Im looking at building a 302 for a project Im working on and was wondering about the right cam. I a perfect world I would get wild but will have to go with reality. Here are the parameters; Run on 87 octane, 4spd. 3.73 gears, 30'' rear tire, around 2400 lbs. Mostly around town with occasional blast at the strip. What would you suggest including the carb. Driveability is the main thing. I can get wilder later with a different motor.
Call these guys they are Ford guys and race them as well they have built me 2 cams and were great and will build me more give em a call you will like there at***ude (At least I did) They can regrind your cam or sell you one http://www.oregoncamshaft.com/
Call any of the major cam manufactures for their recommendations,be honest with them on what you want to do with the car.I talked to Comp Cams when building my 351W Van used for towing my race car.The cam and kit along with their ideas on intake,carb,compression and ignition was perfect,that thing pulled like a freight train! ROY.
That's the big thing, but I will say that with a manual trans and 3.73 gears in a 2400 lb car, you can run something fairly stout as long as you don't spend a lot of time in stop-and-go traffic. Make sure you find out which firing order you get (early or late 302/351) and tell them if you have a 28 or 50 oz motor.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to performance when building a SBF is cylinder heads,if you are running a stock head they flow lousy especially on the exhaust side.If better heads are not in the budget look for a cam with increased exhaust duration and lift to counteract that issue.My suggestion is something like this:http://www.kmjent.com/cart/sbf-.450-.474-280-288-204-214-112ls-matched-hydraulic-cam-lifter-kit.html This is about the max you can go with a stock head and valvesprings,I have this in my 302 and it has a strong bottom end and midrange and pulls to 6,000 no sweat with this intake:http://www.kmjent.com/cart/ford-289-302-5.0l-polished-aluminum-intake-manifold.html Several of the members of the Ford social group have used it and like it,and there are several advantages even after four years run time it still wipes off and stays clean and shiny, also you will notice it has four water ports this equalizes cylinder temps and allows you to locate senders and water outlets away from the distributor allowing for easier adjustment.Edelbrock and Weiand and Offy intakes took the cheap way out and do not have rear water p***ages and is this one reason why this restriction causes corrosion issues as the manifold ages,you will see this commonly on used intakes.Now if the budget would allow this is a good "bang for the buck" and actually placed #3 in a cyl head test in Car Craft the 1.94 X 1.54 valves can work on all 302/5.0 without piston mods except for the 1986 5.0 which has no valve reliefs.
How far are you on the build? Order a SkipWhite 347 stroker kit.... I am currently running a Comp Cam's 268 flat tappet. PM me if you want details. I have less than 2500ish in my motor and it screams! I just received a Lunati retro fit Roller cam. Will be installing it this fall, Would sell my 268 if you are looking for something used and cheap.
^^^ This. If it's a roller cam engine, a good set of heads with a OE 5.0 H.O. cam will work really well up to about 6000rpm.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will follow up on them. The first motor will be just to run around with. 2nd will be serious. I'm doing a lot of reading. Haven't done much with motors since the late 70's,and then MOPARs,but now have a lot of small Ford stuff to use up.
You left out heads intake headers etc and if its a roller? No reason not to use a latemodel roller and in that case an "F" cam from ford motorsports is cheap, makes good power, sounds good and no dished pistons.
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