XE 274 straight up or +4?
 

Finally took my car out and although it sounds great it has absolutely no power.

Thought secondaries were stuck as the car sat for a long time during rest. Did a Cliff rebuild kit (it was needed) but no change.

Got to thinking and had timing chain replaced after balancer failed 5 years ago. Never drove it after.
Took apart today and see that the crank gear is at -2*.

So putting back together at +4 after reading some posts, but now not so sure if I should just go straight up.

Thoughts?

79-400, 30 over basic rebuild. 4 speed car

Is this a shelf cam with 110 LSA ? If yes, I'd target 106 / 107 intake centerline.

Can you measure the intake and exhaust tappet lifts at TDC overlap?

Yes it is the standard 110 LSA.

Don’t have a degree kit handy to do that.

Can you do a cranking compression test?

Stan

Sure can what # pressures should I be looking for?

Some cams already have the 4 degrees ground in "dot to dot". Do you have the cam card?

Like Skip said, most all of Comps off the shelf cams have 4 degrees already ground in it. So if you install it straight up, it's 4 degrees advance.

The real catch though is if you don't degree it, you won't ever be sure exactly where it winds up since the differences in crank and cam keyways, as well as differences in timing sets can move that number around. So straight up dot to dot won't guarantee the cam is actually installed at the correct ICL.

Yea, the XE274 is ground with 4* advance built in. The cam card says 110 ICL so if you degree the cam in at 106 ICL then you end up with the 110 spec.

HUH? Did the turbo combo come out?

Make sure the valve springs are up to snuff for the XE HFT.

I just wanted to add that I used the XE274 right out of the box in a 1972 400 I rebuilt with the lower compression and I was real happy with the power it had - very responsive and pulled like a freight train. Used stock cast iron exhaust manifolds going into a 3" exhaust system. My driveline was the 3-speed Dearborn trans and 3.23 rear with 28" tires. My engine would fall flat at about 5,600 RPM's and still rev, but no real gain in power after that.

Did you install matching valve springs? I used polylocks and zero lashed my lifters. Distributor timing seem ok?

The cam is off shelf cam ground like most of theirs with 4* built in, this I know. The timing chain is one of Butlers multi key way sets.

Challenge for me was that when I searched here I found many differing opinions on straight up or +4. Did decide to go with the +4 for now and will see how it runs. I am sure it will be strong at low end just hope it doesn’t lay over early. It was a dead dog at -2 so that factored into it.

If it still isn’t right then I will take it all down and degree it properly. My challenge is that I recently moved and do not have all of my tools here, so had to do a basic TDC line up.

Complete valve train is matched and installed properly.

Car was real strong before I lost the balancer and it destroyed original chain. Damn build notes were lost in the move so I do not have original cam degree and timing chain information.

If that's an XE grind I'd pull it and put the McKellar #7 solid grind in there..

Why 60 year old technology?WAY better stuff today!Tom

Jon,
Different car, this is one of my resto cars.

NEVER will I pul the turbo set up, just to much fun and power.

That would depend on what your CR is.

Stan

108° centerline is where we put that cam at when we ran it in our 400. Ran 11.8-11.9 @112-113. Good liitle cam imo for a street 400