Im starting out building a light drag 5.0. Not expecting anything major, but i am looking at getting a nice cam, i dont care how agressive it is, the car wont be driven on the road that much, if at all. It seems like the E cam is pretty popluar but unfortanetly i dont know much about them. With a certain cam, can i make my redline higher?? I dont have the money for a custom grind cam. Right now the car just has explorer upper and GT40 lower intake, 70 mm TB. I will be getting heads shortly, but i wanted to see what cam you would suggest.
Want a cam, doesnt matter how streetable
- Thread starter JJPA
- Start date
More info about the car and what you plan on doing with it. (heads, auto/stick, stall, gears, etc, etc) Cams are no long chosen based on how lumpy they are at idle. That selection method died out (or at least should have) in the early '90's 
Stang8URMPRT
Active Member
Stang8URMPRT
Active Member
That was a continuation of what Thenemesis said... I was far from 3 years old in the early 90s lol
Your going to need larger heads and intake as well, as well as some really free flowing exaust. You can easily overcam the car and loose power everywhere.
ok well like i said it has explorer upper and GT40 lower. As far as heads, right now they will stay stock, unless i find a good deal on GT40s or cobra and have it ported. The car is 5 speed and it already has headers, straight pipes and dumps. I am planning on running 3:73 gears. As far as stall, i dont know, thats where i can use help too.
Heads and gears first, then cam.
Aggressive cam + stock heads + stock gears = D-O-G
Not to mention that you’re not going to need anywhere as unstreetable a cam as you think you do to make that car fly with the amount of airflow a set of GT40 heads and an Explorer intake manifold is going to provide. Think conservative dual pattern grind. Check out the CompCams line up for some nice grinds.
Aggressive cam + stock heads + stock gears = D-O-G
Not to mention that you’re not going to need anywhere as unstreetable a cam as you think you do to make that car fly with the amount of airflow a set of GT40 heads and an Explorer intake manifold is going to provide. Think conservative dual pattern grind. Check out the CompCams line up for some nice grinds.
maverick0716
Founding Member
You won't gain much performance from a different cam at this point. You will need better cylinder heads or you'll basically be wasting your money.
Me.....an alphabet cam was the way things were done in the past when there was nothing else to choose from. You'll get more out of a more modern dual pattern set up that's custom ground to your particular combination than some off the shelf, 15-year-old alphabet cam that's only advantage over others, is that it's cheap! Regardless of your cam choice, wait until you're able to back it with a set of good flowing heads, intake and other supporting components before going with it, because I guarantee you'll be disappointed with the end results if you don't. I can’t stress enough the importance of doing your research on your cam selection. To get anywhere near the best results with your car, you have to tailor your combination as a whole. All components must be suited to work optimally with one and other if you expect them to run the way you want.ACstang5.0 said:
I can’t count the number of high dollar cars that I killed in my old ‘87LX who’s owners were absolutely livid or could in no way believe that my stock cam, with stock ported heads and intake and little else was able to walk all over their $10,000 and $15,000 money pits! These are the same guys (which I’m sorry to say sound a whole lot like your buddies) that refuse to look beyond the old days of racing and are still running dinosaur cams and 3” exhausts on their cars because it’s “old school”. I’ve got news for those guys…..it’s 2005. Lumpy cams and oversized components don’t win races anymore.If a custom grind isn’t in your price range, then check out a few off the shelf cams that have gone past the dark ages in their design.
For starters….Ed Curtis, CompCams and Wolverine are three of the big ones that come to mind off the top of my head, which have far superior profiles to that of the alphabet, Crane or other single grind cams out there. Just keep looking dude…..the answers are out there. Call a couple of these companies up and listen to what they’ve got to say….
MrKwik
Founding Member
I guess I will address the red line question because I dont think anybody really has...JJPA said:
The cam will definately have a large impact on the power band of the engine but you cant just throw in a cam with an RPM range of say 3500-8000 and have an 8000 RPM redline. Your valvetrain will dictate that alot more than the cam itself. Your cam may rev to 8k but if you use the stock springs, it may float like a bitch a 3500, effectively giving you a 3500 rpm redline. Of course you are also limited by how stout your bottom end is.
And just for future reference...the "E" cam is far from unstreetable. It sounds nice, makes decent power with the right combination of parts but in my opinion is actually a fairly mild cam as far as "big" cams go. And as much as I agree that cam technology has advanced in the past several years, its all about the combination. Just because you have a newer more technologically advanced cam doesn absolutely mean you will make more power. Its totally possible to have a combination where one of the dinosaur alphabet cams is the "magic" cam. I also find it amusing that of guys that dog the alphabet cams will praise the stock cam like its god. I have seen some damn fast cars with stock cams, dont you think that technology is just as ancient? Little hipocritical but.... thats just me
Stock heads are crying for a cam change.
Plain and simple.
If it's a light drag car, there is no reason not to go into the 11's on stock heads with a properly matched cam.
Do your homework, and don't listen to the folks that try and tell you the stock cam is as good as it gets for stock heads, that is pure internet mythology.
If it had any truth to it at all Ed Hohenberg would not be making 290rwhp/330rwtq and running 11.90's while retaining a 5600rpm shift point on a stock 302 long block EFI... NHRA stock, that is even with the limitations of a 0.500" lift cam. BTW, his cam is in the 290 dur.
There is a guy on Hardcore that is running 11.3's n/a with ported stock heads and comp 294 cam...
Of note, neither of those cams are dual pattern... hmmm... imagine that.
Restricted combo's need much more cam than the stocker.
As mentioned above, ensure your valve train is up to the task.
Do your homework and I'm sure you can build a screamer.
Plain and simple.
If it's a light drag car, there is no reason not to go into the 11's on stock heads with a properly matched cam.
Do your homework, and don't listen to the folks that try and tell you the stock cam is as good as it gets for stock heads, that is pure internet mythology.
If it had any truth to it at all Ed Hohenberg would not be making 290rwhp/330rwtq and running 11.90's while retaining a 5600rpm shift point on a stock 302 long block EFI... NHRA stock, that is even with the limitations of a 0.500" lift cam. BTW, his cam is in the 290 dur.
There is a guy on Hardcore that is running 11.3's n/a with ported stock heads and comp 294 cam...
Of note, neither of those cams are dual pattern... hmmm... imagine that.
Restricted combo's need much more cam than the stocker.
As mentioned above, ensure your valve train is up to the task.
Do your homework and I'm sure you can build a screamer.
On my "stock" 302 build I put in a small cam (224/224 durr and .500/.500 lift). Stock compression 9.0:1, stock heads and an airgap intake with a 650cfm carb. The engine dynoed at 280hp and 335lb-ft of torque and at 2000rpm, I had a little over 300lb-ft of torque. What a freaking fun little engine.
I doubt E7's could take you into the 11's. You'd better have a very good weight saving program and a hell of a driver - if it's even remontly possible.
I doubt E7's could take you into the 11's. You'd better have a very good weight saving program and a hell of a driver - if it's even remontly possible.
maverick0716
Founding Member
Ok there's no question that the stock cam isn't the BEST cam for stock heads (and I mean unported), but any off the shelf cam out there isn't going to give you a lot of gains.....for the time put in to change it anyway. The only good gains you would see is from a custom cam ($300+) and even then it's not like you're going to be seeing a 50 hp gain.
Similar threads
- Locked
