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Old 04-06-2005, 07:49 PM
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b-man b-man is offline
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The RAIV cam in a 'cruiser 400' would be a mistake.

Your factory-rated standard 350 HP GTO 400 enginereally didn't make 350 honest horses to begin with. The factory gross HP ratings were a bit optimistic, the output was actually closer to 300-310 HP believe it or not.

400 to 425 HP with stock exhaust manifolds isn't going to happen I'm afraid.

But you can get the engine up to a 'true' 350 HP with a good cam, a re-curved distributor and free-flowing mufflers. Walker Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers (#17749 20" long)are fairly quiet and flow better than noisy Flowmasters.

And drop the compression a bit as dragncar suggests, trying to run over 10:1 compression with iron heads is difficult and ends up ruining many engines.

Get a custom-built Continental converter, I ordered a 10" unit for my current 400 street engine build-up.

Some interesting threads concerning 400 cams and such by Cliff Ruggles.

__________________
1964 Tempest Coupe LS3/4L70E/3.42
1964 Le Mans Convertible 421 HO/TH350/3.08
2002 WS6 Convertible LS1/4L60E/3.23
1966 VW Type 2 Single Cab Pickup 140hp 2276
1956 VW Type 2 Panel Van 36hp 1200
1957 VW Type 1 Beetle 180hp 2276