ofenhouser manifold your experiences

I sometimes wonder if the aura of the 6 cylinder engine, one of the cheap base engine for the cars and are supposed to be some how the economy engine to buy over shadows the fact that from the factory with but few exceptions from Detroit and notable exceptions such as Jaguar, BMW and Aston Martin and I guess the Datsan 240Z the engines came with a carburetor that was way too small for the size of the engine and the cam shaft criteria was weak and anemic.
The exceptions of course were bloody well fast and considered performance material. One from Detroit, the Pontiac Sprint over head cam version based on the Chevy I-6 in two sizes used a Rochester Quadrajet, the same sized one of about 760 CFM that the biggest Pontiac engine used.
Alumpy cam needs a definition instead of just saying Lumpy! Of course some are and engine configuration besides, the old school rule of thumb of "More's Law" of which reads if a little is good more is better, simply does not apply to carburetors and cam shafts.
Being a fan of Iskenderian cams, I have used them for every engine I have built. I liike them, and they work. There are others of course but I would rather not used them. Personal preference.
That said, I agree with Frank that the 256 Super cam makes a nice street engine run well. It is a definite improvement of the weak bump stick the factory put into these things and turns the 258 cu in engine into something that runs like a small V8, add a proper sized carburetor and a good tune to the mix and you have a nice running and very quick small engined car.
I have built them and still drive one on a daily basis. And it holds it's own in daily traffic.
And the one I am building now, I am going to order the 270-HL a grind I have used before and depending on who you talk to I guess can be defined as a lumpy cam. It however still will work as as an OEM replacement and use OEM valve train as a drop in requiring no changes in valve train components and the lift is .475 which fits the criteria of under .500 lift thus in the operating range of the Hydraulic lifters.
A 2200 rpm stall converter is a nice additions to the transmission, a lock up converter 904 is my favorite, but a non-lock up one works fine too for the application. A 2200 rpm stall lets the engine spin up just a bit in normal driving to be able to move the car easily when using tall or the OEM 2.56 economy geared cars.
If you use a cam that requires valve train changes in order to install it, and it's lift is beyond the .500 number and duration as specified is probably greater than 220 degrees it too can be called lumpy, how ever the application would be one aimed more at extreme performance with a limited application rather than something that you can expect to get groceries with. And it may depend on have a 3000 or better stall converter. But something like the Iskenderian 270HL when tuned to idle as I tune them anyway, an idle of about 450rpm which is my preference and using an appropriate sized AFB 4bbl that the engine can use, along with any other engine modifications that suite the circumstances can work well with tall gearing either with an automatic or a manual transmission and the engine will idle with a bit of Lumpy thus meet that definition. You can drive the car to the grocery store or cross country with put worrying about stalling. Or when the situation arises, you can change the tune to pass smog with out a problem.
If that is a requirement and at my house it is.
So I guess I do not see the word "Lumpy" as one to be concerned with when selecting a cam. These cams, some people might define as mild and in comparison to some cams out there, they are, but those have different applications and do not work well for grocery getter cars. I have enjoyed building street motors for quite some time now and Ilkike a little lumpy in the sound. And they don't stall and they don'e need a 3000 rpm stall converter, but a 2200 rpm one works quite nicely thank you.
But then again in a different era, my late model Chrysler Van with an almost 200 cu in 6 cylinder engine come from the factory with about the same torque converter and it works fine with the little 6 pulling the enormous Van around town through the automatic transmission and tall road gears. A 232 should have no problem at all pulling a light car such as a Gremlin, Spirit or anything else AMC made, around. If tuned properly.