1990-Camshaft alignment

sibhus · Feb 10, 2019

Hi all, newbie here although have owned my fox for nearly 28 years now. Back in the 90s I installed a steeda 18 cam but have always had drivability issues given I have a 3.08 rear end with a T5 world class tranny. Ended up buying an M3 and my fox has just sat and barely driven. Now I want to get my 5.0 back to that nice oem low end drivability and am looking at a crane xe264 extreme cam which is designed for 1500-5500 rpms and has a 212/218 duration specs. My steeda 18 cam is 220/226 and both are 112 LCA. What I am wondering is, can I reclock by say retarding the cam position relative to the crank, and effectively give me the lower duration specs I seek and hopefully not alter lift. This would save some time and money by doing this but not sure if this is doable.

Any opinions, thanks Kal.

CarMichael Angelo · Feb 11, 2019

sibhus said:
Hi all, newbie here although have owned my fox for nearly 28 years now. Back in the 90s I installed a steeda 18 cam but have always had drivability issues given I have a 3.08 rear end with a T5 world class tranny. Ended up buying an M3 and my fox has just sat and barely driven. Now I want to get my 5.0 back to that nice oem low end drivability and am looking at a crane xe264 extreme cam which is designed for 1500-5500 rpms and has a 212/218 duration specs. My steeda 18 cam is 220/226 and both are 112 LCA. What I am wondering is, can I reclock by say retarding the cam position relative to the crank, and effectively give me the lower duration specs I seek and hopefully not alter lift. This would save some time and money by doing this but not sure if this is doable.

Any opinions, thanks Kal.

This question is best left to the expert. Call your cam mfg, and tell him what you want to do. He'll let you know all about the process. Typically you shouldn't be having any issue with a small cam like that and a 5 speed. If you installed the cam yourself, you owe it to yourself to read up on the process they call degreeing the cam, and see where you put the thing in at.

General karthief · Feb 11, 2019

Like mike says, fix what you got, use the cam change money to stick a good gear in it, say a 355, and drive it like you stole it!
There is technical help here that you could use to get your combo straightened out in our technical/how to threads.
what else was added or is the rest of the engine stock?

Steel1 · Feb 11, 2019

Agreed.
Years ago I ran a Steeda #18 cam in my 93GT with no drivability/idle issues.
It's a pretty mild cam and I doubt it's the main cause of your drivability problems.
Do some digging, pull codes etc. there's a lot of knowledgeable people here who can help
you straighten that out.

Lol, guess I really didn't add anything that wasn't already said...oh well just trying to sound smart..

sibhus · Feb 11, 2019

So am running the cam with gt40x 64cc heads, tfs street instake, 1.7 rockers and 70mm MAF and throttle body with 42lb injectors. I have a tweecer tune. My issue lies with the fact that the car needs to be around 2500rpms minimum to be streetable without the car feeling boggy. I remember in stock form, the car was awesome around 1500-2000rpms . I think ive just grown out of the whole mod phase and just want this thing to perform as close to stock with that good low end torque and just being able to shift into 5th around 55mph. Right now i can only get into 5th at 70mph and do a lot of highway driving.

Ive been researching and it looks like i can safely advance this cam 4 degrees but will need to verify intake piston to valve clearance.

General karthief · Feb 11, 2019

Miss matched parts and internet folk lore,
Now this is just my opinion and no way based on personal experience
#1 your injectors are too big, 24's should be plenty large enough
#2 you rear gear is wrong, I bet you have to ride the clutch to get it rolling from a dead stop with that cam, it seems to be a dog till 1600-1800 rpms when the cam starts working, you would benefit from a 355 or even higher gear.
even with the above changes, keeping the cam, heads and intake I would think it does not need a 'tune', and the tweezer tune thingy may be part of the problem. Do the above changes and lose the tweezer and start there, sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards, don't forget to check for codes, keep us posted on what you do and how it works out, we're here to help.

sibhus · Feb 11, 2019

General your right in that I have to rev up to 2000 to get away. My rear end gears are 3.27s though and prefer to stay with them due to highway driving. I had a supercharger and went back to NA so am trying to figure out the best way to get close to stock with some pep.

I don't have any issues with my tune, car idles perfectly and pulls awesome till 6k. Although I have 42lb, I have proper coefficients in my tune to compensate for them. My issue is more mechanical in nature as the car just doesn't have torque at the lower end and I can feel the driveline getting sloppy which forces me to shift down all the time. I guess what im down to is should I change the cam back to an oem spec to get the torque back or for from 3.27 to 3.73. Seems like both will cost me about the same in time and money..

JD1964 · Feb 11, 2019

Before you go in deeper, check your ignition timing. Stock I think the setting is 8 BTDC but you can crank it to as much as 14 BTDC. Advanced ignition timing can wake up some noticeable low end.response.

1990-Camshaft alignment

sibhus

New Member

CarMichael Angelo

my rearend will smell so minty fresh,

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Steel1

Mustang Master

sibhus

New Member

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

sibhus

New Member

JD1964

there is enough sticking out to grab on to

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1990-Camshaft alignment

New Member

my rearend will smell so minty fresh,

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Mustang Master

New Member

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

New Member

there is enough sticking out to grab on to

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