As the title says, i want a bigger cam to get some hp gain and that amazing lope sound. as for the engine, its a '73 302 v8. i was not told anything about the engine when i bought the car. i didnt even know it was a 302 untill i had to get a new water pump and ran the numbers. it has a very very mild cam right now i do believe. so what cam do you guys think i can go with and will be ok with a fairly stock 302. The car is a '65 coupe with a t5 transmission. dual exhaust with thrush mufflers

 

here is a short video i made today.. the current cam sounds nice but only when the engines cold. once it warms up,it idles around 1000rpm with no lope at all haha.

 

how much were you looking to spend....Im pretty sure you have a flat tappet cam now and not a roller cam correct?

You can throw another flat tappet cam in there for about 300 and you may or may not need an intake upgrade.

a roller cam is going to cost you about 800 they have the advantage of being really easy and not too risky to break in, have longer life span, can run high lift without having to run long duration. The only real downside is the cost and if you ever have a lifter fail you gotta pull the heads off to change out the lifter. What was once a 2hr job is now an 8+ hr job.

But you gotta find out what heads you have now and what the maximum lift is before you smack valves into pistons...Im guessing they are stock which means you'll probably want to stay with a flat tappet hydraulic cam...If you want lope look for one rated at 2000-6500 rpm with durations somewhere around 280 to 300

This one would be nasty but probably wont work with your heads or pistons.
http://www.compperformancegroupstore..._Code=SBHFTCXE

another nasty one also would probably require extra work to heads

http://www.compperformancegroupstore...y_Code=SBHFTCM

here is one that probably would work with a bit of a rough idle

http://www.compperformancegroupstore..._Code=SBHFTCHE

-Gun

 

I can not view the last link. Which comp cam is it?

 

31-218-2
High Energy™, 268H
Mid-Range Power, Mild Rough Idle

 

You also need to consider the valve springs for lift and binding issues, and whether or not you have screw in studs, pressed in studs or rails.

 

One thing you might also consider either before, or during, this cam swap is a valve job on those heads. I noticed on your video that it smokes on startup, which is usually a sign of worn valve guides. A cylinder leak-down test should be done as well, to check for worn rings and lost compression. If so...this will only get worse over time, especially with a hotter cam. On the actual cam selection....anything around .500 lift and 290-300 advertised duration will give you the idle you want. The torque band on that grind will be in the range of 2500-6000 rpm....more or less. I won't recommend any particular brand, but I have always ran Crane cams. Also...Comp Cams has what they call the "Thumper" series cams that have a really loping idle, but those also have an extremely high lift that will beat the crap out of a stock valvetrain.

 

it was around 30 degrees out