Anyone with a 355, i'd like to here your reviews on the cam you installed, what brand, part #, any things you did or didn't like, any little details. Would you have gone bigger or smaller given the chance, what stall convertor did you use?

 

Alright, i'll toss in my thoughts;
I used a lunati 60103, but I lost 4 lobes, so i'm putting in a compxe268. No brand quibbles here, just the comp was in stock, and very similar. Cam breakage is probably my fault.
These are both hydraulic flat tappet cams. The lunati cam has a bit more agressive ramp on it.

I'll talk about the xe268 then;
I have 10:1 CR. This cam works well in that range. They say biggest cam for stock stall, (everyone i've talked to said that's a bit of a lie) now I have a standard trans, but I think that's a good way to compare it's streetability.

I did use the lunati for about 1000miles. It was very streetable. Idled rock steady at 750RPM, after 2500-3000RPM it really pulled hard. Lacked a bit between 1000-2000RPM, but I think that was partially carb tuning issues on my part.
If I could do it again, i'd do a solid flat tappet, and larger. The only reason I didn't was because this was my first motor build, and hydraulic flat tappet is one less variable to go wrong. Also I used ported 416 heads, so I don't think they can take advantage of a huge cam, and the motor is used as a commuter mainly.

 

never mentioned if you were roller or not...
I like my Lt1 cam very much... if my heads were better id use the Lt4 hotcam

 

Sorry to hear about your cam sonix, i'm pretty worried about doing the same to mine. was looking at the 268xe myself, so i'd like to hear how that works out.

 

don't hold your breath on me, my lunati cam musta tossed a fair bit of metal shavings in the motor. All my bearings are toast and the motor is coming out for a rebuild.
Solid 1000 miles on it this summer, $6000 invested. Woot, what a return right?

many people have gone with the xe268 though, very popular cam. how did you get 9.7:1CR with 882 heads though?

 

Mill to 74cc's, .015 compressed steel gasket, flat top pistons. Yea i worked for that one.

 

Mines an old '72 355, daily driver. Last year I lost a cam lobe; as this is my 'learnin' car and I had not done a cam swap before, I went with a safe Crane/GM 214/224 .442/.469 (lift from memory I think). Would like to have used a Comp XE that you guys are fond of, but harder to get over here and they sound a little tricky for your first break-in. Will get one next time, now that I am all confident and such . The dead cam measured about 310 adv inlet /.450 - prolly a little longer than the new one.

Shaved the old 624 heads down to 68cc and cleaned up pockets; new cr is about 9:1 with flat tops. The new incarnation is up on torque across the board, though a bit limp below about 2800 - but it can smoke tyres now at least! Really lights up above this and pulls pretty hard to 5000, which is where I chicken out - old 2-bolt bottom end in unknown condition.

Next step is a 2500 stall I guess, and get rid of the 2.77 gears.

 

There was a guy on here selling a retro-fit Hyd roller comp 282 cam. It was a good deal. You might be able to pic something like that up. You will have to change lifters also. You dont have the same worries about breakin like a regular hyd cam.

I have the standard xr282hr in my 350 with afr190 and 10.3 to 1 compression. It seems like a nice cam.

 

I am not seeing entirely how this thread is helping the topic author. Someone can tell you what cam they like and what cam they didn't but how would that pertain to you? You can't stick just any cam in... and expect good results.

You have to match your cam to your heads and the goal you set for your motor. If you want help then tell us what heads you have and where you are looking to go with this motor. If not then, what's the point?

 

Right, you make a good point, but i was looking for things more like any problems they had with that perticular brand of cam, or what they liked about it. I've been told by many that a xe268 is the best choice for my application, now i'm just trying to get an idea of what the peoples favorite brand is.