I have a 454 BBC bored .030. I have flat top pistons and no heads yet. I have a 291 hydrolic roller cam from comp cams thumpr line. What should I do? please vote and then explain your reasoning or give me some new ideas. The reason i am unsure of what i have is the compression ratio may be low. I am going for a good tourquey motor with plenty of power too

1) get rid of the Comp Cams cast iron roller cam. Get something in billet steel with iron distributor gear.

2) get small chamber aluminum heads.

3) buy Goodyear stock

This is all to be done a pretty tight budget

the budget will be completely blown if that iron roller cam sheds a lobe or two and trashes your new engine. Search this forum for issues related to those cams and think about it. There's no shortage of info on it. Sell it, buy a real cam. You're only out the difference, not the whole cost of a roller cam.

Use different heads & a different cam.
Same reasoning as Tom.

didn't vote, what about the edelbrock 100cc heads and a different cam

???is the shortblock assembled already???

I have a set or .030 over L2465's with only a few thousand miles, PM me if interested, they may have a larger dome than what you're looking for

Years ago I bought a cast iron Crower roller cam kit. Cam lasted a couple thousand miles and was flat, tossed the cam used the rollers in anther project.
My current car, 454 .070 over, KB pistons that have a small dome, Edlebrock head, ratio came to 9.6. Crane steel billet hydralic roller, can't recall the specs but mild. Headers quadrajet, HEI recurved, Turbo 350 & 3;31 rearend, very very nice driver. I have only stepped on it before the trans shifted to second one time, gets a bit violent. Somebody else shurly has more power but my focus has been on making it drive perfect and its close!

How can i tell if a cam is cast iron or not? also will the lifters i have work with any hydraulic roller if i was to change?

would i be alright with what i have (maybe cam down a little bit) and use these heads http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku ? they will give me CR of 8.7:1

How can i tell if a cam is cast iron or not? also will the lifters i have work with any hydraulic roller if i was to change?

Is it machined between the lobes, or does it have a rough cast look to it? Billet cams will also be much heavier.

Also, that link doesn't work.

here is the link http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=EDL-60499&N=700+400065+4294908216+4294840133+4294867081+4294 784388+115&autoview=sku

what's the part number of the cam? if it ends in -8 it's the iron version.

I wasn't aware that Crower had ever marketed an iron roller cam. Can anybody reading this verify that, yes or no?

11-601-8
It's iron.

I think those heads would be great in your application. Especially with a short duration roller cam, either hydraulic or solid. I'll bet the valve springs on those heads are set up for a hydraulic roller but I would ask Edelbrock directly about the valve springs. Don't ask the phones help at Summit.

I'd run a non-roller cam and lifters from a quality vendor like Crower or Crane before that iron roller. Still need to find out about the springs first though.

OK .. I guess I'll be the disenter(sp?) Anyway, I bought a car that has the Big Muther Thumpr cam in it (468) I have no complaints and have had no problems with the setup. I agree that you will need more compression to run that cam (but more is always better , right?) The power with the cam is good, although the idle is pretty radical and vaccuum is low (about 9 at idle) I never take my car to the strip (at least not yet anyway) so the cam works fine for me. You should take all this with a grain of salt and do what suits your needs.