So I'm doing a cam swap this winter on my 86 LG4. Running ~9.5:1 compression. Motor is stock other than an Edelbrock performer intake and a holley 600 carb. I found these kits from Elgin. Never heard of them, but seem to be a good deal. 1) anyone know about these cams/valvetrain parts from Elgin? and 2) what is going to be the best bet for my motor? I have 416 heads and need to stay under .500" lift.

http://www.competitionproducts.com/E.../products/293/

My thoughts were that the first kit in the list with .443/.465 lift would be the best for my motor. However, this is my first 305 build and am unsure of what would be too big. I want to get as big as possible for performance gains, but I know a 305 can be easily over-cammed. Any input on this?

 

elgin is not too bad, as far as quality goes. I have bought several of their cam kits for my customers from "competition products". most are still around after 8 or so years. and youre right with the lift you have chosen. but don't go any bigger.dont forget to get a "cloyes" double roller timing kit too.

 

I'm with Rusty.

I have ran a few Elgin cams, rockers, etc in my own stuff and installed in some customer's engines. Never had a prob with any of them. My dad is still using a 15 year old set of Elgin roller tip steel rocker arms that I had on 3 engines and he had on 2 engines

 

They're just generic old stock replacement type cams; nothing special one way or the other. If you look down their catalog list, you'll see the EXACT same cam as the Summit 1102; a 929 replica, and a 151 replica; the "RPM cam"; and so on.

The .443"/.465" one is the same as this http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sl...make/chevrolet or this http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...make/chevrolet. Buy it from whoever sells it the cheeeeeeepest. Some people spec the int valve lift at .442", some at .443", some at .444"; doesn't really matter, it's still the same cam, depends on which way you want to round it off.

A thoroughly non-competitive and obsolete design, but dependable in a way. Easy on parts, decent if not too exciting power. It'd be OK in a 305 with high compression, plenty of gear, and about a 2500 RPM stall; I wouldn't put it in a typical stock LG4 car application for example.

 

Yep Sofa is right on. All of the eglin cams are old 'out dated' profiles but they are a good quality part. It will work great for mild engine builds. Don't expect to set any speed/track records with them.

Same goes with melling, sealed power, summit, and even the edelbrock performer cams. They are pretty much the same old out dated profiles.
You can look at the duration, lift and LSA on all of those above listed cams and they will match real close.

That's not a bad thing really though.. It's hard to find a more aggressive cam profile in a hyd. flat tappet cam and when you do, the cam may not but as dependable due to the steep ramp peak that the lobe has to have.

Thats the advantages of a roller cam, you can get more aggressive with the profile and not have major probs from it.