Greetings . . .

I agree with panic. The analysis seems very one dimensional - as if the cam is the only variable when building an engine.

In his book "How to HOP UP Chevrolet and GMC engines" Roger Huntington points out the various 'paths to power' - and shows how cam selection needs to be done in concert with other modifications.

He uses torque curves to show the difference between getting a 15% increase in HP from bore/stroke changes versus cam timing. When varying cam timing alone the torque curve performs below 'stock' for most of the RPM range (until the engine gets on cam) - whereas increased displacement performs above stock across the entire operating RPM range.

As panic points out, gaining HP from cam timing alone yields a steeper and steeper torque curve. Quoting Roger "In fact, we can carry this cam timing business to a point a where the peak torque will be above 3500 rpm - and it will barely idle at 1000. This would mean idling at about 22 mph in high gear."

Roger concludes that if one is going to go for a longer duration cam - one needs to do something to replace the lost HP on the lower end - bore, stroke, C/R or a combination - and this is most important if the displacement is small to start with.

regards,
stock49

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