The cam in the '86 is a good one.The '86 has forged flat top pistons as well.No valve reliefs at all.I am running this engine with ported E-7 heads and an E303 cam (and more).Just grab some heads from an EFI 5.0 pickup.Same E-7 heads,and super cheap.
I'd hafta check my books, I think they just wanted the injection on the street, they were already a couple years behind the Tuned Port stuff you could already get on an IROC in 85, and the E6's didn't match up right to the runners, if memory serves. So they mish-mashed the thing together til the 87's came out. But those 86's were not good, an 85 would eat 'em up.
I never understood what the purpose of E6s were. E5s (which came on, duh, the '85) were essentially identical to the E7s (not even worth swapping IMO) but they threw the '86 scraps...crappy heads, crappy cam, crappy intake.
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the '86 cars, so I always take the opportunity to defend the E6's...
The E6 head was a high swirl, shrouded valve head designed to improve combustion efficiency and reduce emissions. It was a well designed head, but because of the increased valve shrouding, it does not flow well above ~4500RPM. This head went into service on other Ford V8s even though the 87 and later Mustang did not use it. The runner design on the E6 heads was not a "mismatch", and in fact, the only reason it flows less than the E7 is because of the valve shrouding, not some awkward runner shape.
On the street (and I have said this many times), the '86 GT was actually the fastest 0-60 car of any other Fox car (aside from the Cobra). Look it up, I'm not BS'ing here. The improved combustion efficiency made for a broad mid-range torque curve, so in stock form, the E6 cars held their own. In the 1/4 mile, most performance reports only claimed the '86 as being a couple tenths slower than the 87. IIRC, the '85 cars were slower than both, but I can't verify that right now.
The cam in the '86 was actually one of the better cams in the Fox cars. Because of emissions reasons, the cam profiles got somewhat less aggressive into the 90's, and is one of the reasons the later 5.0 cars eventually got down rated to 205HP.
Like you said, 85_SS_302_Coupe, another factor for the lower HP ratings on the '86 cars is that they came with a slightly smaller TB and smaller-runner upper intake plenum. Its an easy switch to '87-up standards, and I'm sure accounts for a chunk of that extra 25HP the '87 cars had.
Disclaimer: I'm not promoting the E6 heads as good candidates for performance builds. They aren't. I just don't like it when people give the '86 a bad rep!
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