for sure need to cam my cobra. i miss the lope of my last 302 so this being my first Cobra whats the best cam to go with? i was thinking comp cams extreme enegry 2. any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.
Comp makes an Xtreme Energy that is supposed to be their high end rendition of an E-cam.
I believe it is the 351-8 grind.
Sounds like an E-cam, but light years better, and it gets along with your ECM better than the alphabet cams.
I'm gunna base my response off of ratio411 because it sounds like he's done the research I'm to lazy to do but If it has a better "breathing" grind than the E303. DEFINITELY go with it. Don't mind JordanB21 though.. Not everyone has money for a whole top end upgrade.. I can't stand asking question or reading forums looking for answers to see "That One Guy" always saying what you should do rather than answer the question at hand. Plus with stock 289 heads w/ work + 11:1 compression, Dual plane intake + 650 dp Holley and stage 1 comp cam. Launches are pretty violent... But yes; Heads and intake would do some work to the power, They are also not a necessity.
ok so heres another question i found a set of afr 185's cheap can i just bolt those on and be good? ive seen a few posts on the forums that i may have to have my piston heads fly cut? i would end up going with a b303 cam for shorter duration so i wouldnt have to do anything for valve relief but the valves on the 185's are bigger so will i end up having to have them fly cut anyway?
Best thing to do would to just clay check it. Bigger valves will cause more chances of interference though. But just to give some what of an answer, the duration isn't what's going to cause piston to valve clearance issues. Because with my e303 (@ valve 282 dur. .498 lift) had less clearance than my comp cam (@valve 304 dur .520 lift.) It's the overlap that does it if i'm correct. Really it comes down to: When did the cam grinder decide the valves would open in relation to the piston movement. That's why it's good to have a degree wheel. When you clay test it; If its to close on the intake side then retarding the cam will give more clearance (Which you'll give up low end power doing that.) And the exact opposite if the exhaust valve is to close. Different heads will most likely change what your pushrod length will be too. I can tell you for sure that you wont be able to just get the heads and a cam and put it together without having to get other things too.
And If your going higher in combustion CCs you might not notice a big difference because you losing compression ratio. Say I went from 58cc heads to 62cc heads. My compression would go from 9.65:1 (58cc) to 9.2:1 (62cc.) So its your call man. I'm not going to be the guy to tell you how to spend your money. But the bigger the cam and higher flowing heads.. Honestly you'll have to match it with higher compression or else you'll lose power.
so how do i go about bringing up the compression. i usually ask advice of a builder in my area and he said with the afr 185's and a b303 cam i should make around 300 to the rear wheels. i actually just paid for the heads and i got 1.6 rockers and head studs with them for 800$ shipped i know it was a good deal i just want to make sure i didnt spend 800$ to see a minimal gain in rwhp
You are probably going to want a better intake manifold/ported manifold as well so you don't choke those heads. To take advantage of the 185s over say 165s I would guess you would have to spin up the motor higher which with that B303 cam, it doesn't sound like you plan on doing. I don't think you are going to make 300 to the rear wheels with that setup. But you should still make more power then stock so don't think of it as a waste of money ;-)