Cam Suggestions For my 331 combo?

revhead347 · Apr 29, 2010

Yeah, the comp cams guys are hit or miss. My machinest has a personal contact and his direct extension, so he gets great recommendations. I didn't realize you were using such a small head. First of all, it's the duration and lobe seperation that makes an engine very lopy. Boosted cars usual run a huge lift, and not much overlap to keep the blowthrough down. You'll notice that boosted cars have above average street manners. I think that cam you have is a little to small. My best recommendation for street manner is a Steeda #18. If you really want to make it idle nice, go with a Steeda #19. Steeda designed (or bought that design, I think it was an off the shelf Crane design) specifically to run with the same Edelbrock heads you have. At the time, that was the head they were using. The #19 is the same cam with a 114 lobe sep instead of a 112 lobe sep. If you can run that with a 1.72 rocker it will make up for the 331cid. I ran a #18 with 1.72 rockers my Windsor Jr. heads in my fox body, and it churned out a 12.99 in the quarter. The Edelbrock heads are much better than the Windsor Jr heads by comparison. My foxbody loped a little, but it was my daily driver, and had very reasonable street manners. The car was completely stock tune also, no chip whatsoever. With an SN computer, you can run the #19 with no tuning, but you will most likely have to get a chip to run the #18 with good street manners.

Kurt

hollywoodstang · Apr 29, 2010

revhead347 said:
Yeah, the comp cams guys are hit or miss. My machinest has a personal contact and his direct extension, so he gets great recommendations. I didn't realize you were using such a small head. First of all, it's the duration and lobe seperation that makes an engine very lopy. Boosted cars usual run a huge lift, and not much overlap to keep the blowthrough down. You'll notice that boosted cars have above average street manners. I think that cam you have is a little to small. My best recommendation for street manner is a Steeda #18. If you really want to make it idle nice, go with a Steeda #19. Steeda designed (or bought that design, I think it was an off the shelf Crane design) specifically to run with the same Edelbrock heads you have. At the time, that was the head they were using. The #19 is the same cam with a 114 lobe sep instead of a 112 lobe sep. If you can run that with a 1.72 rocker it will make up for the 331cid. I ran a #18 with 1.72 rockers my Windsor Jr. heads in my fox body, and it churned out a 12.99 in the quarter. The Edelbrock heads are much better than the Windsor Jr heads by comparison. My foxbody loped a little, but it was my daily driver, and had very reasonable street manners. The car was completely stock tune also, no chip whatsoever. With an SN computer, you can run the #19 with no tuning, but you will most likely have to get a chip to run the #18 with good street manners.

Kurt

Really? this really sucks because I 'had" #19 cam brand new a month ago and sold it to the guy in NJ for $200 buck since it was also a small cam like a B-cam from FMS, i am also currently using 1.7 rockers as well...i guess that's just my luck...

I will have to research little more on this OTS cam that will work for me and gives me good idle, I just gotta find the cam with 114* lobe then mainly. the cam i have is already 114* so...May be i can swap the whole thing over?

The car will be dyno tuned after the installation of course so i am not so much worried about the 95 computer, i just want the near stock idle.

Am i asking too much? lol

Venom351R · Apr 30, 2010

Tanus said:
well what happens when he decicdes to change something? (ie. swapping tfs-r intake for systemax, drops the 4.10s for 3.55s, adds NOS or a blower) Then the custom cam is useless.

Not always, you can get away with making changes w/ out it effecting how the cam preformed before. Ive gone from 3.73's to 4.10's with mine and Im probably going with bigger heads next year as well.

blwn331 said:
oh and will the 1.72 rr I have make issues? My pistons are cut, but not sure of the lift. Any one running 1.72s?

Im running 1.72's. My pistons are cut

nmcgrawj said:
Also, Ed Curtis has a trade in policy. If you need a new cam, you send him your old one plus some cash. You dont have to pay the entire custom cam fee again.

I did not know that. I'll have to keep that in mind in case I do need to swap cams with bigger heads but I probably wont but I wont worry abut that until I get to that point.

revhead347 said:
It has been over 4 weeks since I have heard anything from Ed Curtis.

Kurt

Ed can get pretty busy especially this time of year. I had my cam done by him two years ago and it was sometime in March/April and he was really quick about it but Im sure as the weather starts to turn nice for everyone he probaby gets super busy

RIO5.0 said:
Ed just did the cam for my 331... was 335.00 shipped

yeah same as mine + the spring kit which I think was actually more then the cam but Im happy with the results and the cam does what I asked for Ed to make it do. It pulls so hard in the higher RPM's and does not start to drop until after 6,000. When pete had it on the dyno he said it hits really hard at 5,000 RPM's which it does. Plus it idles so well now and that has a lot to do w the cam grind too

Black95GTS · Apr 30, 2010

Venom351R said:
Not always, you can get away with making changes w/ out it effecting how the cam preformed before. Ive gone from 3.73's to 4.10's with mine and Im probably going with bigger heads next year as well.

What??? You switched your ring and pinion and didn't change your custom cam!??? I'm surprised the engine even turns over! You should take out that custom cam and use it as a door stop, and switch to an advanced grind, like a letter cam. Don't be fooled, even though designed for 1985, and even though the intake and exhaust events are identical, and even though the lobe centerlines are conservative, and even though its not street legal, and even though the ramp rates are lame...

This thread is

Seriously, if you want the car to idle like stock, sound like stock, and drive like stock unless you are at the track, use the stock cam and a power adder.

Adam

BlackVert · Apr 30, 2010

my cam has a LSA of 112 and about 60 degrees of overlap (total, not at .050"), but i have been able to tune it so that it has a rock solid idle at 850 rpm. there is some lope, but not alot. but a cam that would be wild in a 302 is less wild in a larger engine, so i don't know how much of it is the cubes and how much is the tuning.

i still think that a TFS 1 would be a good choice:

Trick Flow Specialties TFS-51402000 - Trick Flow® Track Max® Hydraulic Roller Camshafts for Ford 5.0L - Overview - SummitRacing.com

or something like this:

COMP Cams 35-349-8 - COMP Cams Xtreme Energy Camshafts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

this one would also have a good idle:

COMP Cams 35-306-8 - COMP Cams Blower and Turbo Camshafts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

here is the steeda ... look at the operating range though, 2300+:

Steeda Autosports 063-0019 - Steeda Autosports Street/Strip Camshafts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

blwn331 · May 2, 2010

Well this is all good advice, I on the other hand do not want a street driver, or something with a smooth idle,. I want something that makes power, I drag race, I think we started going down the wrong path.

That being said I will do a custom cam. I would like to add that My AFRs are 8 yrs old so I guess they have the "bad springs?" Im down with changing them, How do I get intouch with the CAM gods?
Thanks all
JT

Black95GTS · May 3, 2010

Because you already have AFRs, I would contact Ed Curtis at FTI. He is known as an AFR specialist. He will sell you the spring package you need along with the custom camshaft.

edcurtisfti@verizon.net

Adam

blwn331 · May 3, 2010

Thanks Adam

Cam Suggestions For my 331 combo?

revhead347

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.

hollywoodstang

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blwn331

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