[Bad70sbchevy]

Originally Posted by Ticker

As previously noted, a cam with a lot of overlap on an engine making less than about 1.4 HP/CID just wastes power, gas and driveability. Your engine would make significantly more power (on the order of 10-15% or more) with a lower static CR and the RIGHT cam. And it would make far more power where it spends most of it's time - below 4500 RPM.

This isn't intended to be harsh, but using DCR to run a high static CR is just bad engine design on a low-power, low-RPM engine. It's a crutch to make a bad combo work - but it doesn't work well. 1 point of CR is worth maybe 1.5 - 3% MAX on an engine making less than 1.4 HP/CID or so...so shooting for high CR for a street engine *does not* make power. It's a design technique for high-powered racing engines that has made it's way into street design.

I agree, a big cam is NOT good for engines seeing low rpms, but a big cam will make more power, it just happens at a higher rpm due to overlap helping cylinder scavenging thus increasing volumetric efficiency. Also on engines, shouldnt you always shoot for the highest compression ratio possible (without detonation) since it results in higher efficiency thus leading to more power? Any time you raise compression you should always see a power gain (in theory), even if its a little bit. I wouldnt call it a bad combo, just probably not for a PURE street engine.