I started tearing down my 600HP 454's. I have 4 seasons on these engines and I run them up to 6300RPM quite regularly. I have always referred to them as my high strung 454's but all in all they have been great, mild mannered engines. They idle at 600RPM with 35* locked out timing.

This winter I am going to pull my solid roller cams and put in some blower friendly cams. As of now they are 9.6:1, with SRP small dome pistons that are 0.014" in the hole, Valako Pro1 heads, Isky Solid lifters, Crane HI-6M ignitions and Barry Grant (Holley) 750's. I have a pair of B&M 250's that I plan on putting on the top of these mills.

I plan on dynoing N/A with the new cams and then with the blower on. I will probably first run them in the boat without the blowers and then add them later in the season.

I popped off Main cap #2 to take a look at the bearing and crank. I have a shiny witness spot running through the middle of the bearing. Nothing that I can feel with my nail at all. It also appears that there is a matching witness on the crank, also nothing that is noticeable by the touch.

I plan on pulling a couple of rod caps to check also.

It always seems that harmonic balancers do not want to come off. So I marked it, tightened up the puller bolt and come back in 5 mins to see if it had move. Hallelujah it moved!! I did not run a cam retaining plate but used a cam button. Apparently the cam has been walking forward into the timing chain cover. This was also wearing the button down and probably why I would lose timing over the years. *Note* get retaining plates. The cam looked great and no wear on the cam bearing.

All looked surprisingly good except the cam button.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments as always they are more than welcome.

Weld a hardened washer to your timing cover for the cam button to run into and use a good cam button.

I don't know if this is bought piece or not but the 540s I got have a nifty adjustable brace for the cam. Randy

i like the edelbrock aluminum tc covers,and i use a thrust bumper from small block chevy,requires very little shimming to get correct cam end play.

ahhh yes,your standard post,very informative,as usual.

+1 When I first realized that the cam was deflecting the timing chain cover I machined aluminum plates to sandwich between the cover and my Stainless Marine crossover.

I run cast alum timing covers and cam buttons with needle bearings. With about .005 clearance between the button and cover I get zero wear on the alum cover. There are some polish marks but thats it. You must not have had the clearance set up right on the button (too tight).

I'm looking forward to seeing what you can get out of your panther with the blowers. What kind of top end are you getting now?

78.7 on the river was the fastest I have seen. What I want to see is if I get my power band down, and get TQ & HP closer together even with less HP if I will actually go faster. My engines made peak TQ @ 5200RPM and peak HP at 6500RPM. This might have been a better combination with a smaller lightweight efficient hull boat and not the TRS slug I have.