initial Cam timing advise

in need of some advice on what to set the initial Cam timing on my motor.
It is a 460 stroked out to 532, P51 heads, about 13.5-1 comp. cam specs are .759/.764, race only.

Thank you

Put it in by the cam cards instructions. If you dyno it, and have a adjustable timing set, you can dial it in on the dyno. I guess a good starting point would be 2-4 degrees advanced of split overlap. I always like to check piston to valve clearence +8 to -8 to make sure I have enough to play with at the track or on the dyno.

More info would help

mayeb be a dumb question but were on the CAM card does it say what it should be.

Look for the intake center line number. For instance if it says it has a 110 intake center then installing it on a 108 would make it 2 degrees advanced, a 112 would make it 2 degrees retarded, at 110 it would be in straight up. The card should have intake opening and closing numbers in degrees @ .050 tappet lift and exhaust opening and closing numbers @ a certain intake center line.

I always check those numbers on more than one cylinder to make sure the cam is ground correctly. It's been years since I found one wrong but I always still check them.

The last one I found was on a Perkins V8 diesel pulling tractor engine. It ran good but just didn't sound right, and was down on power. Finally after a year of pulling ,chasing everything on the engine with no results, the owner called me to help him check the cam. The cam turned out to be ground on the wrong bank angle and when he degreed the cam he only checked it on #1 cylinder. So that side the cam timing was spot on, But the other bank was off 17 degrees @ .050 on the valve opening and closing events.

The cam grinder was sent the original cam to go by also, and still screwed it up. There were no 8620 cores for this engine, and I had made on out of bar stock with the lobes roughed out. This was a high dollar roller deal, and it got ugly before the grinder made it right.

Just a little story for you. To show you why some engines, although are identical in parts can run totally different if attention to details are not watched.

Manufacturing tolerances in the crank key slot, bottom crank gear key slot, top cam gear pin locaton, cam pin location, can cause cam timing problems if not checked.

I think this would be a good thing to have a class on at the Winter Tech seminar. Degreeing a cam takes a little time, but I feel it should be done even on a stock rebuild.

I hope this helps you. Sit down and read you cam card good and close and if you can't figure it out, get back on here with questions and someone will help you through it.

GOOD READ Blake