I recently purchased a solid lifter flat tappet engle cam for my 394. The specs on the box are 304 duration and .530 lift, intake and exhaust. I stuck it in the block and put a degree wheel on it an came up with 252 duration at .050. My engine has 10.5 compression, is ported, has 3 deuces and headers. My car should weigh around 2900#, has a 4.11 olds rear and a stick. I was just curious if anyone has had any experience with this cam or one similar in a similar set up. It's going to be a street car not a trailer rider. I'll tolerate some driveability for performance.
I ran a flat tappet Engle #153 in a 335" Rocket motor. About 282 & 288 advertised degrees with .500 lift. It required the Engle 1.8/1 adjustable rockers to attain full lift. I believe the standard Engle adjustable rocker is 1.5/1. Cam was very streetable in a 3100# 50 Ford coupe with stick three speed and 4.27 rear diff. 28" tall rear tires. Did ok on the dragstrip as well. Three Rochester 2GC's, headers, a touch over 10/1 compression, Schiefer aluminum flywheel, 11" parts house rebuilt clutch. Ran six Stromberg 48's - same carb as the 97, but with bigger venturis - and strip times were the same as the triple 2GCs. A pic.
With your weight at 2900 and 4.11 gears you will have a neck snapper. I used that cam in a gutted 53 hardtop that weighed 3400 with 3.90 gears ,, 394 ,,10.5 comp,,,3 2gc ,,it run real hard. It felt a little soft below 3000 rpm, but from 3000 on up it pulled hard and fast to 7200. main thing is be sure you have the valve springs to support that cam. The idle was music ,,1100 rpm and sounded like 400. with a thump like a harley. I think you will love it.
13.90's @ 100 mph. The car was limited to an extent by the home-made Traction Master setup - similar to using the bottom bar only of a 4-bar setup with stock leaf springs.* Along with an old style hard M&H type slick. With ladder bars or a properly adjusted 4-bar and wrinkle wall slicks - which were just coming in at the time it probably would have run 12.90's and 101-102 mph. *Traction Masters were the traction aid of the day for street use and they did a pretty fair job all things considered. After the strip car, I put the drive train in another 50 Ford coupe and built a set of ChryCo Super Stock rear leaf springs for it and ran with no other traction aids. I didn't run this car on the strip, but it left my pals cars at the line much better than did the Traction Master setup.
Mark Engle can probably answer any questions you have about the cam. I have a 57 Pontiac 347 Engle cam and he was very helpful via email from the Engle cam website.
Thanks guys I really appreciate your response. My intake is an offy, small base rochester center and large base for end carbs. I'm jetted 64 center and 68 on the ends, do you think this will be in the ballpark? Also plan on starting at around 38 total advance. thanks again.
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