Yerkesc

So I am building a rat rod with an LT1 and I'm looking to upgrade the cam in the motor but can't find many write ups for the suitable cam. I want a mean idle for the car since it will have open headers. Any help with the cam upgrade will help!!

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

don't bother with an LT1 with a carb you are throwing away most of the advantages of an LT1 in doing so.

If you insist on doing that just buy whatever cam specs you would have wanted for a gen 1 SBC because without the sequential injection it is pretty much a slightly higher compression gen 1 motor.

The higher compression has given some guys a hard time getting it tuned well on a carb and they endup running it rich which is bad for power and engine life besides the mileage you probably don't care about for a toy like this.

guppymech

iTrader: (7)

Comp has a cam line for guys that just want a badass idle, check out their Thumpr cams.

1997bird

iTrader: (2)

Can you give us some more info about your build? Car weight? Trans type (stall speed if it's an auto)? Gear ratio? Any engine modifications to it or just a stock? I have several customers that I have worked with for cams on their carburetored LT-1 rat rods. The one has a 49' Hudson and gets 28 mpg with 3:73 gears & a manuel trans.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

If knowledgeably tuned a carb can burn lean and get better mileage than an injected setup targeting 14.7:1, not a lot of folks are that good with a carb anymore though.

fbody_brian

3/4 race cam!





looking at all those comp cams, I understand that the rpm range they list is way off. Does changing to a carb setup change that?

Also you would think that comp cams actually test the cams that they design, but if they did wouldn't they know where they made power?

1997bird

iTrader: (2)

He has the 750 Mighty Demon carb that he just had to have off of my 79' Camaro, nothing real fancy. I had the carb pretty well dialed in and he didn't have to do much tuning on it for his engine.

Yerkesc

Well the car is a 41 Studebaker not sure on the weight as it's been chopped and put on a Monte Carlo frame. I'm running a 600 edelbrock carb but everything else as of now is stock besides the parts needed for the carb swap. I'm not looking to much into performance as it will be more of a cruising rat rod as of right now. It has a powerglide that came with the car and i have heard several different things about the tranny from don't use it to scrap it so not sure about it. I am unaware of the gear ratio as I haven't pulled the cover off to take a look. So stock internals and I want to know what can to get away with without swapping out heads and a bunch of internals from what I was told by the comp cams guys on the helpline.

1997bird

iTrader: (2)

I would go weight the car first, figure out my gear ratio second, find out which valve springs are being used, and find a better carb. The weight & gearing will help determine how well your PG will work/last on the street.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

A carbed intake will improve the accuracy of Comp's published rpm ranges.

moehorsepower

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you want more torque than horsepower, Don"t go crazy on the duration, keep it low, but try and get a narrow LSA for the sound you want. also keep mid lift spec that will also help the torque, I was a carb man for years until I slid into the injection seen. Had from mild to wild cams on small and big blocks..Unless you already have an LT1, why don't you just go with an ole school 350?