cam suggestions

I went with the Edelbrock cam that matches the rest of my Edelbrock stuff. Visit their website for suggestions. Look for a cam that has a range from idle to some RPM max. I did not see if you are running an auto but they need 112 degrees of lobe seperation for that good idle. Too litte here and you are looking at a stall converter.

I went with probably the same spec edelbrock cam as rapid mentioned above and also increased my stall to the 2200 range just in case.... it idles nicely and is very steetable. not too much, i could still easily run power brakes or whatever. there are many options out there though, it all depends.... id go with a stage 1 type of upgrade, just a little more wild than stock, if you want to keep all the niceness of the engine!

19mustang65 said:

what i have is pretty close to a stock cam. maybe a lil higher but i dont think its much at all. i have a c4. how much are stall converters anyways?

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Well it would help to know the specs on your cam. if you have a comp cams setup, i cant imagine its real close to stock. i think u must be looking for a little more than what i have. but to answer your other question, a converter can be cheap or expensive. mine was a tci unit costing 179.99 from jegs. but u can get them cheaper or more expensive depending on your needs.

Off hand I do not recall the specs of the stock cam but I do remember being absolutely AMAZED at how tame it was. IIRC the duration was not even above 190 at 0.05 and the total lift was something along the lines of 0.400 or less!

The problem is while a nice powerful but easily streetable cam recomendation is easily made by us, it is going to suffer with those stock heads. I STRONGLY urge you to at least do a port match on them, particularly the exhaust port. The exhaust has been a problem with Ford heads since the '50s, the 260/289/302s, even the HO-5.0s and GT40s sucked in that department. On the 65-67 289 it is around a 1-inch square!

Spend a few hours with a hand held grinder that you can rent and a set of bits, for under $100 you can really free up some power and open up a range of cams that wpouldn't have worked well with the stock heads. But to answer your question, a cam with total duration in the 250-260 range, and 0.05 duration in the 210-215 range will wake it up nicely, add in a 0.45 lift and you shouldn't have to worry about piston to valve clearance. A cam like that will provide a broad power band, very low and smooth idle, tons of vacuum for accessories, yet still show itself when you ask for juice. The cam specs in my sig are pretty mild by a racer's standards but will not work well at all with stock heads. I'll have a slight lope at idle but enough vacuum at least for brakes, plus a very flat torque curve, with 375 or more ft/lbs all the way from 2,000-6,000RPM. In my opinion the torque curve is what you should pay attention to for a street car or cruiser.

i have a comp cam xe262h.

video. www.osanto.net/exhaust.avi

just of note:
ive never been impressed with teh 1/4 mile times of street cars with the performer rpm cam

i think a good choice would be inbetween the performer and performer rpm