What would you recommend as a good cam size for a 289/302? I just want something for street purpose and I don't want to change rockers or springs. I have an Edelbrock Performer 289 intake, an Edelbrock 4bbl carb, tri-y headers with turbo mufflers, and a new hei distributor. I'd like something with a little lope at idle. The engine is in a 66 Mustang with a c-4 trans and a stock rear end. Thanks, Pat
my buddy has the same set up in his mustang, i can ask him what cam he is running (its a crane cam and lifter kit) not sure of the model number but i will ask, runs real strong too.
i ran an edelbrock torker cam with all the same components you have for years, works nice. also works well with the stock converter & gears.
Given that you have a C4 automatic (and I'm ***uming a stock torque converter) along with stock rearend gears (likey either 2.79 or 3.08), I'd recommend probably a milder cam than most. If it were me, I'd take a good look at the Crane Powermax H-260-2 for your motor. (Part # 363901) It's got .456" lift on the intake side and .484" on the exhaust side, with 204 & 216 degrees duration @ .050" lift respectively. It will run strong up to about 4600rpm which is about all your stock heads are good for anyway. Idle quality would be great, and throttle response would still be very strong given your auto ****** and stock gears. Small block Fords are one of the easiest engines to "over-cam", because stock Windsor based heads don't flow well enough to make use of the more radical grinds in stock form. You could go with a bigger cam and get a lopey idle out of it, but you'd probably also get sluggish throttle response and a "lazy" motor in the lower RPM ranges as well. In the end, I think you'd be FAR happier when you mash the pedal if you go a little conservative with something like the cam I mentioned here.
I have a TFS Stage II in the 5.0 w/T-5 in my 66 fastback. Perfectly dances the line between lope and streetability. That said, I think Fat Hack is right. Easy to over-do it, and with stock heads and an auto, conservative would be better.
How do you know? FH is on the right track, although I've never seen a cam with 12* difference between intake and exhaust duration. Fords, particularly smog-era engines (small blocks most definitely included) have incredibly bad exhaust ports in the heads. That's why you always see the dual pattern cams heavily favoring the exhaust.
That's just mean man. It's not my fault the fastback has been hijacked by the 56 F100. I'm gonna go cry in my beer.
i did run the performer cam for awhile, i personally think it ****ed. sounded stock, and didnt rev much past 4000, only good part about it was it got pretty good mileage, but it thats what i was after i'd just get a honda!
The Comp Cams Extreme Energy 262 is good. It's a dual pattern and will work well with your setup. Won't sound "rad" but you'll appreciate the low end oomf!
call howard cams tell them what you want and they will give you on off the shelf or custom grind one real good prices i love their cams real helpful on ford on of the few that new any thing about fords i talked to steve
Well, try the Performer RPM then - it shifts the powerband up a bit. As for the folks decrying the Ford heads & insisting on a smaller cam, I'd tell you that Fords do like a bit more cam than you would imagine - I think this is due to their oversquare nature - not unlike BBC. They definitely like split pattern cams... Having said that, I've only ever run one auto behind a SBF & it was a stroker 351W, so had the grunt to pull despite being overcammed (it was) - I ended up putting a slightly smaller cam in later. The engine was originally in front of a toploader & when I put it in the other car & went auto, the bigger cam was a bit much on the bottom end. Still, the cam I ended up with was pretty far out there...
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