

Erson rv15h
lift intake/exaust : 492/492
duration advertised : 288/288
duration @ .050 : 214/214
Lobe Center : 112
Advance: 4

Car Specs

73 elcamino
turbo 400 tranny
stock converter
2.72 open diff (soon to be 3.73 posi)
3860 lbs

Thats a very mild cam for a 454,esp when you get the 373's you say your going to install.

But for free but it's not bad,it's a mild low perf high torque cam that will run well & idle smooth. It will not rpm very high,and can't take a lot of comp so be sure your compression is no too high for that cam or you will have too high cylender pressure resulting in detination woe's.

Call Harold @ Lunati cams (Cam expert) for advice,see post in this Performance forum titled (Need BBC cam,Lunati/comp) by Dale McIntosh on 10/06/03 for Harolds phone # in the replys.

Scott

Well, it doesn't sound horrible. It is a small enough cam it should make lots of torque especially since you have pretty low compression with the flat tops and open chamber heads. I think that since this is more of an interim cam you could have done worse.

Daniel

FOr a freebie, it's not bad. Your compression must be dreadfully low, so even if go even modest on the cam, you'll lose torque.

Make sure you stick this cam in ADVANCED. It seems there's 4 on the cam, another 2 would be fine. All to build some cyllinder pressure.

well i was just trying to figure it out. i know it is not gonna be a killer engine combo but i at least wanted some tire smoking tq and decent power. will it make ant kinda noise to let me know there is a cam or will it be dead smooth? why advance it? i don't have a degree wheel. i was just gonna install it straight up.

Unfotunately thats a mild cam for a 454 and it will not have a lopey authoritative idle.

For ex,your cam is 214 deg dur @ .05,112 deg L/S,i have 222 deg dur @ .05,112 deg L/A in a 402 (approx 50 cubes less) that idles basically smooth but does have the lopey luggy idle that lets you know the cam is not stock. and sounds kind of mean.

But with your 214 deg @ .05 in your 50 cubes larger motor it's just not going to be a hot sounding performing cam no matter how you look at it.

In your 454 you would need a cam like approx 228-230 deg dur @ .05 ,110-112 deg L/S to get into that lopey hot idle sound and if you wanted a choppy idle you would need to increase the int due to lets say the 236-240 range and up with the 110-112 L/S or just reduce the L/S a to 108 if you did not want to increase the int duration all of which your E.F.I would not like much at all.

BUT,with your fairly low comp flat tops/open chambered heads some of these cams may bleed off a little too much comp so you would need variable duration lifters to inc the manifold vac at lower motor speeds so keep that in mind too.

My 402 (with approx 9:8:1 comp) idles at 15 inches with the 222 @ .05 ,112 L/S so your 50 cubes more 454 could easily idle with 16-18 inches on vac with lets say 230 with the 112 L/S and i believe 16-18 inches at idle would be enough for the E.F.I. to work with,call the mfg for the ans to that question.

Installing that RV cam straight up should be ok to do.

It will have decent to very good low end torque but again it's a low rpm low perf RV cam in a 454 and thats it.

By the way,what was the cam and specs that you were currently running in the car before it wore out on you?

Scott

the old cam that went flat had these specs
hyd flat tappet
@0.50
INT / EX
.563 .563 lift
230 230 Dur
107 111 centerline
115 spread

Timming events

Intake
opens 37 btc
closes 75 abc
Duration 292

Exaust
opens 75 bbc
closes 37 atc
Duration 292


I want it to run good with the new cam till i can build better combo. but i was trying to figure out if it will get me by and at least smoke some tires and give hondas a hard time and some domestics from the red light.

Anyone can i get a desktop dyno for my combo with the erson cam? i would kinda like to see what is is like

That cam will probably give you more than the one that went flat did. You must be running around 8:1 compression with those pistons and heads. You should be running 063 or 215 heads with those pistons. Closed chamber heads would work better in your application I think.

Before your old cam went flat it would hands down perf much better than the cam you want to install.

The cam you want to install will be torquey and likely be able to burn some rubber but it will run out of staem real quick in that 454 compaired to the old cam before it wore out.

Your old cam was not that large for a 454 but it had enough cam timing for some decnt low to mid level perf,but the new cam will not do this.

You will be loosing a fair amount of intake dur and lift with the new cam,you seem to want the car to perf almost as well with the new mild RV cam which it CAN'T do,there is just not enough cam timing (dur & lift) for that 454 to do anything with.

This is a fairly low rpm torque type RV cam in a 454,and compaired to what used to be in that motor it is not going to match that performance that is assuming you had enough comp in that motor with the flatops & large chambered heads to get the full performance capabilities from your old cam before it wore out.

The bottom line is the cam timing is too short on your new cam to expect much from it compaired to the cam it's replacing before it wore out.

This cam will idle very smooth with no autoritative/loppey idle,will not rpm very high,and will run out of steam quickly when your on it,approx flat after 3800-4k
+- in your 454.

Scott

If it makes you feel any better, back in about '90 I threw a low buck 454 together that eventually ended up in a '73 Camaro. It was a high mileage stock '78 truck 454 with 781 heads (no compression...probably 8.0-1), a performer intake, stock '78 truck q-jet, 1 3/4" headers with dual 2 1/4" exhaust (already on the car), and a cheap 214/224@.050, .501/.527 lift, 112 lsa/107 ica hydraulic cam. The idle was very mild...just the faintest hint of lope. But, with a th350, stock convertor, and a factory 2.73 posi rear, at 1/4 throttle taking off from a stoplight it would wiggle all the lane you was in. At 1/2 throttle it would just sit there in a cloud of tire smoke. This was with 235/60-15 radials. Your car should respond about the same.

i know it will not perform like the old cam. i have no clue as to how the old cam ran cause the cam has been flat since i had it. i am wanting the new cam as little as it may be to get me back on the road. i have plans in the next year or so to build the BSE engine. as of right now i want to drive and enjoy the car. i know it wont be a 12 sec car but i hope it will still get up and move for what it is. i was just looking for a estimate on power and idle.


Can someone dyno this for me so i can get an idea od what is going on. i know not real accurate but i would like to see anyways.

thanks again for your suggestions and now i hope the install goes well on friday. i have never got to really drive her around so i am excited even with the little cam to get her out and about. that is why i am willing to sacrafice the cam right now. it is more important to get out and just drive her. she has been sitting for 10 years and with the 2.73 the highway is calling me.

SWHEATON;
I agree with you about the other cam being a much better performance cam, the point that I was making is that with his low compression I think that the small cam would improve low end response which was probably weak before.It would give good low end but run out on top,the other cam was probably soft down low and couldn't show it's power on top due to low compression.

CornBread, run a search on Harold's " quick and dirty degree method ". You don;t need a dgree wheel. I did it "quick and dirty" and then double checked with a wheel.

PHEL69,(OOOPPPSSS)you caught me sleeping,i missed the part about the flatops & large chambers in this post which in deed results in low comp as you stated.

The shorter 214 @.05 cam with a wider L/S would likely perform better with the low compression compaired to his old 230 @ .05 cam with a tighter L/S angle which should be very torque'y and melt some tires.

As you said the 230 cam would run out of steam on the top end due to the low compression where it would normally shine with higher comp like 9:5:1-10:1.

Scott