I'm thinking about swapping out cams in my 350,its 60 over flat tops and has A set of 461 heads 2.02in,160ex,full roller rocker arms . I have been considering putting in A Isky 280 mega cam and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this cam.
The absolute BEST thing to do, is call your favorite camshaft manufacturer up, and give them the engine information you have provided, along with car weight, transmission (and converter stall if it's an automatic), rear end gear ratio along with tire diameter, how you plan on driving it, and whatever other information they may want to know. Best to get it right the first time, and not because you "second guessed" what might work for you. They say the two biggest mistakes guys make when building an engine, are carburetor size, and camshaft selection. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I believe that cam has a tight lobe separation angle IIRC 108....it will have a really nice (choppy) idle. its a great old school grind, just like the rest of your motor.....most of the cam companies want to sell you their latest vodoo or extreme or whatever lines they have come up with - the lobe profiles have evolved with more lift and duration "under the curve" to make more power, they will beat the valvetrain up a bit more though.....you should be around 10:1 compression so that sounds about right for that cam...make sure the rest of the valvetrain is up to spec - what trans and gears are you running and how much does the car weigh?
I'd personally talk to other car guys who have experience with that cam and take thier word over the $13 an hour joker reading off his computer at the cam company help line , but that's just me ..... If all you're after is sound ,that cam will definitely idle rough , that's all I can tell you ..
I'm going to be running A 4 speed saginaw transmission with 3.73 rear gears.The truck I'm going to put the motor in is probably going to weight around 3200 . I'm running A lunati voodoo cam in my 54 Bel air and like it but was thinking about the Isky old school cam for my 350.
Do yourself a favor and don't go any bigger than a 280 Mega Cam. This is coming from a guy that over does EVERYTHING!!!! The 280 Mega is plenty steerable with a bad ass idle to boot! If you want 'Ol Skool performance, with your ' Ol Skool long block, you'll probably be happy with the performance. Drop down to 4:10`gears or deeper... you MIGHT be able to get away with a 292 Mega Cam. Not really COST effective though... JMHO. Sometimes "Less is More" [emoji41]
When you degree the cam in (you ARE planning to degree it, right?!) you can advance it to get a little more bottom end out of it (6*) Shifts the power curve from....say 2000-6500rpm to more like 1500-6000rpm. Just need some good size rear tires! 6sally6
I currently have that cam in a 327, 9.6:1 comp, later LT1 heads, headman headers, Muncie 4sp, 3.55 open rear end with 28 inch tall tires in my 57 210. This has been my daily driver for about 8yrs. It sounds great and is fun but I’m planning on taking it out and going smaller. I would not recommend this cam for a truck. Unless of course you just park at shows, like to rev your engine and idle around uncorked. In that case go for it. So why did I put it in? Because I was younger, the engine came out of an old roundy poundy car and was suppose to be a temporary engine until I finished my nice engine. Just hasn’t happened yet: [emoji3] Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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