I'm helping my Father in-law build a plow truck for this winter for when the T/A is up. We are trying to do this on the cheap. It's a '80 3/4 ton, 350, 400 tranny, 4.10 gears. I'm looking at two summit cams, 204in 214ex, lift .420 .442, or 214in 224ex lift .442 .465. Bigger cams are harder to start in the cold, right? How big can I get away with in a truck and still have ok low end torque?

 

Assuming that the truck has the stock Q-jet and a vacuum advance canister on the distributor, I would go with the larger of the two camshafts.
I had a sb350 with a th350 in a half ton 4x4 with 2.73 rear ends and was very happy with the performance from the 204-214- 420-442 cam shaft. (the sob was 200 lbs shy of 5000)
Because your truck has the 4.10 gears, I would be inclined to go with the 214-224-442-465 cam. That is unless you have huge tires on it, that brings down the effective final gear ratio.
I liked the 204-214 cam so much, that I put it in my LG4 motor.
Check my sig. The 305 with the 204-214 cam starts to grunt around 2000 and pulls strong past 5000. I've wound it up to 6000 but the cat and cat back are stock pieces and it wasn't worth the wear and tear to take the rpm that high for the amount of power it was producing.
Headers and exhaust will help quite a bit also.
IMHO, if you can't make up your mind, go with the 204-214 cam.

 

The cam with 204/214-.420/.442 would be the better
choice for what you have planed.
This cam is a good improvment over the stock cam.
More average torque in the power band you'll be using.
The other larger cam will make a little more
peak hp but you'll never use it for towing, plowing or 4x4ing.
You can bump up the compression a little over stock
with this cam. Use a torque type dual plane. Small tube headers.
600cfm or Qjet carb, and a give the heads a good basic pocket port job.
You'll have a real good 4x4 motor.

 

Thanks! Yeah, its all stock with a rebuilt Qjet and HEI. I'm having a hard time deciding because I need low end to push snow but with the 4.10s it winds up fast and some upper end breathing would be fun! This truck is a big time beater so I'm sure that it'll get to screaming on a regular basis!!! One other thing is someone stuck in a later motor with center bolt valvecovers, LO5? I've heard bad things about the LO5s swirlport heads. Would this make a bigger cam less effective? Would a smaller cam work better with a stock cast intake, exhaust manifolds, swirlport heads and 2 1/4 dual exhaust? I'd love to put some better pieces on it but in two years we'll probably be parting it out.(bodys shot!)

 

Choose the smaller cam. You can't make a dud into a stud.
Going bigger on the cam is defeniatly not the answer.

Why not build a real budget torque motor with some
decent parts. Pull the motor you have now,lub and wrap it
up and store it in the corner of the garage. When you deside
to part with the truck just swap the motors back.
Then you'll have a decent motor to use in something else.
And you'll actually have some fun with it instead of just using more gas.
Don't bother with the swirl port heads.
See my readers ride for motor specs. It's a basic cast flat top piston 350. You can buy these motors used, for real cheap in the newspaper/swap sheet.
This motor is about as basic and easy to build as it gets.
And goes like hell for the money. I'd still use the smaller of the two cams ina 4x4 thou.

https://www.thirdgen.org/rides/index...ew&rideid=7360