Thread: '94 Burb 454 TBI Cam Upgrade?

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Not exactly trying to make a hot rod but I'm trying to improve my low compression 94 suburban 454 boat anchor. With my medium weight 20' inboard/outboard in tow, I can barely beat out a '99 half ton 350 cid MPI suburban with a similar load.

My 'Burb has 40k original miles and is stock except for the Gale Banks Header/exaust system and a street legal chip adder. The Banks Power Pack made a huge difference allowing it to pull strong , w/o flattening out, right up to redline, but with the stock cam and 7.8:1 compression it still sucks.

A recent trip, with boats in tow, with my friend's '99, over moderate mountain range yielded 8.5 mpg for mine and 12.8 mpg for his. He kept with me all the way.

I am hoping that someone has had experience with a cam upgrade , that would help both power and mileage. (at least power w/o sacrificing mileage)

You gotta get some compression in there. 8.5:1 atleast. That will run on 87 octane even under tow. The easiest way to get compression is to mill the heads but you may need to do some intake manifold milling to get it to fit after the heads are milled. There are plenty of towing specific cams out there too, get one of those.

...pick up 7/10 ths by milling the heads without reducing the reliability of the heads? and would you have to change the pushrods?

Gale also has a cam for your app
http://www.bankspower.com/app.cfm?appid=AC06

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