What size hydraulic roller cam should I get?

I have a pontiac 400 stroked out to a 469, Kauffman racing 85cc d port heads and my next purchase will be the cam, I'd like to go with a hydraulic roller. Any suggestions on what cam I should get?  

What are you wanting out of the motor? What car is it going in? What's your rear end gearing and transmission?  
Jim,

I'm wanting about 500 hp out of the engine it's going in a 1979 trans am. For the transmission I have a 2004r and the reared gear is 3:73  

Stroked1979transam

Well its like what My71 said. We need to know some very important things. As you know by know your purchase of a Hydraulic Roller Cam is expensive. So you want to make to right choice from the start.

1.Is it the 79 Transam its going in?

2.Trans Type. Automatic or Manual. If an automatic
what stall convertor?

3.Rear Gear Ratio.

4.Believe this or not? How Tall are the Rear Tires
you plan on using? The taller the tire the more rear
gear you will need. IE a 26" tall tire with a 3:73 Rear
Gear with a 2004R O/D Trans is a good cruising trans.

5.Is the TransAm used for street duty, or street/strip duty?
1/8th or a 1/4 mile.

6.Your cam will be one of the biggest investments for your engine
build. Choosing the Wrong Cam is very expensive. TuffNuff has a
thread about picking the correct cam. The only thing I will say
is this. Big Cams are Not the answer. You don't want to over Cam
your engine. Do some research...

Bob  

I just posted, and saw your reply.
500 Horse Power at the crank?
500 Horse Power at the rear wheels with a 3:73 rear gear will not
happen. For an engine to make a decent amount of torque(Torque gets
the car moving). (Horse Power keeps it moving).

Your engine will need to be spinning up around 6,500 to 7,200 RPM.
I'm guessing a TransAm weight as much as a Camaro of that Circa.
I'll see what Comp Cams and Lunati have.  

I suggest downloading Comp Cams free Cam Quest.,. plug in all the required numbers and the program makes the best roller cam selection.

Click on link:

http://camquest.com/

 
When The Flag Drops,,,



The Bull Chit Stops,,,


P. Engineer, Engine Builder

Hello

I’m wondering as the others are if you’re really asking the right question. As tuffnuff suggested, if all you want to know is what range of lift/duration will get you to 500 hp then just download the comp program as he suggested and have at it. It just takes a minute to load and it’s fun and painfully easy to use. If I can do it anyone can. Many people just throw out numbers like this because the read something or heard their buddies say this is what you want. I’m going to guess that you really want more specific info than just 500 hp otherwise you would already know how achieve that goal and wouldn’t need any advice, so based upon that assumption [if it is correct] than I can only suggest that you try and answer every question anyone asks and read their posts carefully as there will be good info and believe me it’s easy to miss something. Here’s my questions and comments based upon my guess of what you are trying to achieve. Some of these questions are similar to those above.

Keep in mind the more hp means the bigger the cam required as well as other mods. The big cams do not have enough vacuum for power brakes to work well at low speeds.

What EXACTLY do you want out of the car ie, good torque moderate street performance, strong tire burning street occasional track perf, all out street monster.

What type of idle ie, mild, moderate or nasty.

If you have power brakes do you care if they do not work well at low speed?

Are you willing to install an aftermarket vacuum reservoir to improve low speed brake performance?

Cylinder head porting – Even though you have “high perf heads” one can typically see significant hp/torque gains simply by porting the heads thereby negating the need for a larger cam. You cam must match your head flow capabilities.
Compression – Your compression ratio is around 10.07:1 as per the free online Wallace racing calculator. No one has told you this but they all know that even though you have aluminum heads your compression is a little high for pump gas. 9.5- 9.0B is better especially on heavier cars.

What intake and carb do you have?

Cam – Look at lunati or comp cams site for xlnt info. Keep in mind that the higher the starting rpm range the less engine vacuum you will have for power brakes. I’m gonna toss out a comp number of xr276hr   moderate lope decent tire burner, xr288hr max for reasonable brake vacuum in a big cube engine, noticeable lope very good tire burner. Anything bigger than those numbers will be obnoxious. That’s ok though I like obnoxious, just letting you know in advance what to expect.

Intake – You will need an edelbrock performer RPM at least, NOT the base edelbrock.

Tires – some nice sticky tires like street slicks will be required if you are going to do any type of drags etc.


Hope this helps.  

Yes this helps alot I appreciate it, I will right up another more detailed post with exactly what I want and hopefully that will make it easier for you and everyone else to answer my questions
Thanks!  

Hello

That would be great, let us know exactly what parts you have in detail if you want ie roller rockers, intake etc we know about the stroker assy and heads now.

BUDGET - Forgot are you on a budget?

How much do you have to spend?  

i had a 74 fb with a 468 i raced i will post some numbers tomarrow.  
76 455/4spd TRANS AM
69 GRAND PRIX 406/5SPD

StrockedT/A  I have a comp XE268H nin my 454 in my pontiac beaumont,makes 450hp and550 torque with small valve heads.A slightly more aggressive roller should get your 500hp.I also still have enogh vacuum[13"] for power brakes  
alley find 69goat #'s match 400ys,th400,3:55,249000 miles / 66 beaumont,454,tko500,3:73 auburn ls

hello

66 beaumont, I'm just curious, is that on a real dyno or computer dyno? If it is a real dyno it might help everyone if you could list your upgrades including compression, head porting, etc if you want to. Those are great numbers with a small cam.

Comp's computer dyno says the most you can possibly get with that cam with 455 ci, large headers with mufflers, 750 carb, 9.5:1 comp, dual plane rpm type intake and stock unported heads with small valves is, 353 hp at 4000 and 496 torque at 2500. Your numbers would show that comp dyno's are not always accurate which is good to know because comps numbers are way off of yours.

Just adding full porting to the heads brings it to 411 hp at 4500 and 511 torque at 3500 so comps dyno still can't get to your numbers.

Thanks  

stroked i had a 468, 10.3 compression ported 6x heads, victor intake, solid lifter cam .248/.248 at .050 ,550 lift made about 480hp by the times it ran 11.50s in a 74 firebird, 3600 lbs th350, 3500 stall 3.50 gears 28" slicks. 10.99 with a 100 shot nos.(I SHIFTED AT 5500) EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD PULL TO 6500.IT RAN THE SAME TIMES!!

it was a race car but drove very well. you may get the same power with a bit smaller roller cam depending on head flow numbers. as far as power brakes, vacume pump, hydro boost, or manual.

3.73 is a good gear for a 455. hope you have spent some money on the 2004r. i have about $800 in just parts for mine and from the book i have i need to spend another $500 to hold 500+ ftlbs of torq.  
76 455/4spd TRANS AM
69 GRAND PRIX 406/5SPD

Hello stroked1979transam

I ran Rowsleys set up on comp just for fun, it came out to 466 hp at 5500 and 504 torque at 4500. with 10.0 compression.

Hello Rowsley are you saying you didn't dyno your motor and just calculated your hp by the et calculater? Either way it's pretty amazing how close the comp dyno is to your dyno or et calculater but I probably got lucky guessing the numbers to enter.

Thanks

update - I just re ran these numbers and they may be incorrect. I'll look into it.

No they are the same numbers I got yesterday.  

Stroked,real dyno results-9.5 comp stock iron late model heads,performer intake,750 holley vacuum secondaries,petronix ignition,big tube hooker comps  
alley find 69goat #'s match 400ys,th400,3:55,249000 miles / 66 beaumont,454,tko500,3:73 auburn ls