CAMS ? STREETABILITY

Engine size and rear gear will usually dictate the size of the cam for a street driven vehicle. You want to keep the cam sized for decent power in the rpm range you want to drive at.

Streetable drivability is a totaly personal decision as to how much an individual is willing to accept some ill manners.

A rough idle and slow "off idle" response would be considered not for the street by some people yet, I have seen some engines resembling Pro Stock manners be absolutely OK to some others.

X2 and transmission will be a factor as well. You can get away with more cam with a stick shift, idling in neutral , than dealing with a big stall converter generating trans heat and dragging down rpm's.

When it comes to durability of the valvetrain the type and design of the profile is very important. Many times you can have two profiles that give virtually the same amount of total lift yet one or the other can produced substantially better valvetrain longevity. Often times this increased durability can come at the price of little to no horsepower yet reduce the amount of required maintenance by a very large amount.

If a guy had vacuum brakes and a 2,000 rpm stall...not very far. Like most questions...not enough info to answer.

lem- what info do you want ? ill be glad to give what ever you need

rmcomprandy wrote:Streetable drivability is a totaly personal decision as to how much an individual is willing to accept some ill manners.

Randy and I may slightly disagree on which direction oil can/should or may flow but he could not have described the term "Streetable" any better!

Just sucking up,
Dave.

badnotch wrote:how big can you go before driveability is an issue- along with valve train issues thanks

Notch,
Thought the last engine was the street engine?? What was the cam specs on the 572 A-head deal that was in the car before?? You seemed happy with it and it ran 9.0's................

Travis

that cam was 770 ish was a street car - motor wasnt that street friendly 11.5 compression cam was only deciding factor - so this year it will be 600 cubes and a set of cleaned up C-heads only cause i can seem to find a buyer

Do they make a big enough dish to run with the C heads to get the compression down low enough.? My C heads are 64cc , flat tops , still 14:1. You are going to be a 4.500 stroke, 6.800 rod and 4.600+ bore............ Don't think you are going to get there with the above combo...........

gonna have to order a nos piston with extra meat-and do some valve relief -or order a inverted dome

Quite a few of the hotter cars out here on the street, in order to have driveability as in not overheating, having no vacuum for brakes, above 1000 rpm idles, etc, have simply gone to lower compression and smaller cams, and put in power adders, nitrous , turbos or blowers to give them back the power of a high power "all motor" set up. To try and keep a 12-14 to 1 compression motor happy just running in traffic to and from the local cruise is difficult, its doable , but keeping race gas or alky on hand can be troublesome, and plugs loading up , heat building up etc. can all come into play. An 8 or 9 to 1 nos motor or turbo or blown motor can run all day keeping cool and by controlling boost use pump gas and still make pretty big power. A friend of mine has a 1969 camero with a crate 572 bbc in it, cost him $100. a night in race gas to bring it out to the cruise. Comparatively I make more power (blown) but can run on pump premium so it costs me about $20. to bring out my hot rod. If he tried to run pump his pistons would be in pieces in the oil pan!!

Would this cam (Solid Roller 273/280 Degrees @ 0.050 Lift, Valve Lift 0.787/.791 109 Degrees of Lobe seperation) if used in 552 CID be too unstreetable?< (+.060 overbore+4.5 Inch Crank) with 12-13:1 CR, either 1050 E-85 single 4 Victor or Twin 950's on a Weiand Tunnel ram, Ported Ford Aluminum SCJ heads>

Assume Fiberglass '48-'52 Anglia Pro-Street (2600-2900 LBS), E4OD tranny, 9 inch rear (4.33 or 4.71 rear gear), 30-13.5X15 ET Streets or 31-16.5X15 Hoosier Quick Times Pro.

Usage 15-60 miles round trip to Car Shows/Cruise Ins/ Drag Races.

Being that light, and with that low a gear, even if your trans was in overdrive its still a light load on that motor. The E-85 will cover your octane needs, the only questionable thing is how long will the valve springs last?? I know springs have gotten a lot better but you are still close to 800 lift. I could see this run on the street but not sure how often you would be servicing the valve train.

Notch! go the other 460 site and search for -- Thoe's 608.. hes form down under and built a C headed 608 9.2-3 compression pump gas motor
has 62.5 dish pistons. has videos and all of it on the street, give it alook see

you can email him and hell tell ya everything about it, but its sold now


Keith

With all this talk of cam streetability,what really hurts the valvetrain, the duration or the lift, or a combo of both? Which has more effect on streetworthiness in pure terms of longevity?

windsor wrote:With all this talk of cam streetability,what really hurts the valvetrain, the duration or the lift, or a combo of both? Which has more effect on streetworthiness in pure terms of longevity?

Valve springs and their pressure.

I plan on swaping out my springs every 12 months wether they need it or not. rather pay 350 for springs than 10,000 for a new motor imo.

Honestly, it seems everyone has a different idea of whats Streetable and whats not. i know guys that say .500 lift and 216* @ .050 is not streetable at all. i know others with cams in the .750 range that call there cams a medium sized performance street cam.

It comes down to how often can you and or are willing to service your valvetrain, the size of your pocket book, and how you drive.

just my .02

Its simple, smaller cam, BIGGER POWER ADDER!!!!

blown473 wrote:Its simple, smaller cam, BIGGER POWER ADDER!!!!

that works too

I would say that on a roller that something in the 250-260 @ .050 and .650 lift would be about as large as you would want a true street roller cam. now thats something that would not have 320# on the seat and 950# open but more on the lines of 220-230# and maybe 600-650# open pressures. All things would live alot longer and be a little more forgiving. You could probably drive the thing a little more and not have the little voice in your head telling you that it hears something. I would also stick with the P-51's or SCJ's for a more street oriented ride. It would still make plenty of usable power at the races and have plenty of drivability on the street too.

Just my 2$

X2, I think Travis is correct, less strain on the valve train. If thats not enough power than build a NOS system like Bruno's and fill the trunk with bottles....

Maddmattmustangs wrote:I plan on swaping out my springs every 12 months wether they need it or not. rather pay 350 for springs than 10,000 for a new motor imo.

Honestly, it seems everyone has a different idea of whats Streetable and whats not. i know guys that say .500 lift and 216* @ .050 is not streetable at all. i know others with cams in the .750 range that call there cams a medium sized performance street cam.

It comes down to how often can you and or are willing to service your valvetrain, the size of your pocket book, and how you drive.

just my .02

You're not understanding the point ... the extra pressure creates other problems with streetable endurance besides simply the springs themselves.

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You're not understanding the point ... the extra pressure creates other problems with streetable endurance besides simply the springs themselves.[/quote]

ya like losing a lifter -due to to much spring pressure