I have a brand new 8.1 496 stock pistons, crank, and heads, but has no camshaft. I need some help trying to choose a cam. I'm only try to get maybe 420 HP out the engine. I'm going to use a carb set up with a Dart intake and I'm undecided on the carb. From what I've read, I can go with a gen 6 cam since I will going with a carb set up. It will be going in a 27 foot Maxum, I just want to be able to get on plane and have decent speed. Some say the max lift on the exhaust side is only .510 and others have said as high as .540, I don't know what to go with. Any help would be greatly appreciate... THANKS

You can try calling Raylar, they specialize in 496's. Also, Bob at Marine Kinetics might be able to help you out. But if you find out it will work, I'd just find a stock 496mag HO cam somewhere. They were right at your goal hp out of the box.

what are you running for exhaust?

Be careful about running a Gen VI cam and that dual plane intake. The 8.1 uses a different firing order then the Gen VI, V, MarkIV- and the dual plane is probably set up for the 8.1 firing order.

You'll have to check into that. Pretty easy to do. With a dual plane you want the next cylinder in order to be drawing from the opposite plane of the intake manifold then the current cylinder.

You'll probably find the 8.1L cam won't be much more than the Gen VI BBC's because it's the same other than the firing order change.which is typically a small upcharge.

What are you doing for an ignition? As has been mentioned the firing order is different, but you can get a gen 6 cam with the LS firing order. I think the cam sprocket bolts are metric on a gen 7 and standard on a gen 6, both step nose cams.

I took a look into the HO cam and I think the price was around $589.00, so I started looking at Comp and Crane.

I would like to stay with the stock exhaust.

Someone mention that I would have to switch the wires around to deal with the firing order issue. I was under the impression that Gen 6 and 7 where different because of the fact that Gen 7 didn't come with an option for a distributor until Dart made the intake. This is the first I'm hearing of the possible metric and standard issue.

Is it possible to use a Gen 7 cam with a carb and distributor?

i would go with a 496 ho cam.it is the perfect choice for your hp goal and is easy on the valve train.you might find one in the swap shop or put up an add in the wanted section.if you cant find a good used one bob madera could save you some money on a new one.

Thank Mike, I'll check those option out.

So, if he were to go with a single plane intake, he could run the gen 6 454HO cam?

Yes, but there are no single plane carb'd intake manifolds out there that I know of.

Listen, as I stated I don't know if the dual plane would work if the firing order is changed. He can quickly figure this out as I had spelled out on how to check this.