What would I do? I'd pop for the short cam, Performer intake and finalize the squish at 0.035" to 0.040". There won't be any lump to the cam, but then I'm way past trying to impress other people with a lumpy cam that won't pull the hat off your head at low r's. Should make excellent cylinder pressure, especially if you leave provision to change the advance of the cam once you have it running and establish a baseline. The tight squish will guarantee no detonation and full spark advance with pump gas.

I'm not a fan of cams that slam the valves open and slam them shut like the action on the XE cams. I think they leave more chance for the lifter to wipe lube off the lobe with the pressures involved and are very harsh on all the valvetrain. You can comprare ramps from cam to cam by subtracting the duration at 0.050" from the advertised duration and dividing by 2. The result will be the length of the opening or closing ramp in degrees and will allow you to see how agressively the cam moves the lifter. Example 1: 240 degrees @ 0.050", 290 degrees advertised. 50 divided by 2 gives a ramp length of 25 degrees opening and 25 degrees closing. Example 2. 240 degrees @ 0.050", 280 degrees advertised. 40 divided by 2 gives a ramp length of 20 degrees opening and 20 degrees closing, a much more agressive lobe. It may look better on the dyno, but is it going to be too harsh on the drivetrain compared to the softer-hitting cam? Will it last as long before the cam wears through the case hardening and goes soft? These are the questions I ask myself and since I'm not concerned with the very last horsepower I can wring out of a motor, I prefer to use longer ramps. Take a look at some of the GM muscle cams from years past. They used ramps up to 35 degrees and if I haven't gone senile, it seems like we hardly ever had a cam go soft in the old days. Of course springs will make a difference too, so maybe I'm not being fair.

CAM BREAK-IN
Anyway, use only stock springs to break in the cam, changing them to the springs you're going to run after you have several hundred miles of easy runnin' on the motor. Fill the crankcase with racing type oil that has sufficient zinc content to protect the cam. (Read the article in Car Craft March 2006 concerning the removal of zinc by the oil companies). Add one bottle of GM Engine Oil Supplement, available at any GM dealer. Prime the oil galleys. Adjust the valvetrain and spark advance so that the engine will crank right over. Bolt on a carb that is primed with gas and ready to run. DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT GRIND THE STARTER TO START THE MOTOR. IF IT DOES NOT START RIGHT AWAY......STOP!!!!!...... FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG. While an associate monitors oil pressure and water temperature, bring the r's up to between 2,500 and 3,000 and hold it there for 20 minutes. Shut down, replace oil, filter and GM EOS. Run easy for 300 miles. Replace oil, filter and springs. Enjoy.