My LAST Summit 8601 Cam Questions!

[The PIG Smith]

I have an Summit 8601 Cam.
I recently started discussion here about how this cam was not well suited for my J20's 360 in heavy towing service.
Thank you for those you replied and contributed to my education about what would work best for me.

Too Hot of CAM?

While I had suspected that a 8601 was too hot for my needs in a Tow Rig, I am now faced with what to do with this cam.
Better stated, how best to use this cam?

My long term dream is to own a 71-74 Javelin
Would a 8601 with some type of high RPM intake, like a Edelbrock Torker, in a Go-Fast AMC car,
be a good match for this 8601?

Another idea was some type J-truck Sports Truck to tangle with Chevy SS, Ford Lightning and Dodge RTS-10, maybe a Rustang, Camaro or ricer from time to time!

Comments? Suggestions? Flames?

[82Waggy]

A HOT Street car would be a better use for this cam.

It would work best in a light car with tall gears, high stall converter or manual tranny, and a compression ratio in the 9.5 - 10:1 range.

I note that the power range for this cam is from 2000-5500rpm.

A good flowing set of heads would also be advisable with the high lift that this cam has.

[The PIG Smith]

A good flowing set of heads would also be advisable with the high lift that this cam has.

Once again, thank you for your comments and advice.

I have two sets of '78 heads and a set '86 model heads in my shop.
(not counting the '81 and '86 motors I have in running rigs)

Would a port and polish of any these heads qualify as 'good flowing"?

At that point in time, when I would have a Go-Fast AMC Project car, would I never have the funds for a set of Indy or Edelbrock heads.

[82Waggy]

A good read on port/flow work is located in the engine section of www.amcforums.com.

There is also a publication called 'Performance American Style' that has info on porting AMC heads.

It is a fairly involved subject. Best Advice I can give you is to find someone that does this kind of work and has a flow bench.

Also, the host of this forum is currently conducting some port/flow work and should be able to give us all some feedback soon.

I'm working a set of 090 castings myself at the moment. When I get them finished and flowed I will report back my findings.

Any of the late model heads are a reasonable starting point. Some may take slightly more work than others but all can be made to work the same.

[The PIG Smith]

I agree that this is a very detailed and fairly involved topic.

Thank you for your time to answer my questions.
While I am nowhere near any stage to port and polish any heads, for anything, I was asking because I was curious.
Same as the questions about my 8601 cam.

This was just an educational exercise, to explore what I could do with this 8601 cam and spare 360's I have stored.

While today is all hot air from me, there will be a day that I will put all this knowledge into practice.
On the that day, the women folks should gather in the kids and lock all the windows and doors.

[jeepsr4ever]

Be carefull with any porting you do as you can easily hurt the power output of your engine if everything is not balanced correctly.

[zero cool]

This weekend, I fired up the 360 with a summit 8601. It's more or less stock (but bored .030 over) with GM TBI from a Chevy 350. It's using an adapted HEI with full spark control.

It's almost, but not quite lopey at idle. But the loud muffler (flowmaster clone) could be misleading me a little. I'm still dialing it in with the TBI tuning but it does seem to have plenty of power from around idle and up. I'm breaking it in so I don't want to wrap it out all the way just yet.

The 8601 seems to do just fine in a 360. Maybe not for a tow rig but it's not a bad cam.

[badass86coupe]

Got a question
I have a cam with these same specs, running flat tops with valve reliefs cut in them and was wondering how much lift I can get away with. I have a set of good fresh 3196291c head and want to use a set of spare 1.7 roller rockers. Just wondering if the valves are going to clear the pistons ok as with the 1.7 rockers it will make the lift of theis cam .530 intake and .560 ex. It is going into a pro-street Gremlin with 373 rear gears and a 2500 stall converter. thanks for the input

[AMX69PHATTY]

I'm no expert, but you can always "clay" a piston and check piston to valves clearance. To do this you need to have a pair of SOLID LIFTERS and Adjustable Checker Pushrods. Put some modeling clay, not too thick, in the valve reliefs on one piston, install a head gasket and head, doesn't need to be fully torqued down, use 2 solid lifters, adj pushrods, and 2 rockers, and carefully turn the motor over a couple times. Remove valvetrain and head carefully remove clay and slice with a razor blade, check thickness of clay where valves made an impression.
Pretty sure minimum recommended is .100". Don't know what flat top pistons you have, but compression height and deck clearance has a lot to do with it, and those are closed chamber heads right ? Never hurts to check. Duration and overlap has almost as much to do with it as lift does. At the top of the exhaust stroke both Exhaust and Intake are open some amount even before the piston gets to TDC and also after passing TDC.

[badass86coupe]

Yes I can plastigauge it but thought someone on this board would know the answer as I am new to building AMC's