That's the exact combo in my coupe except for a .030 bore on my 350. Running stock 462 heads and 600 holley on Edelbrock Performer intake. Cam specs are straight out of a GM parts book. Has great low end and can MPH quickly. Since I have street gearing (2.79's), gas mileage I ran 7.90's in the 1/8 mile and 80 mph......
I have had great luck with vortec heads and they are cheap. I know people will ***** beacause they are center bolts but you can get finned aluminum covers or you can get faux olds covers.
+1 on the iron Vortec's. Cheap and perform better than some ported old style heads I've seen. The only real downside are the center bolts, but there are adapters.
No, other than needing a new intake. Problem w/ vortec's is they are lift-limited by the valve guide. I forget at what point that becomes a problem tho.
Out of the box, limited on lift, but IIRC they can handle .420" , so that covers a lot of milder street cams. The guides are tall and can be easily machined to handle more lift. I think you can gain a good bit just by changing springs and retainers. Forgot about the intake. Most intakes could be redrilled for the Vortec pattern but on some the ports won't quite match. But there are some inexpensive pieces that work pretty well from GM, Edelbrock and others. Exhaust side is not a problem. Still even with the extra work you end up with heads that are cheaper (and probably better) than a ported set of camel humps.
No problem. Also not that if you do the cam, but keep the stock heads or double humps, you can't go over .500 lift without elongating the holes for the push rods.
Jack, If you already have an intake and plan on running over .420 lift (which is easy to do) then your cost of new intake + machining will push you over the difference between a set of new vortecs and a set of sportsmans or IE's. This the hidden gotcha w/ the vortechs. Camel humps are worse than almost any modern head. Even the 416 305 head flows almost as much as stock 462's. Did I mention I hate SBC's?
camel humps and a Duntov 30-30 gawd I love the sound..... Oh.. wait..... That was 1972.. Nevermind...
Honestly? If I look under the hood and see the old double humps I stick around and look a little more. I see AFR, Dart I keep going unless it's a damn fine car. I just like the old stuff. Ive had the new stuff and yeh it hauls ***. Let me tell you though if you do it right the old heads will too. On the 327 I like to run a 59cc chamber to bump the compresion up so the cam works. I love this Speedpro cam CS1169R, just follow the link for the specs: http://21cgt.com/FMWebCatalog/default.htm. 1.94 and 1.5 stock valves will work, work a little better with a little portwork in the bowls. 2.02 valves will need portwork to do any good. You can get along good in the '53 with a 2500 stall. With the weight of the car and gearing it will stall good and get the car rolling. Stay with a 600cfm or smaller carb and you will have a nice, fast, and drivable combination. Jeff
The stock 300hp 327 is a really nice street motor as is. Changing nothing but intake and exhaust with stock overhaul, balance and tune, you have a 1hp per cu. in. mill that will get along with the TH350 just fine. Very streetable and easy to live with, plenty of power for the A. I think I would rebuild it bone stock.
Von Rigg Fink I think a stock overhaul with maybe the 325HP cam would be a fine combo for a budget build for what it's in now and where it is headed. If however you want more power then let me tell you a cautionary tale about the engine I have in my A. I built a 'short deck' 327 (stroker Ford) with AFR 165 CC heads, 9.4:1, custom Comp hydraulic roller, RPM Air Gap, 600 Edelbrock 4 (wish I could afford trips, but not yet, eyballin the adapter from Australia). I have a T-5 with 3.70 rear gears and 28" tall tires. It cruises at anything over 1900 RPM (2100 is 65). Best so far is 17.5 MPG with it running rich (the pipes are sooting up slightly). It is a bit high geared when you take off gently (have to slip the clutch a bit). Sadly AFR doesn't make a 165 CC head for the Chevy and IMHO 180 is a bit large for 327-331 CID This is the second (more conservative) build of this engine as I got a bad load of fuel in Arbucle California. I was able to save the heads, rods, crank, push rods, rocker arms, balancer and flywheel (OUCH). My point here is you have 327 ish CID to play with you have to be careful not to 'overbuild' it if you intend to put it in the Chevy at all. The A being lighter will be more forgiving of a hotter engine. If you want any specs let me know, I'll dig them up
The engine I'm working on is a 307. It was a freebie and runs well. I got a pair of used Vortecs from a truck for $75. I bought an E-brock Vortec intake at a swap meet for $75 and bought a Summit 1102 cam kit (204/214 .420/.442) for it. the engine is otherwise stock. I have the cutters and tools to machine the guides here in the garage. The only other "gotcha" is figuring out how to get around the ugly late valve covers.k. I figure a set of gaskets, a timing set, and maybe some bearings and I've got a pretty decent little small block to put in something. If this thing can't make 250hp, I'd be really surprised. I figure that the whole deal might set me back $500 in the end. Aww...Now my feelings are hurt.... Sure, the SBC is a vanilla flavor powerplant, and you know I'm not a chevy flag waver, but where else can you produce this kind of bang for the buck? BTW, there is also an 8BA flathead on the way to my garage this week, too.
I had a 350/TH350 with a Summit 1103 cam, 882 heads. It had a decent beat, ran like hell until one of the rod bolts broke. The lobe spacing on that cam is good for vacuum if power brakes are part of the puzzle. You won't have to buy aftermarket rockers or high lift springs if you don't want to.
Dyce has it right. For a street car w/ 3.08-3.73 gears, and stock 64 cc heads, 9.5:1-10:1 CR, stick wth duration in the 215-225 @ 0.050 range and 110 LSA. I just ordered a reed cams 264/272, 214/218 @ 0.050, .450"/.460", 110LSA cam for the 327 in my Chevy II. Using a stock 64cc head, pistons 0.025" in the hole, .028" head gasket, flat tops, it ends up right around 9.3:1 CR. Should have a slight lope to the idle, run on pump gas, have great midrange, and pull to 5500 rpm or so. Perfect for my soon-to-be 4 spd, 3.08 geared Chevy II.
It's a street car so it spends very little time at WOT where the better heads would make a difference. Keep the dbl humps and spend the money on your A project. For the cam, no more than 210 @ .050. Here is a real speed secret. Get somebody to recurve your distributor to match your combo. 10 degrees initial, 34 total, all in by app 3000. 10 degrees in the vacuum adv, hook the vacuum to direct manifold vac, not ported. I would do the distributor first. In many cases it makes such a huge difference that you may not feel the need to spend any more money.
I think the common theme we are all saying is that you want to stay small with the cam when using stock camel back heads. Anything bigger than 220 deg @ 0.050 will make that 327 a dog below 3000 rpm. Right now, my 327 is running an old General Kinetics 200/210 @ .050" cam on a 112 LSA w/ 69 cc heads and 1.72 intake valves (~8.5:1 CR). Great off idle response and smooth idle. Seems to run out of breath at 4800-5000 rpm or so. With my car, I figured a 214/218 cam with 9.3:1 should be perfect. Should still be OK down low, and will make max torque in the 3000-4500 range. Perfect for 3.08s, a 3000 lb car, and a 4 spd. Yes, the 365/327 used the 30-30 cam, and would pull to 6500 rpm. However, these were also only used in Corvettes with 4-spd and 3.73-4.11 gears. Would be a miserable combo for a heavy car with an automatic.
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