Cam question

[Mark1969Bee72]

So my numbers matching 383 1969 Superbee has a stock cam. What would be a good replacement to give the car a little more oomph? Put aluminum intake and edelbrock carburetor on it. Still has stock manifold but possibly thinking tti headers also.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Did your 383 have ac?
Ac cars used 330hp engines w a smaller cam.

How is your car set up as in what gears/transmission?

Are you wanting to run the current valve springs or buy new? Has it been rebuilt w replacement pistons or is it original? All things to factor in your cam upgrade.

 

[Lefty71]

509....just sayin.

 

[Don Frelier]

I would recommend the lunati 702.
But if you were to have the heads reworked and put a new chain on it and degree it in you might be surprised how well the stock setup can perform.

 

[WileE]

Call Hughes with all your details

 

[blue69runner]

Thumper cam form crane cams. Half dome pistons. IN the 383 will get you around 450 Hp with 20 over bore. Stock heads. Original exhaust manifolds. 650 Holley single pumper carb.

 

[Geoff 2]

Heavy car. What diff ratio? Idle quality? Going up in cam duration will at some point degrade idle quality & reduce low end tq. So this info is needed to know your limits on these.
Bigg-er cams are best thought of as torque shifters: they shift the tq from the low end to the top end.

 

[moparedtn]

What is it you're actually looking for? More zip off the line? More pull on top end?
Typical "day 2" mods like better exhaust (sounds like you did something with the intake side already)
help and are more easily dealt with if the engine itself is fundamentally sound.
Perhaps a nice set of the smaller primary diameter TTI's?

 

[PRHeads]

Imo, “throwing a cam” into a 53 year old motor, without assessing the overall condition of the heads isn’t usually a great idea.
Having the heads gone through/updated to where they’re really suitable for a modern design cam should really be part of the “cam swap package”.

If that’s not going to happen, I’d suggest staying away from modern fast rate/high lift cam designs.

 

[1970lime]

Thumper cam form crane cams. Half dome pistons. IN the 383 will get you around 450 Hp with 20 over bore. Stock heads. Original exhaust manifolds. 650 Holley single pumper carb.

The Thumpr cam-series are made by Comp...

 

[Bighead440]

The old proven 272-2 Crane EconoPower (.454/.480") sounds good and gives a boost in power with minimal changes, but Crane appears defunct (again). Lunati also has the same grind in their "Street Avenger" line of cams, and a slightly more aggressive "Factory Replacement" series that will show gains.

 

[Mark1969Bee72]

Did your 383 have ac?
Ac cars used 330hp engines w a smaller cam.

How is your car set up as in what gears/transmission?

Are you wanting to run the current valve springs or buy new? Has it been rebuilt w replacement pistons or is it original? All things to factor in your cam upgrade.

Non AC car. 4 speed 3.23 non sure grip gears. Haven’t torn into the motor to answer your questions. Would like to just swap the cam if possible without changing out a lot. Was mislead and dealer was fraudulent about the car, have spent quite a bit of money so far getting it safe, reliable, and replacing parts that were supposedly good.

 

[Mark1969Bee72]

Heavy car. What diff ratio? Idle quality? Going up in cam duration will at some point degrade idle quality & reduce low end tq. So this info is needed to know your limits on these.
Bigg-er cams are best thought of as torque shifters: they shift the tq from the low end to the top end.

Idle quality is outstanding with new carburetor, went with edelbrock avs 650. Want more low end torque.

 

[RemCharger]

It's kiiiiiinda like 10 degree steps, sorta.
I'd put yours at a 268 cam. Maybe 274, depends what you're doing.
About as general as you can get.

 

[rumblefish360]

Non AC car. 4 speed 3.23 non sure grip gears. Haven’t torn into the motor to answer your questions. Would like to just swap the cam if possible without changing out a lot. Was mislead and dealer was fraudulent about the car, have spent quite a bit of money so far getting it safe, reliable, and replacing parts that were supposedly good.

What head? Or better yet, what size intake valve?

 

[RemCharger]

906 2.08 ?

 

[rumblefish360]

Idle quality is outstanding with new carburetor, went with edelbrock avs 650. Want more low end torque.

More torque? With headers I’d run a Thumper cam (or the like, Hughes engine and Howard’s cams also make similar cams.)
CHRYSLER COMP Cams 21-600-5 COMP Cams Thumpr Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshafts | Summit Racing
The cam is cut on a 107. With the set up you have, headers included in this thought, this will deliver a bunch. At a 227@050 intake duration it is just a step up from a stock cam, a slight rpm increase from stock. The narrow LSA will gain you torque and have a muscle car idle for sure.

Later on down the road you might want to try a 750 carb.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

I would recommed taking a compression check first. Then consider how to proceed.
It could be your timing chain is shot or original pistons have been replaced with some lower compression ones or its just tired.

 

[rumblefish360]

Like PRH said, it’s an old engine.

 

[PRHeads]

Exhaust valve seat recession is a very real concern with engines from that era.
I have a set of untouched 906’s in the shop now that all 8 exhaust seats are quite badly recessed.
These are off an engine that had never been apart, and it was a non-HP 383.

The easy check before getting too far into the project is to pull the rockers off and lay a straight edge along the valve tops.

What you’re looking for is if some of the valve tips are significantly higher than others.

These old engines often showed noticeable wear and tear when they got up near 100K(unlike modern stuff that will usually go 200K+).