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!