Landyacht
Active Member
I'm looking to ditch my Mopar .509 cam and install a Lunati Vodoo solid tappet .526 lift cam http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=5316&gid=366 Anyone familiar with this cam?
Lunatti Cams Whats Your Opinion ?
- Thread starter Landyacht
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CanCritter
Senior Member
Have a voodoo cam in my 91 gmc....it pulls like a raped ape...not one complaint
Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
Even though I like the muted clatter you get with a solid tappet cam, I don;t think I would run one in a street vehicle. Are you planning to race ?
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Using my ramp speed percentage that some people think is a stupid waste of time (took like 8 seconds because I had to do it twice) the at .050 % is 89% so it is opening the valve really fast. Don't you have good heads on there why not open the valve further to use all the head because you have bigger displacement to calm the duration?
Landyacht
Active Member
One of these days I hope to take it out to the drag strip. It will mostly be street driven. I'm not overly concerned about tappet noise. My goal is to make some good midrange torque ,have really crisp throttle response and still be ale to make power at 6000 RPM.
Landyacht
Active Member
I'm not to familiar with the ramp speed percentage. Are you suggesting that I go with more duration and a slower rate of lift? I remember you suggesting the Mopar .525 lift solid tappet over the .509 in an earlier thread.
Mr C
Senior Member
I seem to recall that Lunati cams are Chebbie grinds and don't work well with Mopars. I could be wrong...it's been a while.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
I think it will be a good cam for what you seem to be looking for. It is just a simple math problem that I use/stole from Chuck Senatore's book on BBM, you divide the at .050 by the advertised duration, it gives you a .xx number move the descimal two places to give you a percentage the higher the percentage the faster it is opening the valve. ie. 100% would mean it goes from @.050 to peak lift in 0 degrees. this obviously cannot be done especially with a flat tappet cam. It is a way to compare 2 cams of similar specs, the one with the faster ramp will get to lets say 1/2 of the peak lift earlier and keep it above 1/2 of the peak lift longer, and holding the valve open longer/further will make more power.
Landyacht
Active Member
I've heard the same thing said about Comp cams. I ran a Comp xe284 previous to the Mopar .509 I am running right now. It had excellent street manners, great throttle response and a nice wide power band. It gave me all the midrange power I needed for cruising and would scream up to 6000 RPM. Unfortunately it took a dump and I replaced it with the mopar cam that still makes the same power up top but with weaker throttle response and less power in the low RPM.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
The .509 cam is a very ignorant cam, I have been told that the .528 solid mopar cam actually drives better, I have a .509 in my brother in laws Challenger, the power brakes are not to good and idle is terrible and this is in a 4 speed car, it is loud, obnoxious, runs great above 3000 rpm, I love it.
65Fury440
Senior Member
I also have a 509 in my 440. As above, choppy idle, probably wouldn't operate power brakes well if the car had them, works well with the 4 speed, pulls to over 6k. "What kind of cam is in your car?" is a common question at car functions.
Landyacht
Active Member
I was also considering going with a roller cam but they're extremely expensive. A cam and lifter kit runs around $700 and you have to upgrade your valve springs and your distributor gear. Lunati makes a solid roller 231 duration@ .050 and . 555 liftVoodoo Solid Roller Cam & Lifter Kit - Chrysler 361-440 261/267 - Lunati Power but I think my money would be better spent sticking with the flat tappet cam and having some bowl work done on the heads. I might even be able to keep my existing valve springs.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
How many miles on valve springs? Higher lift works them harder and hotter and while heads apart good time and easy time to change them. Rollers are the way to go but $$$, I would go hyd. roller if your not planning on racing every weekend and staying under 6500 rpm. My 2 cents
65Fury440
Senior Member
I feel your pain, where do you draw the line on an engine build? I've had plenty of cars over the years with flat tappets and only had one go bad, after a very short time, that I attribute to the manufacturer.
We would all like the best of everything,but $700 isn't chump change.
Landyacht
Active Member
I would estimate around 8000 miles on the valve springs. They are the original springs that came with the heads. Edelbrock claims they will handle up to .600 lift. My reasoning behind going with a flat tappet cam is that it costs less and the money I save can go towards having the heads ported. I'm only looking at having the bowls cleaned up and leaving the runners alone which shouldn't be too expensive, I might decide go roller if I can keep it under $2000 . These motors can turn into big money pits especialy if you become obsessed and keep trying to tweek and refine them.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
I would change them if you are pulling heads, from what I understand the springs are marginal at best and I would buy springs that match cam. Those springs are too stiff for a hydraulic flat tappet. I would spend the money having the heads ported then you will not have to worry so much about running the largest cam if the heads flow well, power is in the heads not the wildest cam.
moper
Well-Known Member
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The Edelbrock springs don't have the pressure for the Lunati cam, even if the lift does work. Lift is no way to determine if springs will work. It's all about pressures at the installed height and over the nose (max lift). RPMs come with a very mild spring, and given they've got some use on them, replace them. In regard to the heads - bowl work isn't going to do much on RPMs. they're pretty good as cast. Id you want more power, have them ported. I agree you can get carried away. To be honest, with what you have and what I can glean as far as what you want out of it, I wouldn't waste the money porting them.
Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
I should have been clearer in my first response. My objection to solid tappet cams is not their noise (which I actually like), but their frequent requirement to be adjusted, in order to retain optimum performance. A hydraulic grind cam can have most of the performance attributes of a solid lifter cam without all the valve adjustment hassle - especially for a street driven vehicle.
Landyacht
Active Member
I see your point with the constant adjustment. Just setting the preload one time and not having to mess with it again is a plus . How often is frequent? If it is 10,000 mile intervals or a once a year thing it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. I don't put much more than 3 or 4 thousand miles a year on the car if that. Lunati does make a hydraulic version of that cam with a similar profile.
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