hey guys what are you thingking about this compagnie and what about this cam to here's the link: compcams I was looking at the magnum # 31-226-3 And can some one can explain the meaning of this 3 thing : 1- hydraulic flat taped camshaft 2- 9.5:1 compression 3- rough idle and the last thing does some one use this cam ?? I want it for street fun so no drag with that cam Thanks David
David, Comp cams are very good ones. There are others also, Lunati, Erson etc. Contact them by email or phone and tell them what you have and they will recomend which one is best for your car. 9.5 compression ratio is a figure used in determining the volume of air that is compressed when the piston reaches top dead center. All this depends on the piston design and the chamber design of the heads. This the best I can do to explain it without getting into a bunch of techincal stuff. If you have a relatively stock 302 with flat top pistons, your ratio is probably around 8.5 to 1. A hydraulic flat tappet cam is one that uses a hydraulic type lifter that has a flat surface on the bottom that rides on the cam lobe to lift the valves. Most older engines all used them until the lifter and cam came out with rollers on the bottom to follow the cam lobe. Much improvement over the hyd. but lots more involved in converting to them There is also a solid lifter set up which like the hyd. is flat on the bottom but does not use oil to hold the pushrod plunger tight, for correct valve adjustment The cam you have chosen may be a bit much for what you have right now, call the cam company and tell them your spec's and use for it and they can tell you which one would work better. Just as a footnote, put a little deeper gear ratio in the rearend and it will make a lot of difference in the performance too. Search that Comp. cam site for a lot more info on what I have said, they also have a form to fill out online to help them determine which cam to use.
Jeez, forgot something again. Gets worse by the day, thanks Jerry for picking that up. Just for David's info, the lope is caused by the camshaft design allowing more air flow at different times in it's cycle. This is a desireable thing for power and also to scare the crap out of would be street racers when they pull up next to you at the light. Deep throaty rumble and the whole car shaking slightly, sometimes make them think you have 500 horse power under the hood. Just for example, when I was young had a 1950 Studebaker 6cyl. three speed. Put on dual exhaust and added a rake job and big tires on the back. These cars were not for racing but were a decent automobile. Anyway, was always getting blown away at stoplight races, but lack of funds and in school, just thought I would fool around with the bad boys. Had glass pack mufflers on the split manifold and overdrive transmission. Wired in a toggle switch to lock the overdrive in 1st gear, man you could wind that baby to 60mph in low. That alone faked a few of em out, but then, being most cars back then had vacumm winshield wipers, I would pull the hose off them and the damn thing would lope and shake like it had a big engine and cam in it. Used to line up against someone at the light and then rev it and rev it, and when they slammed it to the floor and burned half a block, I would just hang a right turn and laugh all the way home. Who else been there, done that? Bet it would be great against the ricer's.
david, i'm looking at my comp cams catalog. comp reccommends you use this with a 2500 stall convertor, low gears and headers. are you going to change these things also? if so, that should be a good cam for the street. i've used comp cams products in my last 3 engines.
Comp makes good stuff, don't get me wrong. If I had to buy another camshaft, it'd be either from Erson or better yet Cam Research. The latter grinds ONLY Ford camshafts, nothing else...and they are quite knowledgeable. The last 2 hydraulic cams I got from comp were not made correctly....one had zero taper built into the lobes (meaning certain cam/lifter failure during break-in) and the other had some chips on the edges of the lobes. I sent the first back for a replacement, and it's still going (though not a good match for the engine...but it's not my truck anymore) and the other was sent back & a refund given. Bought an Erson hyd. roller instead.
David, still another way to go if you don't want to change a lot of things just for the cam is to consider what used to be called an RV cam. It is cheap and picks up power without having to wind the engine into the higher limits to get the power. The whole kit is about $110 in the catalogs and works very well with a 4 barrel carb and recurved dist.
