I've been thinking instead of rebuilding a 350 i was just going to put in a new cam. So i called up Crane Cams today and they said this is the biggest cam i can get on the stock heads.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Crane/270/114122/10002/-1

what do you guys think.

 

well which stock heads?...and how stock are they? completely like havent touched anything? then i would say that is about as much lift as you would want to run.... i would still be checking my clearances on them pretty closely you never know what your going to find on a stock head...

 

well im preaty sure they are stock heads it suposively had a rebuild not sure what was done. what do you mean wich stock heads and i can find out.

 

Casting numbers under the valve covers will tell what heads they are. If this is a completely stock, rebuilt-and-put-back-together-with-same-heads '84 305, the heads are 416's.

Stock valve springs are a big problem - you'll float them with any kind of "real" cam in it. With better springs, you can typically go to the .460-.480" lift range.

 

? do i have to remove heads to put in heavier springs.

 

No. You can get a compressor fitting that goes into the spark plug hole and the compressed air is supposed to keep the valve up while you change the valve stems/springs.

 

With 20+ year old springs on those heads, you'll want to replace them with you install the cam. And if the timing chain is stock too, you'll want a new one of those. And the list of things you should change or replace while you're in there just grows. That's why I say a cam swap on a stock engine is one of the last things you should do.

 

get rid of those exsaust rotators also they limit the lift

that cam is alot like the rv cam

dont pay alot of money for that size of cam

alot of people are mislead by new cam tech-

 

That cam did well in a non HO carb 305 I had. I changed the springs and timing chain with regular replacement parts. It ran well with headers and an edelbrock intake. You could also run a slightly more aggressive cam if you wanted to.