What should I do now?? Something is definetly wrong...(Camshaft Question)

Well, I put on the new balancer and found my timing to be at 18* so I brought it down and have been playing with it, but nothing near the power I should have.

My cam specs are (.480/.500) lift, with (210/218) duration....

I know the stock cam isn't that much different in duration, so im wondering if I should sell my cam that I have and put in a E303 Cam and maybe advance it 4*... anybody think that would be good? I need more pull between idle and 4500, after that this cam is alright, but it just doesn't have anything... it sucks. What do you guys think?
 
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By the time you spend more money and take out your existing cam and replace it with another cam that you "Hope" will work, I would just spend a little bit more and call either Ed Curtis or Buddy Rawls and get a custom cam that will make even more power than the E cam and you "Know Will" work.

Just an idea.
 
what did I tell you in a previous post....CALL THE TECH LINE OF THESE CAM COMPANIES..... I work in autoparts all day and if your having difficulties with a cam call Isky and quiz THEM about your cam profile ... If you need a custom grind call Crane and see what they recommend for what your looking for...If you keep asking here youll get opinions and not facts (sorry guys) , you need to make decisions for yourself based on information that you gather....IF YOU DONT YOUR CAR WILL BE ETERNALLY SLOW.
 
Nutzy19 says "If you keep asking here youll get opinions and not facts "...

I do not agree with that...

Anyways the cam you selected is obviously exhaust bias...and doesn't seem like to "hot" (ideal) of a setup for your mods...

Go custom if you can swing it:nice:

I'm very happy with mine...more torque than stock...and revs much quicker and is my 110% daily driver at 24mpg and I didn't even tell him I wanted good gas mileage...:)
 
Nutzy19 said:
If you need a custom grind call Crane and see what they recommend for what your looking for...If you keep asking here youll get opinions and not facts (sorry guys) , you need to make decisions for yourself based on information that you gather....IF YOU DONT YOUR CAR WILL BE ETERNALLY SLOW.
Crane could possibly give him a good cam choice, but people like Ed Curtis and Buddy Rawls can give you even better advice than even Crane....
 
89sleeper is right I was just naming a few.....and as I said before 5psd Gt , its your opinion that his setup is biased towards exhaust and your happier with a custom grind which may not be the case for crunchie.....
 
does it have good bottom end at 18 degrees , mine has the GT40 Y303 heads an it takes 19 base timing which is about 38 or so total timing to get any bottom end power out of it , but its doesnt ping a bit ....ive heard of people running 40 degrees total before .....every engine is different so you might have to have the timing up that far
 
when I backed it down a bit I noticed a very small amount of bottom end. Would it be possible that I would have to back it down more? I can't tell the difference between pinging and my exhaust. It just sounds like a chugging sound, but underneath that there could be pinging. Right now my timing is at 15*.... Should I try moving it up more? I just don't want to ping, and I don't know if I could here it.
 
Nutzy19 said:
89sleeper is right I was just naming a few.....and as I said before 5psd Gt , its your opinion that his setup is biased towards exhaust and your happier with a custom grind which may not be the case for crunchie.....

Well if you look at this duration numbers it is biased towards the exhaust (almost a blower like cam)...

Almost anyone you talk to is going to suggest a custom over your regular OTS...for reasons in the name (CUSTOM) - for YOUR car... :nice: Not much to argue over that...

The thing with custom cam grinders is they work on your type engines all day as their career. An OTS grinder will have to spread their knowledge over a vast majority of different setups and abilities of an engine. Why not get a specific pro to do it? (aka. custom cam)...
 
vristang said:
Maybe the cam went in one tooth off? This would be my first guess if I had done the job.:( Just my luck maybe?

You can't install a cam one tooth off...maybe you were referring to the mating of the distributor gear to the cam gear...I think that is a myth about being "a tooth off"...but I didn't have to mess with that so I don't know...mine worked :shrug:
 
at this point its just more beneficial to GET A DIFFERENT CAM.....whatever it may be e303 b303 f303 x303 Crane Lunati Isky Comp Cams.....5spd GT is right about that looking like a blower cam with larger exhaust duration...what made you choose that cam???
 
vristang said:
Maybe the cam went in one tooth off? This would be my first guess if I had done the job.:( Just my luck maybe?
:doh: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:
What I meant to say was maybe the dist was off.

If the dist. timing wasn't matched correctly to the cam and crank timing wouldn't that give erroneous timing readings? I would think that you would be able to twist the dist to get the car running well (assuming it wasn't so far off that the dist. hit on something), but wouldn't the readings from a timing gun be nonsensical if this were the case? If I am wrong on this please straighten me out. Then again, I haven't used a timing gun in years, I just listened to how it was running.

crunchie12268: You said that the motor ran better when you backed the timing down. How far did you take it?

If there is nothing wrong with the installation and you are simply not happy with the power, then definitely look into a custom cam. I got one from Comp Cams, that I designed (give or take as they have certain lift and duration combos that are available). The hyd roller cam cost $309 delivered, and was at my house in less than a week. I wouldn't even think about buying a new cam though until you were certain that the installation was done properly.

I personally would not use that small of a duration, unless you are limited by racing class regulations.