Choosing a cam (suggestions please)

[pats71]

I'm in the process of designing and planning out the rebuild on my 71' Roadrunner's 383 HP motor. It has the 4 speed but has Air conditioning as well. Supposedly the AC pump kinda bogs down the front of the motor but its a rare option that I want to leave on. I'm going to be leaving the motor fairly stock with the cast iron intake, factory hi-perf manifolds, and the 906 heads (2.08int., 1.74exh.). I plan on porting and polishing the heads as well. The only after market pieces I plan on putting on the motor is rebuilding the Carter AFB 750cfm carb that's on it and putting in a good cam that has good driveability, nice lope, and plenty of hp and torque. I don't want to do anything totally radical with this motor, just leave its stock appearance and put in a good cam that can give me over 400+hp and plenty of torque all around. My question is do any of you guys have any suggestions for a good cam that won't give me trouble with my 4 speed or A/C?

[Thack]

Hi Pat,

I'll see what I can come up with for you but here are a few things to ponder,

First, keeping the stock intake, carb and manifolds will really choke airflow. What CR are you looking at? Compression is nothing to be afraid of, a short duration cam with high compression allows the pressures that cause problems.

In short, you have to look at the whole package. You have a 4-speed so that opens a lot of doors, how about ps, pb, gear ratio?

[pats71]

My plan is to hopefully get around 9.5 or 10:1 compression. Right now the car has the massive A/C pump on the front of the motor, power steering, manual drum brakes (hoping to convert to manual disc), and has the factory 8 3/4 3:23 sure grip posi gears. There is a possibility we may switch to 3:55 gears, just depends on which is recommended with a certain engine set up. My dad and I have never worked with a 4 speed car, so this is uncharted territory for us.

As I mentioned, I want to keep a very stock look with this car so the plan is to leave the A/C on the car. Can come in handy down here in our sweltering texas summers. I have also been pondering the thought of putting in another motor instead of running the numbers matching motor and 4 speed. I have an additional 4 speed that cam from a 69' Roadrunner, but am not sure if it's compatible with a 71' roadrunner. I'm sure a 440 would be a lot of fun in that car. Had another guy suggest that I go with a 400ci engine, but if I'm gonna go bigger it'll end up be a hemi or 440.

[Thack]

Ah heck, that makes it easy. Build a 440+6 with a 4:10 and sow your oats. When you get old and settle down a little restore the car with the 383 and original trans. The 400 stroker motors are great and I have a few friends with 451 strokers that I refuse to ride with, but the 440 stroker (500) I had in my Charger

[JosephGiannini]

The biggest horsepower adder is a ignition system.
This includes the coil, plugs wires, cap rotor, and getting away from
the tired points system.
I use a super stock accel coil 43kvdc which is way better then the standard 12kvdc stock.
I use a accel points eliminator that makes the ignition system optical.
Also with this I use a 8.8mm accel wires and bosch platinum plugs single electrode.
This allows me to use a stock distributor as well.
A lot of your horsepower loss is from the igntion system.