Thread: 49 Ford Cam Choice

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As some here may know, I recently purchased a chopped 49 Ford shoebox and trying to finish it up here as soon as possible. All that is left is the brake lines, engine, transmission and wiring. I ordered an Isky cam from Summit but the wait on it is almost a month so I have to choose another brand (all Isky cams have this wait for some reason). I have already waited 3 weeks and on the supposed delivery date I called and they said it will be another 3-4 weeks. Anyways, my question to you guys is which cam and brand to go with? I want to stay away from Comp, Lunati and the such if possible. It seems that people lately are having problems with this including 2 of my friends who believe it's due to cheap metal.
The brands I am now looking at are Howards and Crower... Here's some info on my car and what I'm looking out of it:
1949 Ford with an 81 Corvette 350 sbc all stock with under 80,000 miles. I have a 200-4R trans out of a 86 or 87 Monte Carlo SS and a (I believe) 72 Maverick rear end with what I was told 3.25 gear ratio. The car is going to be a cruiser but with some balls to it. I do not want to have to run a crazy stall converter or anything, just something with some balls to it that is reliable and fun to drive. I am running an old Holley Street Dominator intake. As for the carb, I have not decided yet on this. Probably just a plain Holley unit 600 cfm or so (nothing too crazy). The intake is taller than stock so am assuming the RPM range for it is not idle or anything, I think it's around 1800 and up if I remember correctly.

I am thinking of something along the lines of 0.450 valve lift, lobe separation of 108-110 and adv. intake/exhaust duration of 264-270. I could be looking at something way off here with those numbers but from what I have in my head, I do not want to go any larger than that. As for lobe separation I am not sure what to do. I know Howards has a sweet cam made after the old GM Performance 325HP 327 cam.

The specs on that cam are: Chev SB 262-400 1955-1998
Advertised Duration: 290/290
Duration @ .050": 223/223
Valve Lift w/1.50 Rockers: .447/.447
Lobe Separation Angle: 114
Intake Centerline: 110
Valve Lash: Hyd./Hyd.
Nice idle, near duplicate of the Chev 325HP/327 cam (GM #3863151).

A buddy of mine who builds engines said to stick with a 108-109 Lobe Separation Angle if possible but all the cams with lower LSA are too big in lift and duration. I want to still run a stock converter if at all possible.

Thanks a lot for any info here guys!

I'd lik to BUMP this one again! Still haven't purchased my cam and have got to do this by this coming Wednesday the latest! Any info greatly appreciated! I was going to go with something in the 1500 rpm and up range but now thinking more like 1000 and up to match the intake and gearing/trans...

Shawn, might want to try Comp Cams software, Cam Quest 6.. It's a free download on their site and very useful in narrowing down your choices. I use it whenever I have to buy a cam---then follow that up with a call to their Tech department to check if they concur. When you post the "which cam?" question to 100 people, you'll probably get about 99 different answers. The Techs at the cam companies do this stuff for a living and aren't just going to recommend something that may (or may not have) worked good on the last engine their 3rd cousin twice removed used in a similar engine.....

Dave, thanks I will go ahead and do this...
I think I am going to go with a Howards cam or Isky if I can get one in time but they have quite a wait on their cams and a custom grind I am sure will be forever. I will use that thing from Comp Cams and call Howards to see what they recommend as well.

Originally Posted by FMXhellraiser

Dave, thanks I will go ahead and do this...
I think I am going to go with a Howards cam or Isky if I can get one in time but they have quite a wait on their cams and a custom grind I am sure will be forever. I will use that thing from Comp Cams and call Howards to see what they recommend as well.

why would you think you need a custom cam ?? less your going to do abit of work to the engine more CR. some gear and stall . RV cam would be the way to go i would not worry about 108 you will find more cams that will work at 110 intake center very well could be on 106 any ways . as for the 325 HP used some over the years and the ERSON in the last street 350 guy loves it

Not sure what Isky cam you ordered through Summit but the Isky 264 Mega cam-214-214 dur. at .050 .450 lift on a 108 LSA would work fine in your application. I ran this cam in my 1976 L82 Vette and had a lot more low and mid range than the L82 cam on a 114 LSA. If you want more rump rump sound look at the old Crane 274H06 cam-218-218 at .050, .450 lift, on a 106 LSA. This is an old low lift circle track cam that will give you the hot rod sound but yet be very streetable. I am running this cam in my 84 Vette converted from TBI to carb-ZZ4 intake with 600 Edel. carb, Accel HEI ignition, stock factory tube headers with true duals and no cats, 700R4 trans, 3.07 rear. I used the stock valve springs that have 68K on them and I can wind up to 5000 with no valve float at all. The Howards 290 cam would be pretty doggy in my opinion in the low and mid range and come on strong at higher rpm's ith its 114 LSA. The Isky 264 cam would have a nice performance idle to it and the 274 cam would have a more radical idle to it. You can order the Isky cam direct from them and they should have it in stock. You can still get the Crane 274H06 cam form Summit($200 with lifters) or Elgin makes a copy of it under part number E1785PM for around $100 from competitionproducts.com. Summit has this cam under their street/strip brand but I do not know the part number. These cams are good old school cams with fairly lazy lobe profiles that are easy on your valve train and work with an all stock valve train.