I am looking for feedback on the TA 290-08 cam. WHat is your setup, how does it run? Do you like it? Plus or minus of it. Power band, etc. It looks like that is what my builder is recommending. 455 with 430 Stage 1 heads with some minor bowl work. Roller rockers, B4b, 9.5 to 10 CR (unknown for sure at this time), auto, say 3000 stall, 3.64 rear, 72 Skylark. Looking for a good street runner. Have power brakes. I just don;t want all the power at the top as this is mostly a street car. Thanks for any input.
Good street and strip cam. My friend has one in his 87 regal. 455 bored 30 over with 10 to 1 forged pistons, stock 70 stage 1 heads and stock rockers. B4B intake with a holley 930 carb, headers, 342 posi gear and a 3500 stall converter. Car runs 11.40s 1/4 mile and 7.20s 1/8 mile. With a 112 lobe seperation the throttle response is great on the street and track. Its a very good cam. :TU: Billy.
I'm curious also. With a forged 2692 piston with notches (27 cc) down in the hole .013" and 71 cc chambers on a +.030" 455, I come up with a SCR of 9.54 to 1 and a DCR of only 6.91 with this cam. Seems low to me. Another lobe profile with similar dur. #'s and LSA gave me a DCR of 7.42, which seems to be just getting into the "zone" I'd like to use. Getting the cc's down to 65 in the heads and a .027" Cometic would put the SCR at 10.27 and a DCR of 7.97. Sorry to work over your thread but we already have the 290-08H cam ourselves and am wondering about its use too, hope you don't mind if I tag along. Thanks
I have no idea on my CR's yet. Billy seemed to have his buddy at some decent power on this cam. I did a search and was able to find about 6 links was all, and they were all older links. Was hoping for some new stuff. Maybe this cam is not used much.
Used it many times. A few dyno sheets on it, and it's close cousin, the 290H, all in pump gas street motors.. nothing exotic. First, the 08H version of it, installed in a 70 GSX resto-mod we did about 7 years ago. zero deck trw shortblock 270 IN 200 EX cfm ported 786 iron heads, STG 1 valve sizes Performer/TQ 1000 9.8 compression, 34* total advance, cam installed at 106* Full AC equipped 70 GSX resto, 4100 lbs, 3.55 rear gear with our 12 inch VP converter. Run right out of the box, at Norwalk in 2000 with the only dragstrip mod being 8" ET streets. 12.02 at 113mph
Secondly, the same cam, in an aluminum head combo. Difference from the first is the 315 cfm TA stg 1 SE Alum heads, along with a compression bump to 10.3 to 1. In this particular pull, it has a SPX intake, and 1000 Pro Series Holley carb. This is Alan Wander's engine that we freshened the TRW shortblock and added the top half to, a couple years ago. It actually went out the door with a TA SP-1 intake, but retains that 1000 pro-series Holley His 4200 lbs ragtop just ran 12.19 at 110 at Cecil, with only a 3.08 gear out back.
And finally, the 290 H, which is the 08 intake lobe on both the intake and exhaust, coupled with a bit tighter 110* LC. Same street manners and idle quality as the 08H. Buildup is our Level 2A 10.6-1 compression 315 cfm TA Alum STG 1 SE heads Zero deck TA conicle dish piston shortblock with Sportsman rods, short fill of block filler, no girdle. Fully ported KB cool Runner intake, with water cooling the intake manifold to 98*/ 1000 TQ TA 1 7/8 headers 34* total timing, cam installed at 106* Installed in an 87 regal, 3500 stall converter, 3.90 gears 3710 lbs 11.46 at 119.50 MPH in average air conditons.
So there are some dyno numbers, along with some real world dragstrip performance numbers. I consider the 290 and the 08H versions at the hottest street cams for the average Buick, which has pwr brakes. We typically see this cam pull about 10-12 inches of vacuum at 800 rpm, it's very important with this series of cams to run about 25* intial in the distributor. Dave, don't fret too much over the DCR numbers. Buicks are much less sensative to this number, for the very same reason they like big carbs, when some other engines don't. That being port velocity in our big bore, relatively small port cross section engines. JW
JW, I have the 290 H cam ground on a 112. How much power do you think I'm giving up with this cam? The cam was ground on the 112 because it is in a street car and I was real worried about having good brakes. Ever since I bought it I've had the idea that I should have gone with the 110 floating in the back of my mind. The motor is 10.5:1, stage 2 TE eliminators, SP2, 950 holley, TH400, 2800 converter, 3.70 gears and weighs 4050 with me. Thanks Steve
In your particular instance, you very well may have benefitted from the tighter LC. The power increase is definatly most noticeable in the mid range, all else being equal, I think you would see output 5 to 10 numbers higher with the tigher cam. I have never done a back to back with the same engine and intake/exhaust equipment, with two identical duration cams with just the LC difference. Closest I have is the Level 1A stuff, if you look at the specs and the testing, you can see that while the AM engine and AH engine tested here are the same shortblock, we did change the cam in the AH version to a tigher lobe center, yet maintained very similar idle quality vs the M engine, by removing some exhaust duration, which I don't feel is required with the alum heads. The H version of this motor has an SPX, big holley and headers and the tighter cam.. but this test mule was the same heads and shortblock as the M motor tested. The intake and exhaust differences between the two account for roughtly 60 HP (25 for the intake, 25 for the Headers, and 10 or so for the carb.. but the two motors are 80 HP apart, so we can extrapolate that the tigher lobe center cam was aproximately a 20 HP factor here. The cams used in these engines are the 288-94H in the M motor, and the 288-92H in the H version. These cams carry the same intake lobe, but the exhaust is shortened 6 degrees on the 92 version, but the 92 also has a 110 LC, vs the 114 of the 288-94H. Here is the link to those engines. http://www.trishieldperf.com/level_1a_engine.htm
Thanks Jim: I look at it as just another tool to use to look at lobe profiles and compare. You know kind of like the fabled "reclino dyno" concept :laugh: ou: And I'm more concerned with the lower end the spectrum of the DCR and having low cyl. pressure with that cams lobe profiles and the current SCR of 9.54 vs. the other end of the spectrum and having an issue with the "ping". I think without bumping the compression a bit there's other lobes that might work a little better with this combo. to build a bit more cyl. press. and still live on pump gas. But the compression bump is a definite possibility, up in the 9.8 to 9.9 area. The iron heads on this build flow 270 int. and 197 exh. at .500" and the average between the int. to exh. throughout the lifts from .100" to .600" is 71%. It appears to be a very similar setup as the GSX "resto" mod engine (except for the slightly less SCR). Thanks again Jim.
Thank You JW for the response. The effects of playing around with lobe centers is very interesting stuff. Dave I took a very similar approach with my engine as you are describing. After tearing down my last motor the need for new pistons was realized. I opted for customs in order to put my compression right where I wanted it. Pump gas was the biggest factor. My DCR is at 7.95. I also noticed that advancing or retarding the cam installed centerline has drastic effects on the DCR. Mine was right on with the recommended 4 degrees of advance. Steve
I have been running this cam for 5 years and love it . I have a 10-1 motor with small valve heads and a 750dbl. It sounds nasty at an idle and pulls hard to 5800 in my wagon. I run timing total at 36. I feel I am limited by the heads and carb only.
Yep, Thats me ... cant say Im unhappy at all. Drove 200+ miles to the track (top down, slicks in the back seat) Swapped the streets for stickies ... ran 7 passes and back home in time for dinner :bglasses: Got Torque ?!?!? Here's a video of what this cam sounds like uncorked http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/69gs400s/?action=view¤t=BigRedUncorked.flv
Steve: Thanks for the input. We played around with intake centerline and yes it does make a difference in DCR's. With the current specs and our SCR at 9.54 our DCR was only 6.91 using the 290-08H cam on a 108 int. CL. I've found a few other lobe profiles that would get me to a DCR of 7.42 while using the same static CR and similar but slightly more duration numbers (242/250 & 240/253). Pump gas is a factor with this engine also. I'm not real worried as I said before about having too high a DCR (within reason) but having a lower DCR and bleeding off cyl. pressures. We could cut the heads down to 65cc's or use a .027" Cometic or even .020" steel gskt. That would help. What kind of static compression are you running in your setup and which cam to get a 7.95 DCR? alum. or iron head? I don't want to science this thing to death (and its approaching that). In the old days you just bought a set of forged pistons, 118 cam, B4B and headers and ran the snot out of it. I'm only now getting involved in this engine with a few misc. things & with the assy. part of it, everything was already machined and purchased. I'm sure it would run fine with all current parts and pieces, I just don't want to leave too much on the table at this point when its easily adjusted, and hopefully for little cash outlay. Last thing I want to do is spend his money twice or have him dissatisfied with the performance. Appreciate the input, and sorry for running away with this thread when I didn't start it.
Alan, love the video of your run. Car sounds and runs awesome! Thanks for your help in my thread. Regards, John.
Dave, I'm using the 290H cam with 10.5:1 static compression and aluminum heads. The 290H and 290-08H are very similar cams. Personally, I would shave the heads. The thin head gaskets just don't sit well with me. My heads are actually shaved down to 58 cc's, and the piston is .038 in the hole. I like knowing that the piston is not going to smack the head. I see alot of people o-decking their blocks. o No: Steve
Thanks Steve: Yeah, with the aluminum heads you can tolerate a lot more compression because of the quicker heat disipation, getting your SCR and DCR both higher without penalty. The iron heads limit us in that respect with the prerequisite of using pump gas. The more input through practical experience the better so we can make a good choice. Compression in the 9.8 to 10.0 range is a real possibility and easy to get to with little effort, and better results using that cam. A custom grind would yield a little more but this ones paid for. Thanks
I'm running the HL version of this cam and love it. Has very good idle characteristics. Pulls 14" of vacuum. Idles around 900-1000, nice choppy/snappy idle. Power brakes run ok, although I did install a vac can. Don't think I really need it if I run more advance in it. My set up is as follows, 464-12:1, aluminum STG 1 heads, SP-1, 1000 hp, 2" primary headers (TA). We ended up installing the cam 2 deg advanced. Motor made 604 hp @ 6300, 84-89 jet on a old Barry Grant 930 cfm, no carb spacer. Haven't had the car to the track yet to give you an et. Jim
