High 12's, low 13's with 3.50 gears, thru the mufflers unknown stall converter, on pump gas and street tires. Power comes on at 1500 and pulls to 6500. Idles at 500 rpms in gear, cruises at 75-80 mph at around 3500 getting 16 mpg. Could a custom cam make more power ? Maybe. But I'm not going to fork over $300-400 (or more) to find out that I gained 15 horses at 5500 rpms. I paid $115 for the Z cam new.
I agree not all motors are the same what works on one doesnt work on the other, however this applys to parts not techonology, and camshaft techonology works on all motors regardless. To prove this, you can take any motor with any build-up that has non-roller rockers and replace them with roller rockers and make more power under any conditions of any motor size shape or form. Cam technology is the same way. Single pattern cams are still the cheapest cam to make. Whats worse is ford produces them with extremly turtle slow ramp speeds so it makes it extremely hassle free, and problematic free camshaft, which is a perfect choice for their crate motors. In your case your offseting the slow ramp speeds with a 1.7 roller rocker which helps a little bit. All Im saying is that there are many better choices with newer technoogy and better grinds be it single or dual pattern than the ford cams. You would probably be amazed at how much more power and torque you could pick up from a cam swap.
All that may be true, but like I said, I'm not going to invest $400 on a cam swap to find that I gained 15 horsepower only at some particular point in the rpm range. (and lost 15 HP somewhere else) And the only way to find out would be to dyno the motor before and after the swap, without changing any other parts. The off the shelf hydro rollers (no matter what brand) are a great bang for the buck. The O.E rollers (F4TE, HO, and the GT40) are as well. Not everyone needs the maximum power output for their application, or driving styles. If I was looking to get every ounce of power from a motor, then I might consider a custom grind, but I don't need to get every ounce of power from my motor. I'm completely happy with how it performs.
