I decided against springing for the retro-roller cam. For the price of the cam and lifters I can get a flat tappet and bigger stall and see a bigger gain. I am needing advice on a flat tappet cam. I have been researching online all day about cams and what duration, lobe separation and lift do and wanted a little more help from anyone on this site. I want to know what cam anyone recommends to use with my combo and a 3500 stall converter. I want power and sound. I would also like to know which of these cams is best and why. A cam with 245/245 duration @.050 and .534/.534 lift and a 108 lobe separation 104 intake centerline or a cam with 241/249 duration @ .050 and .525/.546 lift and 110 lobe separation 106 intake centerline. These are both lunati grinds. Thanks in advance for replying to the long post.

 

could go solid roller for cheaper then the hydraulic roller.

depends on what you want to do...one is more of an n/a grind, the other is more of a nitrous grind.

 

I assume you mean the one with the 110 lobe separation and greater exhaust duration is the nitrous grind. I just want to know which one would give the meanest idle and most power to 6500rpm and best 1/4 time with 3500 stall and slicks. Yeah i know thats alot to ask for and I appreciate the help greatly.

 

Are these two cams solid flat tappet or hyd. flat tappet? What is your compression ratio?

 

Compression is 10 to 1. These cams are hydraulic flat tappet. With a 3500 my compression will support both of these cams. I have just heard different things about cams. I have read that a 108 lobe separation will give a rougher idle and move the powerband down. Since I dont plan on spinning the engine past 6500 I lean more toward that cam. Both cams' advertised powerband is 2500-6500 and both require a 3500 stall. Thanks again for the help.

 

According to my dyno sim software, the 241/249 cam will make more horsepower and torque. It is showing that you will make 7 HP and 3 lbft TQ more than the other cam. It also shows that it will have more HP & TQ thoughout the entire rpm range. Personally I would run a solid cam instead of the hyd. The Lunati cam that I would look into is part # 401A6LUN, which is 276/284 adv. dur. 243/251 @.050 .518/.530 lift on a 110 LSA with 104 int centerline. This cam would give you 21 HP & 37 lbft TQ more than the hyd. I would also go with a Victor Jr. single plane intake as well. This would give you 36 HP & 20 lbft TQ more than your dual plane intake.
If you wanted to stay hyd cam I would instead use part # 60104. This cam would complement your other engine parts better. It would make 2 HP less & 9 ftlbs TQ more, but your average HP & TQ is much better. You could pick the lost HP back up on the top end with a set of 1.6 RR's. They would help enhance you mid to upper rpm range by opening the valves faster.

 

I appreciate all of your effort. The last cam you mentioned is not much bigger than my current cam. I dont want to deal with having to reset my rocker arm lash so the hydraulic cam is the route I am taking. Thanks for running the dyno software against the cams I mentioned. I have researched a great deal about the use of a single plane and everything I have read says that I will lose 30ft/lbs tq in the bottom end and only gain 10-20hp on the very top end. The average power for the dual plane would be more. I want this to be somewhat streetable, so more tq would be nice. Thanks again for the help and any other ideas are appreciated.

 

I would then go with the 241/249 cam and see if they can grind that with a 4-7 swap firing order(it will help you with engine harmonics and give you back lost HP at higher rpm). I would also suggest a air-gap style dual plane(1500-6500 rpm) with a HVH 1" Super Sucker carb spacer. I would still go with a full roller rocker arm set of 1.5 ratio. The other good thing about having the 110 LSA is that it will give you better manifold vaccum for booster response from your carb(less tuning headaches).

 

I really like my comp cams xe274h. Sounds similar to what you are looking for and the idle sounds wicked. Its worth checking out. Its only downside is the lift, but my valve to piston clearance was close so i went with this and 1.52:1 rockers. 1.6's would open it up a little more.

 

I have an XE274 right now. I wouldnt say the idle is that wicked really. Far from the popcorn popping sound I see lots of the cammed LS1 guys have. I think my new cam will have close to the popping sound though. We will see.

 

switching from flat tappet to roller will net you power in itself, you'll see more power from less friction, and you will see more power from more aggressive ramp rates (valves stay open at a higher lift for longer duration, not to confuse with changing the duration of the cam, but say a flat tappet cam would avg .300" of lift per rotation, a roller may avg .400") this is why i suggested a solid roller cam as it is about 1/2 the cost of doing the retro-hydraulic roller. but the solid roller will still cost more then a flat tappet setup...so its debatable and ultimately comes down to how much you want to spend, and a set power goal. you want a choppier idle though, you will do that with a tighter LSA, like 106*...but at the same time your going to sacrifice your breaks because you will need vacuum(you can use a can, i run one, but its only good for like 2 steady pumps or one heavy one and i still can barely lock up the tires, and i run a similar cam) so you may have to invest in an electric booster

 

Mines through true duals dumped and idles at around 650-700, so its very choppy im pleased with it. Good luck with the cam selection.

 

i would say that either would be a good choice. really and honestly i bet you couldn't tell any difference at the track between the two cams. i personally like solid flatappet cams just because they aren't that expensive and you don't have to adjust the valves as much as people say plus i have seen several times people swapped from a solid flatappet to a solid roller and there wasn't a half a tenth difference in track times between the two.