Lets play the HP guessing game
 

Im doing some upgrades to my engines. I have room to mill the heads down to get to 9.2:1 if need be but considering blowers in future as well
Spec:
Gen VI 489 Strokers Compression 8.5:1
Scat Balanced Rotating assemblies
Icon Flat top pistons w/ 3cc single relief
Victor JR Intakes port matched
Quickfuel 750 Carbs
Enginequest 320 heads with manley severe intakes 2.25- 30 degree backcut ---Exhaust ferrea tulip 1.88---- comp 930 springs
Comp XM284HR cam 230/236 .547 .547 lift
Pertronix Distributors
.020 in hole
.020 SCE Shim Head Gasket

490-500 with 9.2 cr @ 5,500???

More cam, carb "950", compression and port work maybe another 50 hp.

550 with 9.2

Almost forgot exhaust is gil dry to tip. Numbers seem decent. I like the acceleration this cam give me. Would it be worth it upgrading the carbs still??

More carb will help you up top. BBC marine engines like carb. Personally I wouldn't put anything less than 800/9022 Holley but it's not like the 750 wouldn't work. Also the 731/741 cranes work well 489/496's. You've got a pretty conservative but reliable build listed.

Ya its nothing over the top. Compared to the vortec heads on there now im hoping to get a good kick in the butt. My flow is going WAYYY up but my compression went from 9.6 to the basement from head swap

531 but with more cam and a bigger carb 50 more is not out of the question.

Cam specs are close to 454/420 hp if I remember correctly. The 284 has apprx .020 more intake lift. I hate to go beyond what you asked in your original post but if you have dry exhaust and are going roller your sure you don't wanna deck your heads and throw some more cam at it. But regardless you'd have a reliable 500 hp plus or minus engine.

It is roller currently. Im probably gonna mill the heads if I dont find blowers. I am limited by piston to valve at 9.2
Duration: 284/290
Lobe Separation: 112
Duration @ .050" Lift: 230 236
Intake Centerline: 110
Valve Lift: .547 .547
Lobe Lift: .323 .323
ATDC 31 BTDC 32
BBDC 79 ABDC 72

515

540. Cam is going to hold it back. Could get closer to 600 with the right cam.

750's are for small blocks. :)

Ok so lets say I do the mill on the heads. What cams are recommended. It looks like the 731 is slightly smaller than mine now. And from research I dont have queit enough comp to swing the 741 and maintain bottom end. How much lsa can I really get away with since I have dry to tip exhaust

At 9:1 or better you'll be fine with a 741. I'm going slightly larger on the same compression albeit 502 bottom end. Remember a 741 is the same cam as 525 except it's on a 112 Lisa and 525 is on a 114

Is the 741 the best off thecshelf cam for my setup or should I take advantage of the lack of reversion and look in the 108 lsa sizes

Is that cam pretty small especially for a single plane manifold?

Edit: I was referring to the original cam.

I originally built motors on budget with intention on doing heads later. Originally it had l29 vortec heads 99cc chambers pocket ported and rpm air gaps with those cams. Spun bravo 26 to 71 at 5100. Good runner for what it was.

Like I said I'm running a larger cam with a 502 base. EQ heads. I'm gonna mill .030 to compression around 9:1. I'm using merlin intakes and QF 850 carbs.

Depending on what your goal is, that cam might be super. Sounds like a nice 500 hour (top end), 500 HP, $500+ in component savings over the obligatory Crane HR, Isky, Morel/Johnson set up.

Are you referring to my current cam (xm284hr)

Agree. I mean sure its a little light, but should have no problem making 525+hp, and live a long time. Not every build is looking for max power possible.

As far as comp cams goes, I helped a buddy pick out a custom cam from comps master lobe catalog. Called comp, placed the order. Within minutes, a detailed spec sheet of the grind parameters was emailed out. Less than a week later, two custom billet hyd rollers with iron gears delivered , for quite a bit less than a off the shelf crane cam

Yes. Nothing wrong with that cam if you want to be around 500 HP....with its .547 lift and slightly more gross duration, you can use stock GM lifters, lighter springs, push rods, and probably even plain old long slotted steel rockers (i.e. zz502). I think your reliability/durability would be excellent and a good match for a Bravo drive. 450-500 HP and sub 5500 RPM is a good plan if you want to keep from serial wrenching on Merc I/O Bravo setup.

It funny you bring up slotted 502 rockers. Thats what I run. I dont personally trust roller rockers and have only ever used in high lift applications beyond the parameters of stamped. Had 2 seperate occasions in past that roller rockers failed.

Btw 550 is my goal at 5600. Trying to jump from 26 bravo to 30 to get mid to high 80s

Didnt you do a build with the EQ 320 heads??

Why mill a perfectly good head for only 0.7 compression. Bore notch and cleaning up your chambers might help the detonation more than lowering compression 0.7

I agree with milling the head to gain a small bump in compression. Although I don't think it's a bad idea to re-surface the heads if needed to get the proper ra for the gaskets being used and make sure the heads are flat. Milling heads can potentionally disrupt air flow due to the change in the combustion chamber and be counter productive. So you think you will gain power when in reality you end up loosing.

I did. But , i had some porting work done to them, and it was a supercharged build.