Choosing A Cam. Are Rollers, Solids Or Hydraulics Best For You?
Choosing a Cam for Your Mill: Proper cam selection takes into account not only how a particular high performance cam will work with your intake manifold and cylinder head combination but also the carburetor you intend to use or if it'll be injected, if you'll use headers and what the exhaust system pipe sizing will be. You also need to consider whether the cam profile will provide sufficient intake manifold vacuum at idle to run vacuum accessories such as power brakes and air conditioning, etc. With a good flowing set of aluminum heads, you can run a cam that's much bigger than you could with stock heads a decade ago. If you decide to go with aftermarket heads, take their flow figures to the cam manufacturer and tell them what you want your engine to do. They should be able to help you pick the best grind for what you want. As already mentioned, your intake manifold choice also affects cam selection. A good dual-plane will give an engine an operating range from around idle to 6,000+ rpm, so you'd want your cam's power band to follow that. For those who want the absolute best power, and will pay a little bit more for it, then running a roller cam is the way to go. Hydraulic roller high performance cams are a great choice, but there's also a huge selection of streetable solid roller cams today that don't require the regular valve lash adjustments and can live virtually forever. Street solid rollers can be designed for most any RPM range, but are usually limited to applications with an upper rpm limit of 7200 to 7400 rpm. In General, a heavier vehicle or should use a smaller duration cam to enhance low end torque and acceleration. When undecided between 2 cams always go to the smaller one. You will always be better off. Compare Performance Cams Here
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