Quick question thats been answered -

Paul Perreca

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I've checked the threads and could not find anyone with the same set up as me - I have stock everything right now. I own a polished cobra intake and ford racing valve covers and a 70mm throttle body so far, this all cost be about 6-700 bucks. Moneys been down, now i am looking for the perfect cam and lifter kit for my car - my lifters are worn, and the valve covers and intake are coming off anyway, so i was wondering which cam shaft and lifter kit and any other assessories would be best with a mostly stock, 100k mile motor. I appreciate it, this question might have been answered, but i couldnt find it, so i asked it!! Thanks Guys, knew you could be helpful -

Everyone told me I was buying a money trap when i bought it, i was like nahh no way " "

 

Paul Perreca

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or should i just buy a new engine lol - i haven o money but was on ford racing .com site, and they got some sweet 302 w/ 320 HP for 3G's, hey anybody got 3G's???

 

25thmustang

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#3

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Well theres a LOT more to a cam swap then removing the valve covers and intake. As far as a cam goes, I run a stock one, with some 1.7 rockers, and it makes power well over 5000 RPM. If your looking for more of a sound thing (without a matched cam, your not going to have huge gains) Id say go for an E or B cam.

 

Paul Perreca

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yea i am not trying to run 12's lol im trying to run low 14's at the most, and im not really going to be running that car - but yea im looking for a sound thing- but i would like the car to feel stronger - and i know its not just the valve covers n intake, the whole front end of the motor has to come off, and i think the radiator out to slide it out - do i have to take off my bumpercover? i hope not lol thanks
Paul Perreca

 

NKau

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#5

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Before doing anything, why do you believe your lifters are 'worn'? And to be honest, I wouldn't go through all the trouble of swapping cams until you decide to upgrade heads. If you are after a 'cammed sound', I've heard that changing to a 1.7 ratio rocker will actually effectively add a slight amount of lift. Many swear it changes the way their engine sounds, but I've yet to ever experience it.
Also, at 100K miles, a lot of these engines are still in really good shape. Lots of people will purchase a car with 100K+ miles and still add an h/c/i without rebuilding the shortblock. All depends on what kind of condition yours is in (what kind of oil pressure it makes cold, at warm idle, and at warm cruise, and what compression looks like across all cylinders).
If you're goal is just to break into the 13's, you can easily do that without dropping 3K on a crate motor.

 

Paul Perreca

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yea everyone says its easy to get into 13's - im not even shooting for that, i just want low 14's cuz this is my daily driver, and i just cant afford new heads - if i got them i'd like to get twisted wedge fully assembled, but i just won't be able to afford that for a long time - college sucks so much *&@$* its not even funny - But i figured a cam and lifters would help,

one or two are worn, you can hear it tapping really bad and i took it to my reputable shop and they said it was a worn lifter, and to add lucas to an oil change to lower the volume of the tapping - but i just want to replace them, and while i replace them, might as well to cam and maybe roller rockers

 

25thmustang

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#7

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I have 1.7s, and it doesnt sound like it has a cam. A cam will make it sound better, but will in turn hurt low end and might make it feel slower down low. Torque feels better on the street, a cam most likely will move the power band up, something that wont feel great on the street!

 

NKau

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#8

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In the end it's kind of up to you. An e-cam or tfs stage 1 would sound good, and not kill low end performance too bad, but you probably won't run better times with the e-cam over a stocker, and like 25th said, you will lose the off-throttle snap that the stock cam gives you.

In all honestly, without having the performer intake on my notch (didn't feel like swapping until I do heads this spring), I wish that the stock cam were still in because of the softness below 1500 rpm. Even with the intake on, I'd expect that the bottom end would still be soggy, but things would pick up much more above 4K than they do now. Again, it's kind of up to you. I'd personally stay with the stock cam and just do lifters.

 

Paul Perreca

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so your saying putting a cam in is going to make it more sluggish? i always thought that addinga cam would improve performance -

 

85_SS_302_Coupe

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#10

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I've seen very close to stock 5.0s running 13.9s with traction and good driving. Just my $.02

 

Paul Perreca

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yea well im not a good driver lol its stick and i can drive it fine around town, but i am still getting the hang of racing, i never let it go over 5k because i am afraid of hurting something - but alot of ppl around here told me to get a cam because of the cobra intake that i have, they say to do the intake and cam/lifters at the same time w/ throttle body and it will show a great improvement - is this not true??

 

shttygtstang

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#12

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Paul Perreca said:

so your saying putting a cam in is going to make it more sluggish? i always thought that addinga cam would improve performance -

Click to expand...

paul is your car is sd that would make a differnce ?

 

85_SS_302_Coupe

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#13

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Paul Perreca said:

yea well im not a good driver lol its stick and i can drive it fine around town, but i am still getting the hang of racing, i never let it go over 5k because i am afraid of hurting something - but alot of ppl around here told me to get a cam because of the cobra intake that i have, they say to do the intake and cam/lifters at the same time w/ throttle body and it will show a great improvement - is this not true??

Click to expand...

I agree with the statement above about not bothering with the cam untill you get heads, but i do have a friend who just put an E cam in his, he's got a Chinese knockoff of a Performer RPM intake and he did a little porting/clean up work on his heads. After the cam it showed a pretty noticeable torque increase and revs a lot happier. Like i said above though, there are plenty of guys running stock cams who make crazy power. It's also never too late to practice driving and get better

 

Paul Perreca

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shttygtstang said:

paul is your car is sd that would make a differnce ?

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huh? lol yea my car is SD, and i will get the MAF conversion but i dont wanna get one that is smaller than 65mm, i will go aftermarket for that -

 

shttygtstang

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Paul Perreca said:

huh? lol yea my car is SD, and i will get the MAF conversion but i dont wanna get one that is smaller than 65mm, i will go aftermarket for that -

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just stating that because if you try running a maf cam in a sd car youll have nothing but problems

 

Paul Perreca

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#16

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yea but i dont have the knowledge or the money for heads or porting heads
You guys are saying that you can make power using the stock cam, understood, but i thought you could also make power by changing the cam - i know its like beating a dead horse, but sometimes things dont get through to me

 

25thmustang

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#17

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A cam swap and your going to need to do a MAF setup.

Also driving it hard isnt too bad, just do it every so often and treat it right the rest of the time!

I also will say just an intake doesnt warrent a new cam, its the heads that are the restriction now, so Id hold off on a cam, and finish off the intake side!

 

85_SS_302_Coupe

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#18

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I'd say its a two way street. Basically, if you have the money/skills to buy and change your heads, you're going to make more HP with the heads and a stock cam than you will with stock heads and any cam, especially since you already have an intake. If you don't have the cash or skills, i wouldnt go any bigger than an E cam with stock heads.

 

Paul Perreca

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#19

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that is what i have read, to go with the E cam w/ stock heads, but basically, there is no way around making power w/ them stock heads - nothing i can do to make power and keep the stock heads? (w/o porting them) - theres gotta be something!! GOD DAMN IT

 

85_SS_302_Coupe

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#20

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Paul Perreca said:

that is what i have read, to go with the E cam w/ stock heads, but basically, there is no way around making power w/ them stock heads - nothing i can do to make power and keep the stock heads? (w/o porting them) - theres gotta be something!! GOD DAMN IT

Click to expand...

Well yea, there is. NAAAAAAWWWWSSS!!!! lol