Camshafts

[Lenny51]

my 8BA engine is being rebuilt I have Edelbrock fined heads , Offenhauser 2 Carb manifold with 94 carburetors , Chevy conversion distributor but I
think or have been told the reground cam I bought is to radical it has a
330 lift with 260 duration would a Isky Max 1 be better, not making a
race car just want a little more performance 3 speed o/d transmission
Thank you for any help on this 6 volt

 

[drolston]

I am no expert on cams, but take the information from this site as the best guidance I have found.
http://www.tildentechnologies.com/Cams/FlatheadPerformance.html
From that reference I would take it that a cam with 260 degrees seat-to-seat duration might be a little unfriendly in traffic with a heavier car, like your '51. I have selected a Schneider 248f for my '41 coupe, but it will not be back on the road until later this month. That is a pretty mild grind and should preserve the low end torque.

 

[Ol' Ron]

The timing at .050" lift, tells more about the cam than just the total duration. However, Longer cams reduce low speed torque, even the Max #1 a very mild cam pushes Max torque above the majority of local street driving. In the 290 I just poster the Max torque comes in below 2K. So in order to compensate for this, we increase Displacement and CR. But in a stock engine it doesn't work that way