Need some performance info for a 400

New to the forum and have done some browsing to see if anyone else has the same questions.  Have seen some but not all queustions I have were addressed.  It's been quite awhile since I've done any Pontiac performance work so many of the do's and dont's have escaped me.

I have a YS 67 motor with 670 heads from a 67 GTO.  The engine was bored .040 over and cylinders look real good with no ridge.  The engine was run for a long time with no thermostat and never warmed up enough to purge moisture from the oil.  The car it was in is a 79 TA 10th anniversary 4 speed and it sat for long periods with this oil in the pan.  Some rust had formed on the rod journals and scuffed them.  Some rust had also formed at the cam lobes where they touched the lifters and ruined the cam.

It had a Crane 284 cam in it with stamped rockers and the valve springs were double springs with the oil umbrellas on them.  The valve seals had been crushed by the retainers enough to knock the top wire off the seals.  All the wires were intact.  I plan to send the heads to Indy Cyl Head here in Indy to have them redone.  What is a good performance cam for the 400 without getting parts too close together or with some small mods done to the heads to get what I need.

The crank can be polished to bring it back.  While in the bottom end of the engine I found a windage tray ???  It was bolted to what looked like factory bolt locations on the main caps ??? Never seen this before.  It also looked like the dipstick was bent to the rear to get the tube to line up with the hole in the tray. Anyone see this before.

 Am all ears for any do's and dont's.  

OK the 670 heads have 72cc chambers and that will give you a 10:1CR and that is too much compression for pump gas with iron heads on a pontiac engine but they can open up the combustion chambers to achieve a 9.5:1CR and that will run fine on premium pump gas.I would also have a 3-5 angle valve job done.

For the cam I would recommend P#LUN-10703 it has a .470 lift and should work well for the 400.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

Thanks for the reply.....

I would like to do some smoothing and blending in the ports and I understand that this is somewhat touchy on the Pontiac if you don't know what you're doing ??

 I have done, many years ago, work on combustion chambers to open them up on early closed chamber high compression BBC heads. Any similarity ?

A question I have about the valve springs is, did this year have the double springs ?  Have seen most with a spring and a flat spring damper inside.

 I was digging around in a buddys parts leftover bin and found a Melling RA III factory cam.  I see many posts about these as just excactly that, left overs.  The cam that is mentioned above is similar so it should work well.  I figure that I have a light car with a 4.10 gear (which I didn't mention before) and high compression heads, that I have some wiggle room to get a little more without stressing the valve train.  Any thoughts ??

 Last thing is this windage tray... Could it be a factory item ?? Anyone seen one before ???  

Hey everybody just thought I'd add a little to this.I have a 79 T/A with a stock rebiuld 78 400,6x heads,headers and an edelbrock performer intake.What I was going to add is pontiac man is right on! I have put in a lunatti bracket master2 cam 480 lift and wow this car screams!!the cam is perfect great lumpy idle and just perfect all around I would suggest useing this came to anyone wanting more hp!great cruzer get's all the attention,plus on the highway it's a blast,with 3.08 rear hope this help when you put in a cam!And it don't pull the motor down at the stoplight drags I can hold 1st out of the hole and it just pull's like a rocket and 2ndtil redline no issues at all!Yuo won't be disapointed!! After all that i beat 3 5.0 mustangs!stock 400!standard bore!  

Porting is something that can be messed up kind of easy if you do not know what you are doing I have done quite a few but had some there on my first set to teach me the right way I do not recommend doing it yourself if you have never done this before.
I am pretty sure they came with the double valve springs from the factory.
I would open up those 72cc chambers a little so you do not have detonation problems with pump gas 9.5:1CR is max. on pump gas reguardless of what any one tells you Do not make the mistake of running too much compression and destroying the engine.  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races