[Cliff R]

"Cliff - how did this XE 274 iron head combo run as well as it did?"

It's the vehicle set-up (full race) complimented by decent power from a big cid engine, ie Pontiac 455. The combination leaves really hard, which makes running good times a lot easier even if the engine were stone stock 455, how hard is that to figure out?

For some reason that I can't figure out, the same points/examples are brought up here again and again? They are NOT examples of great success, at least IMHO, just decent examples of average success with those cams. The numbers don't show me anything better, if as good as what we make with similiar sized cams from other manufacturers.

I can buy the Crane 234/244/112, Ultradyne 231/239/112, Crower 60919, or Melling 041 grind, and make right at 450-460 hp in a very "basic" 455 build with 220-230cfm head flow (iron heads).

Any of those cams will be near, at or just over 500hp with KRE 85cc aluminum "D" port heads, unported.

Any of those cams will also make right at 500hp with unported 87cc Edelbrock heads.

If the owner of the vehicle has any clue as to how to set up the vehicle to use the power, they will be in the 11's with any of the 500hp engines at 3700-4000lbs race weight, and high 11's to low 12's with the iron heads.

We built and dyno'd the early KRE 455 pump gas street engine that they offer. It was a plain old 455 build, zero deck, with untouched 87cc Edelbrock heads. The Crower 60919 cam was installed, and it cranked out 505hp/551tq. It went into a 71 Firebird, and ran 11.50's at 118mph at the track and was driven back and forth the day it posted those times. No big feat, but it clearly shows that 500hp will run 11's if your car can use the power.

So if/when pull specific examples from my memory banks, as the day we were waiting in line for my turn for the dyno, while they thrash away on a 455 with ported 7K3 heads, XE284 camshaft, single plane intake, 850cfm carb, and can BARELY make 430hp/499tq......it's worth mentioning here.

It's also worth mentioning that we have ONE customer with 10 to 1 compression and iron heads, mildly ported, running an XE274 camshaft making 480hp and over 550tq. So not all of the examples I've seen are as bad as the two other dyno sheets we had sent here where the exact same combination of parts barely made 400hp and were both DONE at 4900rpm's.

Darn it, there I go again, listing DIRECT examples that I didn't build here, so it's 2nd or 3rd hand information, just like the Super Duty 455 talked about on here recently that was DONE at 4900rpm's with the XE274 camshaft....and made a LOT less power and torque than the one we built here, and it was STONE STOCK everyplace, except for being zero decked and used a 230/242/112 cam of my own choosing.

IF the 455 SD I built would have quit at 4900rpm's with a [email protected]" cam of my choosing, I would have pulled the cam out and thrown it out back of the dyno shop for the dairy cows to piss on.....then put a REAL cam in it!....LOL.....Cliff