4x4 cam

juiced01s10 · October 19, 2005

I picked up a 84 chevy k10 4x4 with a 305. I want to get some more power out of the current motor and was thinking about swaping in a nice 4x4 cam for more tq and some more RPM's. any suggestions

facn8me · October 21, 2005

It's gonna be tough getting torque and HP out of a 305. You can have one or the other but not both. I recomend torque. It'll help get ya rolling.

Look at a compcams 240h. It's designed for the 305 to help with torque.

Don't expect it to run like gangbuster but there should be a noticable improvement in all around useablepower. I really do not recomend much bigger on a 305 exspecially in a truck.

zippy · January 26, 2006

over the years i've done alot of 305 work. there is alot of them out there and many people looking to upgrade them.

i'd recomend going to a comp cam grind#X4250H (part#12-231-2). you'll find that cam will give you alot more power from off idle to around 5500. you'd assume that going with that cam you some low end, but testing has shown different. make sure you get the timing curve right and you'll notice a good bit better low end than stock also. switch to a 160 stat for the summer weather and it'll allow another couple degree's of timing advance. if you're valve springs are old, i'd highly recomend going with new one's. go with comp cams 981-16. they are fairly inexpensive and should do the job nicely. the cylinder heads on that engine are quite a restriction, but as long as you're keeping the lift below .450 they are aceptable. what trans and gear does the truck have?

superbee · January 27, 2006

You can't really decide on a cam grind until you look at tire diameter, rear end ratio, OD trans yes or no, and application ie mud bog, towing, street racing, etc. Almost all of the cam companies have 800 numbers and will be more than happy to give you some input. Also Summit Racing has always been extremely helpful to me, as well as Jeg's. Do yourself a favor and spend a little time educating yourself. This stuff is really fun, dig in. I like the comp cams 268h advertised duration cam for a truck smallblock if you have short enough gears, 3.73 or numerically higher. my .02

Superbee

zippy · January 27, 2006

you don't chose a cam by gear and tire. you chose a cam for your usage of the truck. the gear needs to be matched to the tire no matter what cam you go with and the tires need to be no bigger than it takes to do what's needed. if you had a 305 in a truck with 44's on it you don't need a different cam than the same truck with 33's on it. you will need to chose a different converter and gear though. the 268h you mention i have installed into a customer's 310 (.030 over 305) and it ran well, but wasn't terribly happy with the stock stall. it did however pull real well from around 2500-5500. with better valve springs it would have likely made power to 6000 though. that cam would work ok in a 4x4 truck with a 305, but you'd certainly want a 2600-2800 stall to be happy with it.

superbee · February 3, 2006

I can't agree with you more, as long as we're not on a tight budget. If you have factory stall with 3.42 and stock tires, that cam will suck off of the bottom. If you have 4.10s and stock tires the stall speed is not nearly the issue. I agree with you, I would love to tailor the entire driveline on every build but for me that has yet to have been a possibility. I assumed this to be abudget build because it is a 305, why else would you build a 305 unless you can't afford more cubes?

juiced01s10 · February 5, 2006

I can't agree with you more, as long as we're not on a tight budget. If you have factory stall with 3.42 and stock tires, that cam will suck off of the bottom. If you have 4.10s and stock tires the stall speed is not nearly the issue. I agree with you, I would love to tailor the entire driveline on every build but for me that has yet to have been a possibility. I assumed this to be abudget build because it is a 305, why else would you build a 305 unless you can't afford more cubes?

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OK here are some more details on the truck:

31" all terrains

stock gears (no idea what ratio)

stock 700r4 tranny (will probably get rebuilt in the very soon)

I would like to do a set of 4:10 gears & limited slip font and rear, rebuild tranny with a looser converter. A friend is building a 350 for his truck which currently has a well running 350 in it so I might just get that from him.