I Know Nothing About Performance Cam Shafts

[727]

Rated at 230 HP with a smog cam. Head shims will give you 1/2 point on compression. Cam will help also.

I have an 8.5 to 1, 400 bored 60 over with head shims and 516 closed chambers. The heads have the biggest valves Aero-head would stick in them (2.14" -1.81"). Wieand aluminum intake, 750 edelbrock, 6 pack cam, pertronix ignition, 10-3/4" torque converter, 3.23 gears, and log style exhaust manifolds in a '66 belvedere. I'm surprised at how strong and fast the car is. It's just the right combination of parts. It's easy to put the wrong combo together so keep asking questions before you throw down your hard earned cash.

 

[747mopar]

Agree with everything being said. Everytime you step up in cam size the rpm range that it performs rises resulting in other changes needing to be made to put the car in that rpm range. If you have a cam with an RPM range of 3,500-6,5000 rpm but a converter that has the car leaving at 2,000 rpm you've got a nice engine that's a complete dog off the line. Put a 3,500 or 4,000 rpm converter in it and holy cow... completely different car. I used a less expensive TCI for the 1 year that I had a 727 and found it to work very well on the street. It's all about matching all the parts and setting clear goals.

 

[Auggie56]

Rated at 230 HP with a smog cam. Head shims will give you 1/2 point on compression. Cam will help also.

I have an 8.5 to 1, 400 bored 60 over with head shims and 516 closed chambers. .

This head gasket your speaking of as being shims, it's the same gasket that came stock on these engines in my experience. .020 Thickness sounds about right. I worked in Mopar a dealer in the seventies, and while I never had that many big blocks apart, they all had that thin gasket you mentioned. Even the small blocks used them. Thanks for the information...

 

[Auggie56]

Anyone know if this smog engine will allow the heads to be shaved? It stands to reason there would be enough clearance, accounting for a warped head in its future, the designer would have had allowed it. Ten or twenty K? What do you think?



Thanks

 

[727]

You can shave the heads and the block. I think you can go more than .020. Keep in mind you will have to shave the intake down also to adjust for the changes. I have taken ..020" off of heads and all I had to do was enlarge the intake manifold bolt holes, and delete the intake paper gaskets then just use Honda bond case sealer on both sides of the valley pan where the intake seals.

 

[Auggie56]

Thanks everyone for your input. It will be later summer before I have enough doe to put bearings and a cam kit in. From there it will be fall before I put the engine in. The left front inner fender has some rust, so a new one will be put in before the new engine.

Thanks one and all.

 

[BeatersRus]

just remember as you shave them heads you are moving the Pushrods closer.
and i have Deffo seen some catastrophic damage from people not compensating...
broken lifter valleys,snapped cams,dead rockers,the works.