I'm rebuilding my 396/325 engine this fall and need a little help. I'm trying to stay as original with this car as possible. It is a 396/325 automatic car. I will not be racing this car it will be mostly for show. I do want it to sound meaner than it really is. Considering that this is an automatic car could someone give me advice on what type lift and duration cam to choose? I'm not to keen on putting a stall kit on this particular car. I plan on using Seal Power (Federal Mogal) parts for the whole rebuild. Thanks!

Those 400 turbos usually had a really tight convertor in them and probabily 2.73s in the rear. You must stay very mild on the cam or you won't like it. I have had real good luck with Comp Cams dual energy type in stock motors with stock exhaust.

The rearend gear is 3.07. Sounds like I may want to stay stock. Hoping to do a little better than that.

Maybe you could find a cam with near stock duration and a tighter Lobe Separation Angle. That would make it idle meaner without killing too much low end.

A cam with more agressive lobes and the same advertised duration would also help. It would make more power too, but I know you don't want that ;)

Just an idea . . .

I will be taking the disassembled engine to the machine shop within the next few days. I plan on buying the parts from them also. I'll get the specs on the Sealed Power cams they carry and maybe you guys can help me choose one for my application. Don't have much experience with cam selection so I apologize for my ignorance! This website rocks with all the knowledge contained in one location. Thanks!

Check with various cam manufacturers about the NHRA "stock" cams they sell and tell them what you want to do. They can grind you a lower duration cam with many different lobes. Be advised that Chevy measured all the flex in the valve train when they published the advertised duration. You will want something MUCH smaller than what would be considered legal for a stock NHRA motor.

Although I'm a little leary of Comp Cams lately, their 268H High Energy cams are designed to work with stock converters and have the slightly choppy idle to make it sound a little meaner. Isky's 270 MegaCam would work, too, though they do spec a deeper rear gear.

Rod

Ditto on the good old CC 268HE cam, imho, too... pdq67

I don't about the 268 but I used a 260 once and I think it ran better with the 325HP cam.

In the Sept 2003 Chevy High Perf mag, they swapped a cam out of a 396/325 with the Crane PowerMax 272 and pulled 442 torque at 3500 rpm and 382 HP at 5300 rpm. It's an interesting article and you may want to check it out. And when they added 1 3/4" headers to the combo they gained around 13 lb of torque and a couple of HP.

I spoke with Comp Cams and this is what they told me to use with my application:

Extreme Energy XE268H

Here are the cam specs:

Slightly rough idle, stock converter, RPM range 1600-5800, duration IN.268/EX.280 and @.050" IN.224/EX.230, valve lift IN..515/EX..520, and lobe separation angle 110 degrees.

Going with my setup of 396/325, stock pistons(maybe 30 over), AC, TH-400, 3:07 rearend what do you guys think about this recommendation by Comp Cam? I did notice that this was their last cam before moving up to a stall kit!

Ditto on the 268 advertised intake duration..

The only thing is that the modern grinds tend to be harder on the valve train b/c of their shorter hydraulic intinsities,(Sp?), as Mr. Crane calls it..

pdq67