canshaft timing

[68GTS340]

could someone please explain how to degree a camshaft, and what is better advanced or retarded? and why isnt it degreed when you buy it?
thanks

 

[AdamR]

Comp Cams has a nice degree kit with an instructional video.

 

[69 Runner]

Which is better depends on what you want. 440's for instance (usually) have more torque than you can get to hook up. So if you want the car to hook, rather than just be able to impress the teenagers by boiling the piss out of your tires, then you would want to retard the cam to kill some of that low end. The byproduct in this scenario is more TOP end.

Clear things up a bit?

 

[Meep-Meep]

Probably the single most important fact about cam timing is when the intake valve closes. At that point you start to build cylinder pressure and mismatching the cam and compression ratio will ensure that your "whatever" will run like a pig. A cranking compression pressure of about 150 PSI works well for a street engine on regular gas (if you want to call it gas anymore). If you want good low end AND good top end power you are probably best off with a Magnum cam or one of these modern cylinder pressure building cams. If you have a small cam that closes the intake early you can cheat a bit by retarding it (like someone else said earlier) and maybe get more power at a higher RPM, but again, you are probably limited in what you can get out of the same cam. The single plane intake (I like the Torker) seems to be happy from about 2K to 6K and a cam that will run in that power range will require decent compression and more gear. It's all about moving the torque curve up and down the RPM band. Oh yeah, and RPM costs money!! ...And more money on brand X stuff!!