I'll have to admit....

I do like to add a little fuel to the fire! I was alway taught by my mentor " you have to think outside the box!". His thinking was if you always thought inside the margins you are only going to be like everyone else... True I think....

My first lesson was on camshafts and advancing/retarding for my second application ( 1974 chevy 1-ton van w/4:10 rear gears)

I bought that van and it was a california van that died in Indiana. I got it with a spun bearing, so I decided to build a new motor.

first we had to decide compression and for efficiency I chose flat tops Hyperutectics @ 9.4: and they came in @ 9.62:1

Then when I asked him how to choose the cam the lesson was on... He told me and smiled and said use the 327 350hp then, he asked me why he chose that? I didn't know

He also told me that cam are and will always be a mystery to alot of people especially to those who don't understand them and it was my time to learn....

He made me go and plot a power and torque curve of the rated power and then we got into advancing and retarding and it's effects on the power curve...

Basically when you advance a cam you bring the power curve in earlier and retarding brings it in later...

Next we tested... I did the motor with the cam straight up and drove the van 1/4 mile....disapointed with my choices I drove back to the shop and moaned how such a turd the van was....He laughed....

He told me to pull the cover and degree in 4 deg advance and put it back together and NOT touch the ignition timing. So I did.

This made a huge difference... I cannot say how much but it did.
Next after that he told me to pull it down again and dial in 4 more degrees and not shift it any higher than 5,000rpm?

When I was done I was amazed at the difference this engine has made just by moving the cam around but, that wasn't the hole lesson... when I was done I ended up with a 1-ton van that made a few pases with the best of 13.02@ 92mph in the 1/4

Now after that he told me max advance on that cam was 13 degrees advance ( camshaft advance) and that at that it wouldn't rev much over 4,000... So I tried the theory and this combo will absolutly rocket out of the hole but does not like full throttle....

Every motor we have done like this will flat walk away from just about everything at part throttle.....

My second lesson was to learn how to use the " time factor" meaning figure out how much time you need/have to do what you want then build the engine to run just inside that window..

My mento is a great person/ ex-racer and he ran a 58 vette back in the 60's with a 283 naturally aspirated and was running 8's

Most of his engines get banned from local tracks (roundy-round) and he has the only ford 4 bangger round here running in the 9's

He's the main reason I really got into 283' so much... and now big inch smblk.