Does anyone know what the maxium camshaft lift is on a sbc 383 without having connecting rod to camshaft clearance issues or running a smaller base circle cam i know you can use a standard base circle cam up to around .510 lift but i'm not sure exactly where you have to start using a small base circle i may be wrong here someone feel free to correct me...

thanks

 

You got it backwards... more lift means smaller base circle size, so there is a MINIMUM lift you can run before you need to go to a smaller base circle. It also depends on the rods.

Bret

 

Ya gonna need a small base circle cam.The type of rods will tell ya how small,unless ya got a set of very expensive ones.

 

I went with Callies Compstar 5.7" rods on my 383 with a cam abit larger then an LE3 and i had a clearence issue. The Lobes were kitting the side of the rod near the bolt, the bolt cleared fine. Not a big deal, engine shop just clearenced all the rods, and we weighed them and adjusted acordingly. Like it was stated, some people have clearence issues some dont, but i think most do if you dont run a small circle base cam.