Lurked long enough

VERGAZ1

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May 27, 2024
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Minnezota
great forum have learned a lot over the years from lurking thru google searches figured its time to create an acct. 1989 lx convertible 5 speed here going through the checklist of 'gotta have/do' upgrades updates and modifications with a few personal touches. H/C/I is my next step and looking at an explorer intake, B cam and looking for advice on the heads.


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Here's your official 'welcome to the site!' :cheers:
Skip the B cam, it's just so nineties, get a duel pattern grind.

Be nice! Maybe he's going for that vibe..... :shrug: Besides, I have a B cam I may install one of these days....

I heard Scotty once used one in an engine that acted as a replacement warp drive aboard the USS Enterprise. ;)


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Well, it always comes down to budget and goals. On the low end of the spectrum, you could bang out a budget street build by finding some explorer "3-bar" 96-97 heads, or the later 4-bar GT40Ps (specific headers required). They'll still run ya only a few hundred from the marketplace. On the extreme end, you could end up with some exotic custom Yates, High-port, or Clevor head. But if you go that extreme, you should be talking to a builder or already know what you're doing. In the middle are all the rest at various levels of spend.

Your suggestion of the B-cam probably means you're budget-minded, in which case your goal is to find a good used head. The GT40 and basic cam & explorer intake combo is a really nice bump from stock. Depending on the other bolt ons, you should expect to see 260+ rwhp and to have plenty of power to carry a full weight manual fox deep into the 12s. A step up from there would be to a premium aluminum head like an AFR or Trick Flow. These heads will flow enough to push power into the 300+ rwhp area and if cammed and properly intaked & accessorized, you can even get into the 350+ range. Look to spend a couple grand on those heads new and 1-1.5k used. You'll want to pair those more premium versions with a Holley Systemax II or similar intake if you stay in the 302-310 c.i. at less than 6.5k RPM range.

That should be plenty to put some 'paint on the wall' for ya. There's nothing wrong with a budget-minded torquey little GT40 combo. That's what's currently in my DD, and I love it! Above that, the principle of diminishing returns for the $$$ applies.
 
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Out of curiosity, I asked this guy if he'd let his stuff go seperately, and he said he'd part off the heads/cam/intake and rockers for $1.4k. If the parts are good, I think that's a decent deal:

 
Here's your official 'welcome to the site!' :cheers:


Be nice! Maybe he's going for that vibe..... :shrug: Besides, I have a B cam I may install one of these days....

I heard Scotty once used one in an engine that acted as a replacement warp drive aboard the USS Enterprise. ;)


1716820616546.png

Well, it always comes down to budget and goals. On the low end of the spectrum, you could bang out a budget street build by finding some explorer "3-bar" 96-97 heads, or the later 4-bar GT40Ps (specific headers required). They'll still run ya only a few hundred from the marketplace. On the extreme end, you could end up with some exotic custom Yates, High-port, or Clevor head. But if you go that extreme, you should be talking to a builder or already know what you're doing. In the middle are all the rest at various levels of spend.

Your suggestion of the B-cam probably means you're budget-minded, in which case your goal is to find a good used head. The GT40 and basic cam & explorer intake combo is a really nice bump from stock. Depending on the other bolt ons, you should expect to see 260+ rwhp and to have plenty of power to carry a full weight manual fox deep into the 12s. A step up from there would be to a premium aluminum head like an AFR or Trick Flow. These heads will flow enough to push power into the 300+ rwhp area and if cammed and properly intaked & accessorized, you can even get into the 350+ range. Look to spend a couple grand on those heads new and 1-1.5k used. You'll want to pair those more premium versions with a Holley Systemax II or similar intake if you stay in the 302-310 c.i. at less than 6.5k RPM range.

That should be plenty to put some 'paint on the wall' for ya. There's nothing wrong with a budget-minded torquey little GT40 combo. That's what's currently in my DD, and I love it! Above that, the principle of diminishing returns for the $$$ applies.



budget minded and period correct are my top 2 priorities and from what I've read those explorer parts are a pretty sweet deal and the b-cam seems to be popular to match with them. Using factory parts from another Ford also appeals to me its kinda cool to 'raid the parts bin' and keep it all FoMoCo under the hood (for now)

It's an old convertible that I'm not going to be racing at the track I just like to see results from simple and affordable mods. If I could get 260 at the wheels with some cleaned up junkyard parts I'd be more than happy and maybe even a little too pleased with myself
 
A dual pattern cam will help maximize the exhaust side to more closely resemble the intake flow. Right or wrong, here's how I think of it: the intake valve opens a certain distance for a certain amount of time and allows X amount of air/fuel into the cylinder. Then, the compression and power cycle produce X amount of exhaust. Since nothing was added, you still have to expend the same volume of exhaust as you'd want to bring air/fuel into the cylinder for the next intake cycle, so the exhaust valve needs to be the same size and open the same distance and for the same length of time. Since it's almost physically impossible (there are exceptions, of course) to match the valves and ports size for size, the only way to help equalize them is to adjust the amount of lift and length of time that they're open. So a dual pattern cam generally has longer duration and more lift on the exhaust side to help equalize flow.

I've shared this video here before, as I know a couple others have, I think it's a good watch to help get a better handle on cam selection.


View: https://youtu.be/JPAeepqrY-0?si=CS1R2U2ARzOtryvE

He gets into single/dual pattern cams at around the 35 minute mark.
 
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I am not well versed in cam-tology but I did run a B cam for a short time, I had the same problem many have had with them, you couldn't drive around at low RPMs. (Like cruze'n a parking lot in first or second gear) the engine bucked and made it nearly impossible to drive, once above 2k RPMs it was fine,
Now in defense of The Almighty B cam I will say it was fun to drive aggressively between 3500 and 6000 RPMs and the idle was down right sexy so if you're looking for nostalgia and that old Mustang pushrod burple while sitting at a light it fits.
 
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Call Comp Cams and get one of their off the shelf grinds. Just be honest with them about what you want out of the motor and give them your list of wants in order of importance. Be ready to change the rear gears as most cams will want some gear. If I had to do it over again I would have gone with 3.55's over my 3.73's with the 3.35 first gear ratio of my T-5.
 
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I've seen a rule of thumb that when you divide the exhaust flow by the intake flow, & then every percent less than 75% wants 1.5 degrees of exhaust duration @ .050".

Maybe this gives a decent idea of why split patterns work so well on GT40 style heads. Let's take the GT40X heads, for example. Skip to the second list, at the bottom, on this:

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So, at .600, it'd be around 69.8%, which would need about 7.7 degrees. The XE274HR, a pretty good cam that would have manners similar to a B-cam is 224/232 @ .050". 8 degrees!

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So voila! And on top of the right split, it has 1 degree more LSA, which I'll bet makes it even more street friendly than the B-cam. The extra lift should help a bit, too.

Now, most that are familiar with nitrous cams know that they generally have even more duration on the exhaust side, and that jibes with the idea that injecting nitrous is equivalent to having an even bigger intake CFM flow.

Just some food for thought for ya.
 
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Call Comp Cams and get one of their off the shelf grinds. Just be honest with them about what you want out of the motor and give them your list of wants in order of importance. Be ready to change the rear gears as most cams will want some gear. If I had to do it over again I would have gone with 3.55's over my 3.73's with the 3.35 first gear ratio of my T-5.
ive already done the 3:73 rear end and yeah id also go with 3:55 if I was to do it again. beats the 2:73 it came to me with either way. What I'm taking away form this is the best order to do things would be track down the Intake and heads that I'll use and have Comp Cams figure out what will be my best options based on those choices. Anything else to consider? always have read H/C/I with then shorty headers being the following step for a budget/parts bin build.
thanks in advance
 
Buddy of mine always wanted a factory purple shaft in his Mopar (that purple shaft is a factory racing cam for Mopars)
Finally installed it and it ran so lumpy he could not street drive it
Beautiful, looks well kept 89 you have VERGAZ1
 
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