454 mild performance

[DetroitDan]

I say mild because I don't want people to talk about 900 horsepower blown alcohol motors. I'm beginning to consider warming up my bone-stock 454 a little bit, but I'd like to know what to expect. I'm leaning towards an Edelbrock Performer intake so I can keep my quadrajet. And of course Edelbrock has their Performer package where they match the cam to the intake for you, so it seems like that would be easy, BUT... how can you tell how much improvement you will see? I mean, how much better than a stock 4 bbl intake is theirs, and I dont know the specs on my stock cam, so how to compare it to theirs?

I'm almost tempted to jump up to Performer RPM, even though they say the regular Performer is better for low end torque. I don't really have a problem with low end torque now, and I think she'll pull anything I hook it to, but If I get more power at a higher rpm, well isn't that where you end up once you stand on it and start asking more of it? Would a higher output cam kill my low end? I don't think so.

I went through this years ago with a rclb k20, 350 sbc on 35s and 3.73 gears. I decided on a torquey truck and offroad type cam, and the truck was actually pretty doggy running it up from a standing start to highway speed. Made me wish I had gone with a bigger, hp type cam. I would like to be a little racier on the street, and while towing is important, I just dont see how a higher hp cam would reallly hurt my towing. Not going to bring my torque numbers down, is it? And my towing would be pretty easy except for some big big hills, at which point I'm shifting down and getting the revs up, so I'm going to be in the rpm range for the cam. I mean, who cares about how much torque you have at 1500, at 1500 youre not working it at all anyway, youre just idling along.

So, I know I'll have to do headers, even though I love how quiet my engine compartment is with iron manifolds. Aluminum spreadbore intake, bigger cam, what about roller rockers? Would they be worth anything on a truck motor?

If I didn't already mention it, it's a cclb dually with 4.10s. 90% of the time it's empty, just riding around for fun. Very little offroad, but needs to tow 11k camper a few times a year. Additionally, if I can get the wheel situation sorted out, it's going up another few inches and will be riding on 37s. So, mostly just looking for noticeably better performance, sportier power so I'm not getting beaten at stoplights by F150s or Tundras. And I want to keep the 4.10s.