First high performance Pontiac build? They screwed it up!  

I don't think it's too screwed up.  After putting the carb back on yesterday.  It runs immensely better.  When the secondaries open up it just about throws you in the back seat. The builder can reproduce the invoice & blueprint for $15, So I am gonna order that today.  He told me they are custom pistons & a custom grind cam,  so now I don't know what the hell to beleive.  My dads memory probably isn't that good lol. I was trying to get more info out of the shop but he was like look if I'm on the phone, I'm not out in the shop turning cranks and building engines.  My wife had my card so I couldn't order it yesterday.  When get it I'll have to somehow scan it & put in on the net then you guys can disect & let me know if things were done correctly.  
But it's again a very fun car.  Still the burning of the eyes and raw fuel out the tail but it sounds way better idles better and the brake booster actually functions a little bit now.  Bad news is I broke the edelbrock valve cover......  Chinese junk cover, I didn't even have it snug yet & it cracked.  Does the regular pontiac v8 valve covers fit the Ram Air V????  

By "screwed up" I mean their choice of CR and cam profile.  No doubt their machine work is good.

Glad to hear that it's running better.

Regular Pontiac valve covers should fit.

If the CR is 12:1+, you'll never get best performance out of it because you have to retard the timing to keep from burning pistons.

If you ever take it apart (again), it will be interesting to find out what crank and rods are in it.  Also whether it is a RAV block or a 1974 400 block.  

well theres a easy solution to part of the problem.
I can run some race gas.  I'll just order a VP 55 gallon drum or something.  I don't drive the car very much.  The cam profile should be easy enough to change out but where would I find such a cam for sale?  

Yes, high octane racing gas is a quick solution.  That's what I use on my 1976 TurboForce Revival project.  I have a 5 gal fuel cell in the trunk that is switchable between tank and cell.

Cam profile change?  It depends. If it were my car, I would use a billet core and hydraulic roller lifters.  I'll get back to you on the profile.

Craig  

One more criticism (I know, I've had plenty).

Why the "5-angle" valve job????  Did the shop have a flow bench where they could prove that a 5-angle was better than he stock one?  I doubt it.  IMO, it sounds like another reason to charge more money to your dad or whoever paid for the rebuild.

I have innumerable examples where "expert" high performance shops have absolutely no clue about what actually works on a Pontiac.  

If you EVER send your engine out for "work" then at least send it to a Pontiac-expert shop, please!

Craig  

I don't think it will ever be sent out for work I can change a cam & lifters and everything.  I guess the 5 angle was the theory that if you step the flow into the engine it is smoother.  But I'd guess that you probably don't want it to be smooth on the intake because you want some turbulence to help better optimize fuel atomization.  My Father paid alot of money for this build and the work done to the transmission.  I was only 13 when the engine was built.  I was completely obsessed with this car as a kid.  Somewhere between the ages of 15 & now I Kinda lost interest for awhile.  Was building 9 second Toyotas for awhile & now have the finances to complete the rest of this car.  I need to take care of this cam issue, replace the rear end gears, it's a 12bolt posi rear end with 3.08's and I'm thinking maybe 3.73's or 4.11's Then I need to do the body work & have the car painted & I need to find seatbelt clips as all the seatbelts are broken.  

I'M CONCERNED BY THE LACK OF GUIDEPLATES!! If you chance the cam in this engine, you must use a steel billet custom ground shaft because there are no cast flat tappet cam cores made. I would be glad to have a cam custom made to your requirements and intended usage. I recommend a HYDRAULIC ROLLER profile.  

What is the advantage to the roller camshaft? Decreased friction?  I guess it has not guide plates because the pushrods allready travel through little tubes???  Craig do you know where I can find a Ramair IV cam with the 308/320 and how much lift it makes?  

Ken Crocie knows exactly what he is talking about.  If he says there are no more RAV billets, then there are no more.  

The advantages to a roller camshaft are many.  One is a faster ramp speed which opens the valve faster than a flat tappet.  Another is reduced friction since the tappet is rolling, not sliding.

You only have ONE CHOICE if you want a correct grind camshaft for your RAV.  Start with a billet roller core.  That is what Ken is saying and I 100% agree with him.  If I owned your RAV, that is what I would do.

WRT RAIV grind: it was a 308/320/.510 114CL computer designed profile.  One of the first in the industry according to Harvey Crane himself, founder of Crane Cams.  It has since been outdated by more agressive flat tappet grinds.  But you need the hydraulic roller advised by Ken.

WRT guideplates or "little tubes": All Pontiac (and many other like Chevy) heads have guideplates.  This is because they have flat tappets and pressed rocker arms.  Roller lifters and roller rocker arms pretty much eliminate any drawbacks to non-guideplate heads since they can only operate in one plane of motion.

Craig  

ok, I didn't realize his statement was saying there aren't any ram air V cams out there.  I wonder if the builder made a little side profit from putting a different cam in & selling the old one. The build invoice states it's a custom profile cam but it's still 305/305.  I'd rather have someone who specializes in pontiacs and knows about the Ramair V to make me a cam & probably to tune the engine after it's all together.  Do you have to degree the Ramair V cam because somewhere i saw you installed it straight up. no need to use a degree wheel.  

No doubt the builder reground the original RAV cam to what he "thought" was a good grind for that engine -- having no actual knowledge about what would run well, of course.

You may not know this, but the RAV is a dead-bang copy of the 1967 Ford "Tunnel port" NASCAR head.

Go with what Ken Crocie recommends.  He will put you spot on.

PM me and I'll give you his personal phone number.

Craig  

I just happened across this post and I'm fascinated by the possibility of this car actually being built by the factory, although the odds certainly seem very, very much against it. Have you uncovered any more clues about it's authenticity? It sounds like you have established that the heads really are RA-V with a casting of 44 and 4 equally-spaced exhaust ports and I think I also picked-up on the pushrods passing though  tubes which was uniquely necessary to the RA-V since they pass through the intake port. I still can't fathom the ability to special order something that had never been offered in a production vehicle, not even 5 years earlier when they were available over the counter. Please keep us posted on this story. The heads alone are worth a small fortune and if the car was really built by GM, I can't imagine what it might be worth.

Tom Kuhn