I am wondering what is the largest lift and longest duration that is safe to use in a 73 302 with stock heads, valves, springs,pistons, ect. Example: something like comp cams 268H cam with .456" lift and 268 duration,
Get matching springs/locks/retainers with your new cam kit. Don't even bother with a new cam on 30 y/o stock springs! After that, if you want to keep cost down, just keep the lift down, that will keep you from needing screw in studs, guide plates, hardened pushrods, adjustable rocker arms, etc... If you keep your rail rockers, you shouldn't exceed 470ish lift. The cam you are looking at is a really good choice for a stockish street engine. New gears or a stall converter are not a must with that gear either. Being of the 'single pattern' type, the slight lope is nice and rhythmic. Good luck Dave
Thanks that what i wanted to hear i am planning to swap this motor out when it dies, i already have a Vic Jr. intake and holley DP carb, duel exhuast and a few other minor little mods. I just wanted to free up a little more power for the summer with out much more money at least the carb and intake can be reused and most of the exhuast.
Do you have that intake on the engine now? Seems a little radical for the small cam and stock engine. Do you have gears? Dave
Yes the intake is on the car and its a 650 holley manual DP (non vacuum). Headers (bought them used) and duel 2.5" dynomax exhuast with fully welded ultra flo's. my other minor mods are things like electic fuel pump k&N air filter MSD Igintion and electronic distributor, and a few other minor bolt ons. I have 9" rear end from Currie with 3.73 gears that will also go in this summer(this is also why my cash is a little low) i had it made for the car. Oh and a shift kit for the tranny its a floor shifted auto c4. This i why i think a cam will free up the power which i really think its lacking considering what i have put on this motor that only has 25 000 miles.
A cam and 3.73 gears will do you a world of good then. Sounds like a cool ride when you are done... Dave
If it were me, i would take the intake off and replace it with a dual-plane (like the edelbrock performer, or performer rpm). You could probably sell the intake you have now and make some money by swapping. As for the cam, there's a million good ones out there, but the performer and performer rpm cams are always good with stock heads (that's going to be your limiting factor, the stock heads). Make sure to replace your stock springs with the cam's recommended springs too! The problem with the intake is that it will hurt your bottom end, and you can't use the top-end it was made for!
Wow, you really like Edelbrock. You got stock, or you work there? Seriously, the Edelbrock cams are made by TRW. If someone really wants those specs, they should just buy a TRW cam or Summit house brand cam, which is TRW. They can save some dough that way. Dave Btw: The Performer intake is too mild for any SBF IMO. The Perf. RPM is nowhere near what it is cracked up to be IMO. Not that I think the Vic jr is the perfect intake for his combo, but...
Intakes The Basic Edelbrock Performer Intake generates the most Torque at the lowest engine RPM . It is the best choice for a mild hydraulic Cam and better than stock street performance. The Performer RPM moves the Torque curve and Horsepower curve up the RPM Range. It still makes good street power but also will pull strong up top 6500 RPM. The Victor Jr. is a race intake - It needs good flowing heads and exhaust headers, a cam with more duration / lift and lower gears to really do it`s thing. This intake works best above 5000 RPM. IMO ,They are all great intakes for their intended purposes when they are matched up with the right supporting hardware.
On a 302, my Performer RPM pulled after 4500 rpm of course, but it was very flat and sluggish feeling. The stock 4v intake is better than the Perfomer, other than weight. The Vic is a little much. A mild single plane would work better IMO. There are many to choose from. The only one I would not recommend is the Torker 2 or Torker 302. Name depends on year it was made... With his gears, a dual plane won't be as responsive with stock heads. Dave
I have a howards cam and lifter kit in my driver. Dur 288/298 adv at .050,dur 214/224 lift is .475/.500.Idles a hair rougher then stock enough to hear, pulls right off idle to 5500 at least thats were I shift it. With 2.79 gears at 10mph roll kick it to the floor has no problem smoking the tire all through first and part off second with 245/60-15,s on the back.Cam kit cost 109.95.Hope this helped
Best cam I ever used in a mild application. Erson hyd. roller, .512" lift, 114 LSA, 224-234 @ .050.....idles a little choppy in neutral, but pull it into gear and she smooths out, enough to know that it ain't stock, but not race car-like. I used a RPM manifold. Made good power from about 1500 to around 6000, which is where the heads signed off. I used 3.08 gears (sorry guys, it was in a Mustang at that time) with a T5 transmission..and managed over 30 mpg with a 1405 Edelbrock carb and 9:1 compression.....stock heads. Later upgraded to a set of home-ported large valve 351w heads and noticed a nice gain in upper RPM power, but no loss in low speed power/torque/economy. The 114 LSA made it really flat running meaning that it had power everywhere in the RPM band. It probably gave up a few HP up top and a few lb-ft down low, but a nice, flat power band is what you want with a street car. Same cam powered the turbocharged 302 in the '74 Maverick that I sold to my brother. Worked pretty good! 2nd choice would be the E201421 "hi-flow1H" Erson hydraulic cam. It was a litle lazy down low, but came on strong from 2000-up. Add aluminum heads and you're on the way to close to 400 HP (I used RPM heads/intake). both of those cams worked fine in 8.5:1 stockers....I know this from experience. The 8:1 dish piston turbo motor even had decent power off boost with the hyd. roller.
Haha, no, i didn't recommend edelbrock stuff because i own stock, i recommended it because it's a very simple combination that provides more power than stock while retaining EXCELLENT driveability, idle, and gas mileage. I would never use a single-plane on a daily driver...the "lower rpm" single planes flow poorly, and the short runners hurt torque (as well as requiring a larger primary shot, which causes worse gas mileage). Modern dual-planes have large plenums and "moderate length" runners that give great torque and don't limit the upper rpms. Knock the Performer RPM all you want, almost every impressive "mild" carb'ed engine i've seen has had one on it. I put my performer RPM on a flow bench and it flowed dead even with my (unported) TFS track heat's. As for the cam, the performer wouldn't be my first choice, but as i said it's a very proven cam that doesn't take much to work great (although you're right, PAW sells a generic for half the price). The best-performing flat/hydr. and "reasonable" cam i've used was: http://www.iskycams.com/productdisp...=381271&sku=1780&hdwt=31101&loc=101&dealer=no Though with stock heads, you'd probably want a dual pattern.
