To answer the original question about noticing the difference in a cam change, my answer would be no. There are three basic elements to making horsepower: compression,caming, and runner volume. If you match and balance all three of these things- you will have a noticable increase in power.
I will respectfully disagree... :thumbdown: ;)Makes sense. But, this guy has or had a bone stock 454. They are typically 8:1 motors. I think it would be silly to throw a new cam in a stock motor to go faster. I think Hallettman is doing the right thing by upgrading the ENTIRE package. It is money well spent. lilrick
Sometimes a cam change will make a world of difference, especially if it is under cammed to start with...Just my personal opinion.
The right camshaft can increase the dynamic compression by leaps and bounds, we found this out running our marathon motor on a dyno with three different setups, the largest carburetor did not necessarily make the most HP, but really effected the max torque and the camshaft change really made things interesting...
What was more interesting to me (didn't really surprise our machinist) was cam timing, 3* was worth 15 HP not to mention about 70 RPM, had I not seen it for myself, I would be a non believer... :screwy:
Makes sense. But, this guy has or had a bone stock 454. They are typically 8:1 motors. I think it would be silly to throw a new cam in a stock motor to go faster. I think Hallettman is doing the right thing by upgrading the ENTIRE package. It is money well spent. lilrick
origianlly i wanted to gain as much power as possible for the cheapest price. I figured a cam cahnge would do the trick. after talking to the machinist he said there is no more power to gain from a 8 to 1 comp engine. if you want to increase power you have to raise the compression. the only way to do that is through the heads or pistons and changing pistons is the cheaper way to go.. I didnt want to spend that much but if i have the engine out and apart im going to do it right and not have to worry about it again. He said he is going to bore it out replace and balance pistons, new cam and lifters and rebuild the heads for about $2000. will add about 125 to 150 HP. He also said the water passages in the lower half of my engine were completely blocked with hard sand. he has to clean it out with a coat hanger. He said if i hadnt pulled the motor out to be rebuilt i would have had problems this year with the engine overheatingHmmmmmm....I think I've heard this somewhere before. I completely agree with your machinest. Sounds like he put you on the right path. Again, not much to gain from the 8:1 motors from just a cam change. What cylinder heads are on the core engine?? Getting back to the basics, Since You are going to bump your compression and are going to purchase a new cam, Now make sure your cylinder heads are worth rebuilding. The optimal cylinder head made by GM for YOUR SPECIFIC applicationwill be the 049 or 781 casting. Throw the big stainless valves in and you will have a very nice engine that will last many years!!!!
not sure what the casting was on them but i know the machinist said they looked good and should work fine with the engine. He hadnt had a chance to tear then apart yet buy he is planning on rebuilding them.
no parts have been ordered yet. the engine is still being torn apart and cleaned up. originally i wanted to do this as cheap as possible and gain as much power as possible. After talking to everyone on here and the machinist i decided that cheapest isnt always best. i woulkd rather spend the money now when the engine is apart than have to do it again later. i didnt really ahve the budget to do it all right now but i worked ouat a deal with the machinist. I told him i dont need the engine foar a few months and that there is no hurry. this will give me time to save some money and he can work on high priority jobs in the meantime. all in all i think rebuilding the whole engine is the better way to go.
Start shopping for boat specific parts now, there are some unbelievable deals out there right now...
GT
Ray step away from the computer. Put down the credit card. You really need to let this one go LOLParastic drag , what every motor needs
I just noticed that since Beerjet has started to hang out with the band he has started to look a lot like Ron Jeremy. Maybe its just me but I dunno . . .Thats cuz woman love hairy chests and mustaches .