OK, I've got to pick a cam and pistons for my engine, so I just figured I'd see if anyone on here has any cam recommendations, or other recommendations for building a solid street engine (in particular MrPbody).
The vehicle is a 71 Nova weighing in at around 3100 lbs with a 350 chevy engine, TH350 tranny (with shift kit) and 3:42 geared posi rear with I think around 26 inch tall tires (225 60 R 15 on all fours). This is a street car, so it needs to have good street manners and reliability. I would like to make the occasional pass or two at the dragstrip, so I don't want the engine to run out of juice at around 4000 rpm either (like the present engine).
OK, what I've got for the 350 so far: New Speed Demon 650 vac. sec. carb, Dart Koolcan aluminum intake (Dart's version of the Edelbrock RPM Airgap), Chevy Bowtie 64 cc cast iron heads with 2.02/1.60 valves and full roller rockers (I think they are Crane) and pushrod guideplates, Edelbrock aluminum water pump, GM Heavy Duty electronic ignition control (Made by MSD, it's their 6A unit with the GM stickers on it), an older set of (but still good) Hooker full length 1 3/4" tube headers, 2 1/2 inch duals feeding into Flowmasters (I think they are 40 series) and 3" turndowns dumping in front of the rear end.
I have a low miles 1975 350 bottom end with cast crank and cast pistons. I would like to get close to 400 HP and 400+ ftlbs of torque. My questions are if it checks out fine, should I just bolt my parts on it and run it as is, or should I bore it to clean it up and upgrade to forged or hyperutetic pistons? Do I really need better pistons or would the cast ones hold up fine? I will get new pistons if it means having a reliable engine making that much extra power. Would I need to port my somewhat out dated heads (I know that they were one of the best heads 20+ years ago) or is it really worth the cash to port them? I am going to port match them to the intake regardless. What compression ratio would be the max for a street car (9.5 to 1?)? And what cam would best suit this combo and make close to that kind of power? I was thinking of going with either the Comp Cams Xtreme Energy 262H (part#12-238-2
[email protected] 218 224 and lift .462 .469 lobe 110) or the 268H (part#12-242-2
[email protected] 224 230 and lift of.477 .480 lobe 110), or the Comp Cams Magnum 270H (part#12-211-2
[email protected] 224 224 and lift of .470 .470 lobe 110) but I'm no expert here. I wanted to stick with a hydrualic cam. I know rollers are much better but they are so expensive. Also, I will be buying the complete cam kit so that I get the new timing chain and matching valve springs, and all other related hardware.
Please give me any recommendations you have. Thanks in advance!