cam and intake reccomendations

[bryonbush 85]

Got my 302 back from the shop. Going to keep the heads for now but looking for a better cam and intake.

[sportsroof69 13]

So stock heads? Performer RPM intake, and a Anderson N21 cam.

[Rsanter 152]

Performer RPM is a great intake.

If you can do a little porting on the heads that would help a lot

 

Bob

[STL. Mark 11]

Not sure if you have them but full headers will really wake it up too.

[Rsmach1 71]

+1 with sportsroof69, the RPM is a great intake. From all I've heard the Anderson cams are good as well.

[barnett468 418]

your compression is low if you have stock heads . . an rpm intake is too big for a nearly tock engine with 2.79 or 3.00 gears . . what is your rear geario? . . do you want more bottom end power or more top end at the sacrifice of some bottom end?

[bryonbush 85]

I'm planning on putting this in a foxbody for a cheap track build. They usually have gears in the mid to high 3's. Down the road I'll probably change out heads but trying to keep it cheap right now

[Max Power 74]

your compression is low if you have stock heads . . an rpm intake is too big for a nearly tock engine with 2.79 or 3.00 gears . . what is your rear geario? . . do you want more bottom end power or more top end at the sacrafice of some bottom end?

All fair questions, and one that every decent cam tech line will ask when giving recommendations. It's almost impossible to make meaningful recommendations with so few details.

 

But, there are general trends. The RPM is a great intake, but you won't know it on stock heads, whatever stock heads you have. Cam rec is impossible without knowing if you want torque for the street, high rpm for racing, or what. You can just read the descriptions on the cam manufacturers websites and get more help than you can from us because we don't know what you are trying to do. Matching flow characteristics if cams to intakes is always a good idea.

 

Whatever you decide, either you will have too much cam and intake for the heads you have now, or you will have too little cam and intake for the heads you will buy later. Neither make much sense to me, so I would wait until you can get them all as a package rather than running a frankenstein.

[barnett468 418]

I'm planning on putting this in a foxbody for a cheap track build. They usually have gears in the mid to high 3's. Down the road I'll probably change out heads but trying to keep it cheap right now

 

 

ok, one option is the following:

 

using the appropriate cometic head gasket, set the quench/squish distance between your heads and pistons between .034 and .0432 with closer to .034 being better.

 

have your heads milled until you have around 9.8 to 10.0 static comression.

 

use an xe262h or xe268h cam or similar

 

use crane hydraulic lifters

 

if you have 5.0 heads, use a drop in sprig kit from alexes parts.

 

if you have press in rocker studs, buy a pin kit from speedway motors and pin the studs.

 

buy a regular performer intake and try a 1' tapered 4 hole spacer . . with the xe68h cam and 3.50 gears or higher, you could also use either the regular rpm intake or an rpm.

 

if you need a carb, buy a rebuilt summit 600 or 650 quick fuel sl model with vacuum secondaries . . if you road race it, i would use a mechanical secondary carb.

 

buy a holley vacuum secondary spring kit and install the white spring and if it bigs slightly during acceleration try the next stiffer spring.

 

plug your distributor vacuu advance and set the initial timing to 12 degrees btdc then modify the nechanical advance so the engine will have around 32 degrees of total advance around 2800 to 3000 rpm.

 

buy an MSD epoxy coil.

 

if you like high rpm and use the xe268 cam, i would use 1 5/8" tube headers, otherwise i would use 1 1/2" ones.

 

2 1/4" ex pipes are the max i would use and 2" would be the smallest with straight thru mufflers like magnaflows.

.

[sportsroof69 13]

On a stock motor, as indicated, the combo I listed will work perfect. It's been done over and over and over...... And that intake isn't too big for anything. It's only slightly better than stock.

[MikeStang 247]

I have a Small Used Hyd Roller cam I wont be using, Ill get the specs for ya this evening and post them if I can locate the info.

If you want the cam its yours for the cost of shipping LOL.

[Max Power 74]

On a stock motor, as indicated, the combo I listed will work perfect. It's been done over and over and over...... And that intake isn't too big for anything. It's only slightly better than stock.

A Performer RPM breathes far better than stock. A regular Performer is closer to stock.

[sportsroof69 13]

It's not "far" better. It's slightly to moderately better.

[sportsroof69 13]

The performer gives you more weight saving than performance. I'm talking real world results and not magazine results. The RPM is not too big.........

[1969_Mach1 333]

I tend to agree the those suggesting a Performer RPM over the regular Performer.  In my opinion Edelbrock's regular Performer is a waste of money.

[bryonbush 85]

I have a Small Used Hyd Roller cam I wont be using, Ill get the specs for ya this evening and post them if I can locate the info.

If you want the cam its yours for the cost of shipping LOL.

That's great man thanks. Wouldn't I have to change some stuff to make rollers work?

[barnett468 418]

I have built countless numbers of small blocks in the last 40 years and in my experience the rpm and air gap intakes are a little to big to use with an XE262H cam . . Some people that say the standard eddy intake sucks simply didn't use the right combo of parts or didn't try a 1 spacer on them etc . . Contrary to some peoples belief, more is not always better.

 

The Weiand action plus is similar to the standard eddy but has a completely different appearance, so if you are considering the standard eddy, you might look at the action plus also.

 

Ford got 271 hp out of a 289 with their wimpy stock intake manifold and wimpy stock heads . . Your stock 302 has around 210 . . How much hp do you want?

[bryonbush 85]

id like to get 500hp out of this with the heads...

 

just kidding! i would like to get as much as possible and plan ahead for when i do get better heads. as for now, keeping it simple. the heads were squared and the block was leveled off as well so that will help with the compression i believe. i plan on using some type of headers which will help too. 

[sportsroof69 13]

Planning ahead....... Don't waste your money on a Performer intake. It's not good enough to begin with, and it sure wouldn't be good enough with better heads. Depending on what heads you end up with, the Perfromer RPM may not be enough. I've built a pretty good amount of these motors, and I can actually show you some of mine.

[barnett468 418]

id like to get 500hp out of this with the heads...

 

just kidding! i would like to get as much as possible and plan ahead for when i do get better heads. as for now, keeping it simple. the heads were squared and the block was leveled off as well so that will help with the compression i believe. i plan on using some type of headers which will help too. 

 

Yes, you you just need to plan your objective since we really have no idea what it is . . There is not much point in putting an rpm intake on it now if you use a smallish cam like the xe262h unless you plan to change to a bigger cam and heads soon . . In other words, if it is a daily driver and you wont get better heads etc for at least a year there is not much point having your engine run less than it coud during that time.

 

You can by a used standard eddy intake on ebay for around $100.00 then simply sel it off for $50.00 when you are done with it . . The gas you save by using that over the rpm will pay for the intake in a year anyway and your car will run better during that year.

 

Also, just guessing at the compression won't help much, however, since you plan to put better heads on it later, you can bump it up at that point if its too low.

[Max Power 74]

Planning ahead....... Don't waste your money on a Performer intake. It's not good enough to begin with, and it sure wouldn't be good enough with better heads. Depending on what heads you end up with, the Perfromer RPM may not be enough. I've built a pretty good amount of these motors, and I can actually show you some of mine, where some people here just talk........

Enough with the tone.

 

Seriously.

[MikeStang 247]

Byron, If your block is not a roller block you would need to use a set of link bar roller lifters to run the cam that I have.

You may as well go ahead and get a set of link bar retro fit roller lifters anyhow if your block is a Non Roller version, that way you can use my roller cam and later on when you get heads you can just get a Bigger roller cam haha

[RPM 1,190]

One of the things that separates this site from others is our friendly attitude. Let's keep it that way.

[barnett468 418]

Byron, If your block is not a roller block you would need to use a set of link bar roller lifters to run the cam that I have.

You may as well go ahead and get a set of link bar retro fit roller lifters anyhow if your block is a Non Roller version, that way you can use my roller cam and later on when you get heads you can just get a Bigger roller cam haha

 

Mike Stang, a generous offer on the cam . . Just curious, do you have the model or the specs.

 

Bryon, if you want the retrofit lifters, I would consider Elgins and the spider setup from Comp Cams . . Ford Racing and Gatermans and Johnson and Mellings or baically any non Chinese lifter other than the Comp Cams ones will be ok . . The ones I listed cam be found for around 120.00 a set and Ebay has many of them as well as link bar lifters.

 

SPIDER KIT

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-ROLLER-LIFTER-RETRO-FIT-KIT-302-351W-with-lifters-/261819260778

 

 

LIFTERS

 

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/302-roller-lifters

 

 

If you want fancy link bar lifters I would get the Morel 5323 ones . . You can get them from Bullet Cams or Straub Tech or Callies or maybe Lunati, but the place below has one of the lowest prices on them, however, on a 260, 289 and 302, the cylinder heads need to be off to install them.

 

http://www.coloradospeed.com/shopping_cart.html

 

 

As far as the intake goes, yes of course you could run an RPM or Air Gap with a smallish cam and it won't run "poorly" per se, however it would not be the best match.

 

For big hp you really need good heads AND a roller cam, so no matter what cam you put in it now, I would be changing the cam when the big heads are installed anyway . . When you get around to heads I would look at AFR's or Trick Flows.

 

Here's a clean used performer intake that looks like it has been sand blasted and will likely be around $100.00

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-SMALL-BLOCK-289-302-EDELBROCK-PERFORMER-INTAKE-MANIFOLD-2121-/272047964815?hash=item3f5752828f:g:ImAAAOSweuxWSoj~&vxp=mtr

 

 

The comp XE68H cam will "work" with stock heads and is the biggest I would use with them, but that cam will work a lot better with gears in the 3.43, 3.50 and 3.73 range . . It will be a pig off the line with anything numerically lower and it should have around a 2000 - 2400 rpm stall converter if you have an auto trans.

[MikeStang 247]

I'm going to see what the specs are on the cam tonight and Ill post them here when I get them.

I think it may be a small alphabet cam but not sure.

My buddy had a 351 built for his 69 and the shop wanted to install an XE 268 and I told them No he wants the XE274 since he was running 3.55s and a 5 spd with lightly ported Iron heads...CAr ran a best of 12.72@108 I think it was with me driving it....

If you went with the XE 268 do it in a Hyd Roller, but Barnett is right the 268 will be a pig off the line with anything under a 3.42 gear and Stock Iron heads, but it will dern sure sound good...

You can do an easy mild port job on the Iron heads and help out tremendously.

Or have a look at the Patriot Performance Aluminum heads.

That's what my buddy runs on his 408 with a nice hyd roller and it put down 410 Hp to the wheels so those cheap aluminum heads do indeed work.