440 cam installation

[icetech]

This video convinced me to degree my cam when i put it in.. it was off by 6 degrees... (i checked it like 5 times starting from scratch.. shocked it was that far off)

 

[451Mopar]

Worst I had seen was 15 degrees off when dot-to-dot, and it was not a tooth off. That was on an Oldsmobile 455 with unknown brand timing chain and cam?
Haven't seen a Mopar off that bad.
I have had good timing results with the 440 Source 9-way timing sets and Comp cams usually being correct (within a degree) when installed dot-to-dot.

 

[icetech]

Worst I had seen was 15 degrees off when dot-to-dot, and it was not a tooth off. That was on an Oldsmobile 455 with unknown brand timing chain and cam?
Haven't seen a Mopar off that bad.
I have had good timing results with the 440 Source 9-way timing sets and Comp cams usually being correct (within a degree) when installed dot-to-dot.

Crazy.. i actually emailed howards and was like.. is this normal? "Just put in at 103 like it says" ok.....

 

[nitro_rat]

I have everything I need to degree it in so I will check it.

 

[Jam72]

You see that car.....
It weighed two tons & got to a top speed of 118 mph...with a TINY 2bbl carb. It had great acceleration getting to 118 mph....

View attachment 1833967

My 58 Belvedere would only do 108. It had the 318. What did this one have?

 

[Rebelrouser]

I'm tossing together a cheap 440 for my '73 Power Wagon. I'm starting with a '77 cast crank core. It's going .020" over with silvolite 1263 pistons (stock replacement for the '71 and earlier engines). This will get the compression up a little from the dismal 7.5:1 or whatever it originally had. Close to 9:1 from the numbers I ran. Cam is a Melling MTD2 "RV" cam. I have a double roller timing set with the adjustable 3 keyway setup. I have a stock '70 4 barrel intake for it and it will likely be getting a fresh Edelbrock AVS2 800. Stock truck exhaust manifolds. Stock 452 heads, may cut them .020" and run composite head gaskets, otherwise I'll put steel shim ones in.

I am wondering if I should make the effort to degree the cam, just install it "straight up", or plug it in 4 degrees advanced. I'm leaning towards just tossing it in straight up.

Secondly, looking at the specs, the cam is actually a little smaller on the intake side than the "stock replacement" SPD11 cam. The MTD2 recommends a VS430 valve spring. Is it necessary? Maybe better to run the stockers on the intake and the VS430 on the exhaust? Break it in on all stockers and swap in the VS430's after break in? Swap them in only on the exhaust? I don't want to be harder on the lifters than necessary or build any extra heat if I don't need to.

I'm putting this thing together with bargain basement parts that I already have so I'm not changing pistons, cam, etc. Just wondering if it's going to make any measurable difference to go above and beyond on what is basically a stock budget rebuild?

Truck is mainly a highway cruiser; about 5,200 lbs, 33's, 3.55 gears, currently 727 auto but will probably be swapping to a manual transmission eventually.

For anybody wanting to play with engine combinations use a computer dyno program, I use Performance Trends Engine Software. The software is reasonable to purchase and much cheaper than buying a bunch of parts that will not like each other. I have a flow bench and if you put good numbers in the program it matches on my real dyno pretty close. The trend I see is a little less HP and more torque than the predictions but always within 10% And I don't have a super accurate dyno but an old land and sea manual control water brake.
Idle vacuum is always very close as is the cranking compression predictions. I do the cylinder heads first and flow them before ordering a camshaft. And the info about how an engine works that comes with the software is worth more than the program in my opinion. I used to be an instructor at a technical college, and I used the software in my engines class. I made explaining everything about how an engine works so easy. I would project the program on the wall and students could see really fast what happens when you change cam grinds, head flow, intake and exhaust runner lengths etc. And lots of examples in the software to use if you don't have for example a flow bench.

Just from the little info you gave I would advance the cam 4 degrees, that builds cranking compression and gives you more low-end torque 99% of the time. The spring question depends on the lift compared to stock.

Today's flat tappet cams scare me because of quality issues; I won't build anything but a hydraulic roller. A new engine full of metal is an expensive problem. If I am building one for a customer and it goes flat, it then becomes a pissing contest on who pays the bill to fix it even if you told them ahead of time you were not responsible for the camshaft. And one good reason for that is first thing the cam company says is it was not installed correctly.
I was a flatrate mechanic at a Chevy dealer back it the 70's the shop foreman would fire you if you took the time to break-in a cam. You warmed up the engine made sure of no leaks, fluids topped off and out the door it went. The only cams I spent the time to breakin, back in the day, were performance cams with stiff springs and seldom had any issues.