Cam help

[GranSportSedan]

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[WkillGS]

Looks like you have the baby bear and the poppa bear as your choices!
The first cam @ 213/214 duration and 0.460' lift is just a bit over stock. Stock is 209 duration 0.440" lift.
The second cam will like higher rpm. Will likely lose some low end tho.

I would suggest something in between, like the Comp Cam Xtreme Energy series. The XE274H has 224/230 duration, 0.485/0.490" lift.
XE274H is the next one up with 230/236 duration, 0.520/0.523" lift.
Or a step down for a great low end, the XE262H has 218/228 duration, 0.475/0.480" lift.
All have 110* lobe separation.
BTW, I'm looking at the Olds section for these cams, same 1.6 rocker ratio as the NH. Comp doesn't list anything other than the Thumpers for the Nailhead. You would have to call and have a cam custom made if you want something else. Summit once sold the Xtreme cams for the NH.

At a true 10:1 compression, you could go with a bigger cam. Stock compression was actually about 9.8 at best with production specs. It takes a blueprint to get to the advertised 10.25.
The smaller cams give low end grunt, bigger cams like to rev..... it really depends on how you want to drive it.

This would be a good question for the guys on V8. Joe (GSGTX) has tried a bunch of cams, seems to like the smaller ones for street use and his cars run fantastic. Rhett used a CamCraft, goal was to race in the FAST series.

I'll look thru my notes and see what else I may have to post.

[Bigpig455]

i'm with Joe on the small cam logic, for both nailheads and 455's.. it just seems to work out better for any street Buick, especially through manifolds. The end result (and we've seen this proven at the pure stock drags) is a car that  will ET with the big boys, but wont MPH like a Chevy or Hemi. Play to the Buick strengths, and thats torque unless you've built a all out full race motor. My motor is 9.6 compression, and I am using the Camcraft 218/222. My target was 13.5s in a 4000lb car, and first season out I'm at 13.85's  - I havent even begun to tune. I like a tightish LSA, I'm running 110 and I bring in my power band higher with no cam advance (I'm running street tires). Please recognize that my experience does not include headers, slicks, etc...

The bigger cams seemingly make more power, but is it at an RPM that you can reach or use? In the PSMCDR my car would 60 ft better than 60% of the cars there, and that means Hemi's, LS6's , W30's, everything. Once your ahead, well then all you can do is  press the pedal harder!

[Bigpig455]

A wider LSA (like the 115 in the 2nd cam you show) can tame duration quite a bit and smooth out lumpier cam, the KB C-118 is like that.

I dont know much about Carmen's cams, or the variation available although I cant imagine both those cams were marketed under the same part number. However, I have seen wild variance from spec to real life, I had a TA 25 cam that had a lot of differences. I see both cams seem to be single pattern, and I personally believe a dual pattern cam for anything driven on the street (especially through manifolds) is the way to go.

I like Walt's suggestions from Comp, Joe and Bob had a particularly sweet 218/230 cam they spec'd from therm.. I had great success with Camcraft too - they have a lobe series with great hydraulic intensity, the grinds were always right on or even a little generous and I liked their overall operation. I did have to fight with them a little and specify what I wanted ground, they come from a circle track mentality and fall back on what works there as a default.

Short version:

 - dont be afraid to keep intake duration short, it builds dynamic compression. For a street car at 10:1, 218/222 seems to be the sweet spot as verified by the Desktop dyno, which Walt is pretty well versed in if you want to model different cams against each other.

 - Dont be afraid to go long on exhaust duration. Camcraft felt anything over 230 was overloading the port, but even with manifolds and a good exhaust I havent seen it (yet)

-Split patterns work - I've seen a marked difference in my 455, going from 235/235 to a 233/246 cam made a full second difference in the Quarter.

 - Use the desktop dyno to understand how changes in LSA and intake centerline affect HP and TQ. the numbers you come up with wont be real world, but are a great indicator of are you helping or hurting, and how one cam stacks up against another in your current combo.

 - Buicks are easy to overcam. If your looking for a Cruise night sound, OK. If your looking for actual performance, dont be afraid to go conservative... going from that 233/246 to a 218/230 cam actually bought me a theoretical 10 HP in a 455 (I'll verify soon!)

- Be mindful of Dynamic Compression, and the effects of your cam choices on it. Small spec changes have big impacts on what type of gas you can use, and what your low RPM performance looks like.,

Everybody has opinions, and these are mine coming from the perspective of a street strip stocker kind of guy...Good luck!