ots cam question

[Rick_R]

I don't want you to spend a ton of time on this as this is just a street car, heavy at that about 4000# but I have a t56 six speed and my gear selection will be in the 4.1-4.5 range. This is just a toy and I plan to do some highway cruising with it. It may see the track once a year to play but thats it. It is a basic 408 ford, vic jr's that have had a mild clean up, just the machine ridges removed and cleaned up. Comp ratio is in the 9.5- 9.75 range. I don't paln on it seeing over 6000 very often unless there is some rice in my way, I do plan on using fuel injection, ford mass air, 90MM throttle body and maf. short runner intake (converted vic jr) the intake was a compromise for hood clearance issues. I'd like to do a hyd roller thou i know you don't really like them. I don't have to deal with emissions but I would like to get some milage on the highway as I may do a cross country run. since 70 MPH will be about 2100 in 6th i will need some low grunt. I was thinking along the lines of one of the alphabet cams or maybe a comp xe282hr. I think these may be a bit small but may suit my needs, any opinions would be great, I don't think i need a custom, an OTS should be fine for this car I just need a point in the right direction to make me happy that I'm going the right way.
I know you make your living doing cams and if I was building a a car that I was looking for evry last HP i would not hesitate to call on your service.

Thanks in advance

[Jay Allen]

This is a situation where an OTS cam just isn't going to cut it. Your engine is WAY too custom and parameters are just too tight.

I have a stupid analogy for this. You want to go to a basketball game. Well heck, just get on line and there are thousands of tickers available all over the world. But that is not what you had in mind. You wanted to see Chauncey Billups match up with Allen Iverson. You wanted to see the game at the Palace. You have a favorite seat in a particular section that just does it for you. So why would you call the United Center is Chicago and but tickets for the Bulls vs Knicks? Sure its a BB game. Sure you may have good seats. But is it or was the tickets you needed for the game you wanted to see in the home venue?

You can call 1-800 anyone and get a cam spec'ed. Or, there are a few people in this world that not only will get you in the ballpark, and not only the right section, but a few of us will get you in the right seat.

I do a ton of hyd rollers. Thus wherever you got that I don't like them is wrong. A few years back when there were no good lifters, yes I did not use them. But times change. Thanks Crane & Morrell.

Your choice of induction is pretty good. However your RPM range is not accurate. An engine like this is going to require a piston speed of about 4400 ft/min to utilize what you have. That equates to 6600 RPM.

Your statement about *low end grunt* is a HUGE oxymoron. The stroker Windsors are big blocks disguised as small blocks with teeny tiny bores. You have tq. You cannot hide it. Matter of fact, you have too much.

Now, you can go a buy a camshaft from whomever. This true. But if I were spending 7K to 10K on an engine like this, 100 extra bucks to do it right would not even phase me. I am sorry that in a case such as this I will not recommend a cam. I am in a loose-loose situation. I hope you can respect that.

Now if this were a +.030 Windsor, GT-40 heads, RPM Air Gap, 650 carb, 2K low dollar engine, sure I'd recommend a camshaft in a heartbeat. Or a 406 Chevy with 2.02's and pink rods, heck ya! But dude, on a project such as this, whether you go with Camshaft Innovations or not, I hope you do it right.

Good Luck.

[Rick_R]

It was the small base circle retro fit rollers for ford you didn't like.... the new crane lifter fixed that issue i guess.
I was sort of thinking that I'd need a custom cuz I could find the shaft that would have what I thought I needed. I could find some that I thought would work but the overlap would kill the efi, or that would work with the efi but weren't right elsewhere. I guess I'm just give you a call and get what I need the first time. trying to save $100 isn't worth tearing it down after it didn't work.

[Jay Allen]

The small base circle stuff i don't like. You are dead accurate. The cores cause harmonics. The core availability is terrible. The grinds that fit on those logs is not very good.

A std basecircle SBF cam with Crane link-bar hyd roller lifters is the ticket.