[mikegernes]

In the process of building a 455. Pistons will be 30 over. 96 Dport heads. Motor will go in a 1968 Firebird with 4 spd and 3.36 rear gear. I will just be using the car for shows and cruises. Pulling my numbers matching 400 out. I am looking for the best cam recommendations. Can someone point me in the correct direction?

[Dragncar]

The "best" ? Kind of a loaded question. You can spend a lot of money on a hyd roller and the good lifters are very expensive.
Or you could just stick a 2802 in her with some good lifters. But its a little bit of a crap shoot with hft cams.
But, if you take your time, do Mikes new trick where you put just the cam/lifters in dry and rotate the engine by hand making sure they all spin. Take your inner springs out and have all your ducks in a row with timing, carb and ignition making sure it fires instantly. 2500 RPM for 20 minutes you should be OK.
But there is something to be said for a roller cam where you don,t have to deal with all that.
Then there is the hyd tick deal with those. And if they fail your block could be junk.
Like I said, loaded question.
And there you have the reasons I am a solid lifter cam guy.

[Kenth]

Welcome to the Forums!
I´m using a factory 744 cam in my 462 w/96 heads, TH400 and 3.55.
It´s mellow as a kitten.
If i´d built it today i would have chosen the 041 cam with/regular lifters and Crower 68404-16 valve springs, to reduce the wild spinning tires at take off.

[steve25]

Before you release any green out of your wallet for any Cam or lifter set up take an old lifter and confirm that none of your lifter bores allow the lifter to wobble more then a few thousands.

If need be buy a new lifter to confirm your bores.
A worn bore will not work with either a flat tappet lifter or a hydro roller lifter for very long!

If you have more then .0018” clearance with a new show up with a test using a new lifter then either go with a hydro roller Cam or get +.001” flat tappet lifters to use.

Keep in mind that .0018” side clearance on a round object in a bore means almost .006” of rock / wobble.

A lot of folks wonder why there oil pressure is on the low side and or they do not have much oil coming up out of the push rods and excess lifter to bore clearance is many times the root cause.


Here’s the stock flow numbers for those #96 castings taken @28”.

If you run a Cam of .500” lift and 225 intake duration @ .050” you should make 415 hp without a problem (as long as your compression is up to 9 to 1 )and even with the stock iron intake manifold.
You WILL need headers, if not then a duel pattern Cam should be used.


Intake flow .
.050”——-39.5
.100”——-75.8
.200”——-135.3
.300”——-177.5
.400”——-198.8
.450”——-203.7
.500”——-206
.550”——-208.4
.600”——-209.8
Exh flow
End port tested.

.100”——-50.2
.200”——-95
.300”——-128
.400”——-148.4
.450”——-152.9
.500”——-161
.550”——-163.7
.600”——-166.4
.650”——-168.2
Retest at .650” lift with exh tube.
—————184.6
The heads overall exh to intake ratio from .100” lift to .500” is 73.7%.

As long as you run headers you then do not need to run a duel pattern Cam, as this will help you to make a tad more cylinder pressure with less compression.
so keep that in mind when choosing a Cam.


If a bowl porting job is done then all of this ratio stuff will change.

[mikegernes]

Thanks for the replies so far. Steve25,
I have always hated headers, with that being said. Car already has the long branch cast manifolds. Lifter bores are all good. No budget for a roller set up. Any tips with this new information?

[Cliff R]

"I´m using a factory 744 cam in my 462 w/96 heads, TH400 and 3.55.
It´s mellow as a kitten.
If i´d built it today i would have chosen the 041 cam with/regular lifters"

+2 for that cam choice plus I would deck and square the block, mill the heads a good bit, and establish tight quench and get the static compression ratio up towards 10 to 1 vs down around 9 to 1.

You will be nicely rewarded with close to 1hp/CID, plenty of vacuum at idle speed for power brakes, and a very good running engine that will be fine on pump fuel.......

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

"I´m using a factory 744 cam in my 462 w/96 heads, TH400 and 3.55.
It´s mellow as a kitten.
If i´d built it today i would have chosen the 041 cam with/regular lifters"

+2 for that cam choice plus I would deck and square the block, mill the heads a good bit, and establish tight quench and get the static compression ratio up towards 10 to 1 vs down around 9 to 1.

You will be nicely rewarded with close to 1hp/CID, plenty of vacuum at idle speed for power brakes, and a very good running engine that will be fine on pump fuel.......

+ 3

This is a "Tried and True" combination over the years, and you'll be happy with it. I have a similar recipe with a 462 with 6X-8 heads, RA manifolds, 041 RAIV clone cam (HLJ lifters) with 9.5 to 1 compression, Q-jet on a factory iron intake and it still annihilates the tires from idle...so much fun! It wasn't dyno'd, but compared to other 455's we've built, dyno'd and raced, it makes more power everywhere. I believe the 1 hp/cu. in. easily, has more than enough vacuum for the power brakes, and runs great on 93 pump gas.

Dennis

[JB Eng Wis]

Any thoughts on CROWERs 60243 (228* / 235* 112*LS) Maybe dont need to raise the compression to 10:1
Any thoughts Cliff ????
I have that in a 462 w/ 6x-4..... But has not hit the Dyno as of yet...

[Gary H]

I'd go with either the 60243 mentioned above or the 60919, Crower's version of the RA 4 cam. According to Crower, their cam cores are made in the USA, unlike some others. Also, I would recommend Hy-lyft Johnson lifters

[Jay S]

My first pick would be a Bullet racing cams Ultradyne grind, 288/296, .0045”, 231/[email protected] with a 112 LSA.

For something off the shelf though, my opinion is the same as Gary H, I would pick the 60919 or a 60243 most of the time. The Crower 60919’s would be my pick over a 60243. The 60919s I have done didn’t need more than 9 to 9.5 compression in a 455 (easy target with 96 heads and a 455). The only reason you would want a 60243 instead of a 60919 is if you want an extra smooth idle, there is really not a noticeable difference in compression or octane between the two cams. If you want a choppier idle or would like to do some milling and push the compression closer to 10 the RA4 copy Melling SPC-8 is a better choice.

If you had an old twenty something year old Crower 60919 results are likely different.

[Cliff R]

"Any thoughts on CROWERs 60243 (228* / 235* 112*LS) Maybe dont need to raise the compression to 10:1
Any thoughts Cliff ????"

I've used that cam many times in 400 builds, but never in a 455, so not able to provide direct experience with it.

I've seen the 60243 and the 2802 used in 455 builds with moderate compression and factory iron heads. Neither one have enough duration to push the big 455 power levels past 5000rpm's, especially if you outfit your engine will good flowing heads.

Right on the dyno a 455 I built here with the old style 87cc Edelbrock round port heads made 505hp/551tq with peak HP at 5100rpms. So a smaller cam like the 60243 or 2802 will come up shy of those numbers and finish sooner.

I've also witnessed dyno runs with the Ultradyne 231/239/110 cam in 455 builds. It's right on par with the RAIV cam for power and vehicle performance, just has a little more "attitude" at idle speed.......

[mikegernes]

In 2004 I built a 1968 400 stroker motor. #16 d ports and used a comp cam 51-224-4 made 500( low 499 high 508) torque between 3100 to 4000. And
427 HP at 5200. Research tells me this is a smaller cam. Should I change it up with the 455 I am building now? Opinions

[steve25]

Ok let’s nail down what you want here.

In your first post you made no mention of torque or hp, just referenced that the most important things to you where that the car was to be happy with going to car shows and cruising.

Now you leaning more towards caring about torque and hp, am I reading you right here?

[mikegernes]

Well of course I want to choose the best overall cam to give the most low end torque with my build, with out going to a roller set up. I have power brakes so I need some vacuum also.

[Formulas]

Stated goals and parts a camshaft with no less than 220°@ .050 up to high 230° will work fine closer to the 220° mark it wont be much different than stock and much over the 235° mark might need a fair amount of alterations that could be a challenge or expensive for a novice or show car... IE keeping the selection in this range you shouldnt be scratching your head why it runs bad at low RPM or gets 6MPG on a cruise..

Most important thing is be sure your heads can accept the lift and have good valve stem oil control so to avoid smoking and immediate lifter failure

[Jay S]

Sounds like the XE274 ran decent for what it was, 427HP was probably 20 HP short of a RA4 cam or a 60919 Crower.

I think I have done a dozen 96 head combos. We swapped out the XE268 for a Crower 60919 in a 9.5 SCR 455 with ported 96 heads with RA manifolds. XE268 is the next step smaller than that XE274. The 60919 gained about 50 HP and around 1000 RPM of usable RPM range when both had 1.5 rocker and RA manifolds. It also went from barely running on 91 octane to 87 octane. It was in a 6000 lbs 4x4 pickup at the time, that often towed trailers. That engine is now in a 66 Tempest post with a 4 speed and 3.36 gears, headers and 1.65 rockers. It runs really well. I don’t think I could talk him into going back to an XE.

[Jay S]

That 66 Tempest with the 455, 96 heads and 60919 is listed for sale on the PY forum. It is a nice car.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=878307

[zippy]

470cid .040" overbore, 4.25 stroke, #64 heads 9.6:1 comp. 041 cam, (Melling SPC-8) set at 109 ICL, Crower cam saver lifters, Comp 995 springs, 1.65 Scorpion roller rockers. TH400 3400 'tight' converter, 3.08 rears. She lights the 275/35-18 Nitto 555 with ease!

[NeighborsComplaint]

068 is pretty tame in a 455. If you want a little "edge" to the sound of the car and still retain drivability, the Pontiac 744 and Summit 2802 are hard to beat. The Summit gives more lift with 1.5 rockers than the 744 and will be easier on the valve springs. The lobe profile of 744 is going to make it sound edgier but you'll have to go to 1.65 rockers as it will have only .406" with 1.5 rockers. I have no idea how it would perform w. only .406" lift but I am guessing it will sound stronger at idle than it actually runs.

Go with RA4 valvetrain including longer valves (2.11" intake & 1.77" exhaust), springs (1.8" installed height) and pushrods with either cam to retain geometry. If you want to take advantage of the 744 cam's capability, you will need 1.65 rockers and clearance the pushrod slots in the heads for them.

I think the Summit 2802 w. 1.5 rockers is the better choice.

[The Champ]

FWIW - I have the Crower 60243 in my 30 over 455 with 96 heads, running 9.5 - 1 compression with a Quadrajet in my 4spd '64 GTO convertible. Have had this combo in my car since 2013 and am happy with it. Originally had 3.42 gears in my 12 bolt, but with all the torque I switched to 3.08's as I now spend time on the Interstates going to some shows as well as cruising on 2 lane roads locally.