Should I do a cam swap?

Ok so later this week I am ordering a new intake. And while I have the intake off I am replacing the water pump and timing cover gasket. Valve seals and starter. I know the cam and lifters are new but don't know the specs. Would there be any reason to swap the cam besides a little sound? If so which cam? I don't want to have to swap springs either.

 

hard to give any real advice without knowing what the cam is now and what motor it is in

i'll go out on the limb and say if you don't know and it's running fine now leave it alone.

 

depends on the rest of the motor, carb type of intake, exhaust... etc
what you can do is take the sprocket off the timing chain whie you have the timing cover off and get a number from the cam, then you can check it out.
If you are keeping the springs then you may just want to keep the cam, the springs and cam need to match....

Again, a new cam can do different things, low end torque, higher end power, etc but you need to say what other parts you have.

 

You want cam sound,like a little loop?with out buying stuff,well retard the cam about 2 to 3* and you'll get some and move the peek HP up the rpm scale a few 100rpm too,it will get a few more hp higher up and not have as much hp lower down

 

I dunno what do ya got to swap? I may swap something with you.

This is pretty good advice, considering we don't knwo what ya got andwhat you are going to do with it. It may very well be that it already has all the cam that it needs. Your other option is to pull the cam that is in it and see what you got, no biggy you got the timing cover off anyway.

Remember to keep your lifters in order, they want to go back on the same lobe if you decide not to swap the cam.

 

It's in my 63 galaxie. A 66 block that is bored with new pistons and bottom end. Just pulled the pan. Has a high volume oil pump, double roller timing chain. New cam, lifters and pushrods. Adj rockers. 390 gt heads with double springs. I am ordering ad performer rom intake and has a new eddy 600 carb. Gas dual exhaust that's new before I got it. And electric ignition.

 

I would pull the cam and see what I had before I went looking for another cam for it.

 

Drive it.

 

What he said. if you can't determine what it is, i would contact one of the cam manufacture tech lines and let them help you decide what cam to get. i will always support a cam swap in the name of torque and a mean idle.

 

Well I was told today that there were different pedistals for adj rockers and mine are adjusted all the way down. I may pull the timing gear and check the cam

 

What? Sounds like someone talking about 429-460 stuff. 390 has a shaft rocker system.

 

I was told there are different stands for adjustable or non adjustable rocker?

 

There were aluminum stands on most engines, with steel stands on many of the solid-lifter engines from '62 up (regular steel stands will have a C2 casting #) with the adjustable rockers. The steel stands also have a slot on one side to allow them to clamp down on the shaft when tightened. All wedge heads except the medium riser, high riser, and tunnel port use the same height and width "standard" stand. With a fairly small cam, the stock stands & shafts are fine- if you start going bigger, it starts to get expensive. You might want to also see if you actually have double springs, or single springs with a flat dampener? If the engine idles fairly smooth, it shouldn't need real double springs. You probably just have a rebuilt 390GT engine, and possible a replacement GT cam, which is the same juice cam used in the 428CJ- and the springs should match whatever cam is being used. Why is it you feel you need to change cams, other than sound? I thought it was running pretty good?
Didn't we just do this whole discussion, at length, about those poser noise-only "Thumper" cams???
Can't agree with your choice of the Edelbrock carb, street 390's work very well with a #1850 600 Holley

 

Just thought about it since I am tearing it that far down. The reason for the carb choice is having bad luck with holleys and I know it's prolly operator error but it runs good for not even touching anything right out of the box. Still young and real new on the fe's. I'm used to small block fords

 

Comming from someone that just swapped cams, I can tell you this. DO NOT FORCE THE CAM GEAR ON THE DOWLE PIN. Ask me how I know, I popped the cam plug out and now have to pull the ******.

Now I've got a 352 with an edelbrock performer intake, 600 edelbrock carb, headers and duals, petronix ignition, and a new isky 262 supercam. I don't know if I like it yet. My honest to god two cents is leave it, tune it to run really good and then recurve the distributor. Then drive the god damn thing and leave it alone.

 

If I were to change the camshaft ...

I would buy the Edelbrock camshaft, engineered to work with the intake.

Go here

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/camshafts/cams_ford_bb.shtml

I have used their matching setups a good bit and I have always been happy with the results.

 

I doubt I could go with the match for the rpm. .572 lift?

 

Thanks for all of the imput. I was going to take your advise and leave it but several lobes were flat and junk lifters. I have no choice now.