My engine was originally the GM 350/290 HP crate, which had a 222/222 @ .050 cam and only about 8.2 compression. It ran smooth enough at idle, but was soft on power at low RPM because of the relatively high cam lift with low compression. And the basic old-style iron heads did not help it much. This type of cam/compression mismatch is not a good choice.
My current cam is a Howards cam with 213/217 @ .050 and 112 LSA, I have about 9.4 compression, and I'm using the Blueprint aluminum heads. It does not idle quite as smooth as the original GM base 195/202 cam, but it will idle well at about 650 RPM and draw 19" of vacuum. With the new cam and heads it likes more base timing, so I'm running 14 degrees initial and 20 degrees mechanical. I run off manifold vacuum, so the vacuum advance adds 15 degrees at idle, which helps smooth it out.
Cam specs need to be matched to compression and heads if you want it to develop smooth power over a wide range of RPM. For example the GM 222/222 L79 cam is a retro grind that was used in the 327/350 HP engine. GM had 3287's rated from 250 HP up to 375 HP. However, the high horsepower versions had about 11.0 to 11.25 compression. GM understood how to tweak and reconfigure that 327 to get whatever they needed for power.
Bruce
