Thread: Engine Upgrade

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"Do any of you choose the cam last?"

Every time.

Most beginning hotrodders will change the cam the first thing, usually in the wrong direction. Most of them have a car or truck that is a dual-function vehicle; daily driver and once-in-a-while drag car. With stock compression ratio, stock heads, etc., they want to stab in the hairyest cam they can find, thinking that it will really wake up the motor and make the vehicle a world-beater. Nothing could be further from the truth. They have moved the intake closing point so far up the scale that there is little intake charge captured and subsequently, very little cylinder pressure generated on firing. Now the vehicle won't pull the hat off their head at low rpm's and there is no longer sufficient manifold vacuum to operate power brakes or other accessories. The motor won't idle where it once did, so the whole driveline clunks whenever the vehicle is put in gear from neutral and it's a chore to hold the brake against the stock converter.

Been there, done that waaayyyy too many times.

Jack said it best......
"The biggest thing you have to remember is that an engine is a system".

Here's some further info I put together on cam selection.....
http://www.streetmachinesoftablerock...topic.php?t=78