Interesting data.

By Jays charts, you may want to adjust your cam timing from the cam manufacturers recommendation... if you have too much power and need to lose some!

Guess I crawl back into my hole now.

I'm just curious.

I can't say I've ever made the effort to take the front off a good running motor and move cam timing to find power.

So, lets say you have a hot street FE, a 454 incher with a " shelf" cam that runs mid to low 11's, in a 3500 car. You've degreed it in on the centerline method.

Is there really ET to be found? Dyno data maybe? Especially around a 308R or a 306S shelf grind?

It would appear that a number of Engine Master competitors are using the ICE ignition set ups. Good enough for me.

I've run Mallory, MSD, ACCEL, Electromotive, and even a Holley Annihilator Box with no problems. Had a MSD 6A quit once in 30 years. They fixed it and charged only shipping...that's why I run their junk.

On our Bonneville project we have a DUI Chevy-look'n thing on our 460. When it was getting dyno tested at Westec I asked Steve Brule, the western rep for MSD, if there were any MSD products that would make more power or be more reliable, he kinda looked down and gave a hardly audible "no". It does make the 385 look even more like a Rat Motor.

Points are stupid.   

You gots me a'think'n 'bout all the time I spent street race'n in the Valley.

I'm from up on the Rock, the Sunland/Tujunga area. We Foothill boys took our street racing very seriously...and did a lot, usually 3 nights a week from '77 to about '85. Wentworth, Glenoaks and Peoria, Woodman and Saticoy, Sepulveda and Plummer, Chatsworth and Zelza, beside Burbank airport and lots of other places. The track was for tuning...the street was where the action was. Lie'n, cheat'n, and fight'n...you know...real fun!

Remember the first "bottle" run I ever saw. It was at Sepulveda and Plummer. Wild! Went out and bought an I.C.E. unit the next week.

The streets of LA became a mean place to be at 3am by 1985...and my street race'n days became a thing of the past.

The Old Master was invited a few years back to one of our Sidewinder SCTA meetings. He was very nice, and it was fun to listen to him talk about all kinds of racing engines. When quizzed about the cammer, he kinda danced around trying to think of nice things to say.

It went something like this:

On nitro, the blocks were junk.

Between rounds maintenance was impossible...if the heads needed to come off...pack-up, yer go'n home.

Kind'a destined to fail as a nitro burner...but man, they could make good power.

My take is a little different.
When I went from 390's to 427's, a natural progression, cars went faster...BUT...the fun level didn't rise in a linear fashion. Always in the back of my mind was the fact that if I bust this thing it's gonna hurt the 'ol wallet exponentially. Kind'a sucks the fun out'a the project. I could probably afford one, but I'd be so nervous about it come'n apart I'd think of reasons not to drive it.

My pal SOHCLane has a blown cammer in his '63 Fairlane. Once you see one apart it isn't really intimidating at all...especially next to the cammer Mercedes V8's I've been working on for over 30 years. The Ford SOHC is a really well thought out kit on the 427 Wedge, and the parts are really cool '60's tech. Reliability shouldn't be a concern. BTW, the original non-adjustable rocker arms with different thickness shims to set lash are by-a-wide-margin the most reliable system ever used, and MANY European cars used, and still use this system that rarely, if ever, need to be adjusted in the life span of an engine. It is a shame that due to laziness that the cammer de-volved to the elephant foot adjustable.