Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Aftermarket Cams for GT40/Explorer Swap in here

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Aftermarket Cams for GT40/Explorer Swap in here

    I am pondering a cam swap for my colony park with GT40's and the Explorer intake package. I'm currently speed density, pondering a mass air swap. Ideally Id like a cam that I don't need to change the springs in my heads because the heads are freshly built with less than 3000 miles. I was pondering a cam from RM Competition (www.rmcompetition.com), specifically his HR256/263 cam. I have 3.55's and am also installing a 2200 stall converter.

    Please post up what people are using and if it requires springs or not. If it needs springs where should I get these?

    EDIT: I have no interest in changing to roller rocker arms so I will be keeping the stock rockers!!!!

    Thanks all for the assistance

    Ryan

    #2
    If you want a decent cam, upgrading the springs is a no brainer. I don't care how many miles the heads have on them.
    I am running a 93 cobra cam. With trickflow valve springs and 1.7 cobra roller rockers.
    Speed density is meh especially when you start changing things like intakes and cams and such. It might run ok, but it won't run as well as it could without tuning it. Same goes for Mass air, however, tuning mass air is easier to accomplish.

    Comment


      #3
      yeah basically I'd prepare to pony up for springs and MAF conversion for the level of modification/performance you want.

      Having valve float pretty quickly makes a hot cam pointless.

      85 4 door 351 Civi Crown Victoria - Summer daily driver, sleeper in the making, and wildly inappropriate autocross machine
      160KMs 600cfm holley, shorty headers, 2.5" catted exhaust, 255/295 tires, cop shocks, cop swaybars, underdrive pulley, 2.73L gears.
      waiting for install: 3.27's, Poly bushings, boxed rear arms, 2500 stall converter, ported e7's, etc

      06 Mazda 3 hatch 2.3L 5AT (winter beater that cost more than my summer car)

      Comment


        #4
        Sounds good. Ill do both. Now bring on the cam recommendations

        Comment


          #5
          Before we get into that, what are you looking to achieve? Are you looking for something with some more power that you can drive daily (decent fuel mileage etc)? Or do you want something that'll roast the tires at an idle?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by 86VickyLX View Post
            Before we get into that, what are you looking to achieve? Are you looking for something with some more power that you can drive daily (decent fuel mileage etc)? Or do you want something that'll roast the tires at an idle?
            roast the tires and idle. The car is a weekend cruiser and I drive it to work on Fridays when it isn't raining.

            Comment


              #7
              A stock HO cam will need better than Explorer valve springs if you want to see 5000 rpm. The Explorer cam does too. They aren't that difficult to change on the motor, but it is something of a pain in the back after a while bending over the fender. I did valve seals on mine recently, which is basically the same job as switching valve springs.


              I've got a Comp XE258HR in mine. I do have 1.7 rockers, but it would work just fine with 1.6. Might be worth considering better rockers at some point. There is a lot of extra friction being generated in there. I would also suggest checking the lifter preload too. I needed longer pushrods, but it might come out OK with stock rockers.

              That cam probably won't run worth a damn with speed-density. It does make decent idle vacuum, but my car ran horribly lean with the Explorer cam **EDIT** on speed density ** and verges on running lean with the 258 **on mass air**. I can't imagine it would do anything but ping and try to melt your pistons with S-D. Mine is running un-tuned mass air. Its not optimal, but it honestly isn't bad. It had no shitty running habits to irritate me into buying a tuner.

              Porting the intake would also help you out some. Its still a choke point with GT40 or GT40P heads and the flow is uneven. Not nearly as much as the old HO intake is, but making it even cylinder to cylinder is never a bad idea.
              Last edited by gadget73; 12-30-2015, 05:59 PM.
              86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
              5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

              91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

              1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

              Originally posted by phayzer5
              I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

              Comment


                #8
                Yeah I wouldn't honestly even consider going even mildly exotic with a cam and speed density. In the old days of nothing but shitty alphabet cams, some of them even ran lousy on mass-air. There are lots of better cam options now, thankfully, and if you really want to do it right, talk to Ed Curtis at FTI about a custom grind. His cams are renowned in the mustang circles and he'll basically design it around what your setup is and power expectations. They are a little pricey, but honestly not too terribly much more than an off-the-shelf cam. Anyhow, I'd also call it foolish to add extra strain on the valvetrain with a larger cam and continue using crappy non-roller rockers.

                Build things as a package and the results will be much better than a part here and there. This is why I've done nothing to my car thus far aside from the exhaust. Aside from noise, I noticed absolutely no difference going from a dumb stock single to shorty headers with 2.5" all the way out with an h-pipe and 2 cats. When I go HO I'm either going to do the whole top end with aluminum heads, roller rockers, cam, edelbrock intake, bigger throttle body, c&l maf, mustang intake tube, '04PI airbox, and 24# injectors. This is all assuming I don't just chuck the whole motor and put in the one from my brother's coupe when he gets his stroker motor put in. With the sad output expectations of these engines stock, just whacking little stuff on here and there doesn't produce much in the way of improvement. I also abhor doing things twice so if I'm pulling stuff apart, i'll do everything I can while it's apart. Your experience may vary.

                As an aside, you may want to ignore anything I say because I'm a dickhead and left my headlights on all day at work and had to jump the box with my work van. Fairly new battery so it looks like it's going to make it, but not a great end to the day...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by knucklehead0202 View Post
                  ...I've done nothing to my car thus far aside from the exhaust. Aside from noise, I noticed absolutely no difference going from a dumb stock single to shorty headers with 2.5" all the way out with an h-pipe and 2 cats... ...I also abhor doing things twice so if I'm pulling stuff apart, i'll do everything I can while it's apart. Your experience may vary.

                  As an aside, you may want to ignore anything I say because I'm a dickhead and left my headlights on all day at work and had to jump the box with my work van. Fairly new battery so it looks like it's going to make it, but not a great end to the day...
                  My car has same set-up but with 2.25" duals. Beats Ashley's '89 with her single exhaust by 0.5 - 1.0 car length every time I don't notice any more power either but it does seem to require less effort on the go pedal to maintain 79mph.

                  Not wanting to do things twice is the reason my engine is still stock. It just seems to have that $2,000 ring tone to it so it's not that high of a priority. I think I'd run one of those megasquirt deals. Am I the only one who giggles when they say "megasquirt?"
                  1985 LTD Crown Victoria - SOLD
                  1988 Town Car Signature - Current Party Barge

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Building things "backwards", starting at the rear and ending at the engine is one way to do things piecemeal without having to do re-works. Going the other way round tends to have less than awesome results.
                    86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                    5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                    91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                    1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                    Originally posted by phayzer5
                    I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                    Comment


                      #11
                      amen to that gadgo, kinda what I'm moving towards. I've been grabbing engine parts here and there but realized I should be going the other direction. If I build the hell out of the engine, the trans and rear end will shit on me in short order. Planning to go 3.73's in the rear with a rebuilt trac-loc. Plan to get a good rebuilt AOD, maybe a little heavier duty, but with a hot valve body with the electronic O/D lockout. Plan is to a later model column shift with the O/D switch and use that. My brother's truck has a chrome one that looks real nice so it'd hardly be noticed if I got one like it.

                      Lol Derek, megasquirt. I'll probably just run a mustang or HO MAF mark VII computer if I can find one. My brother has an A9L lying around so I might just dump the cruise control. I only drive the freeway for any meaningful amount of time about twice a year anyway, and "highway" driving here is generally stop and go so it really doesn't matter. If I go full retard and put a blower or something on the car later i'll probably run a quarterhorse or tweecer. Time will tell.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        There is no mass air Mark VII brain. They were all speed-density. Only Mustangs got mass air. You can make the cruise work with a little effort though. The bigger issue is finding a spot to stuff the second ECM, or finding an early-mid 1990s panther stand-alone cruise control units to wire in. Its actually the same unit used prior to 1988, but you will probably find more junkyard aeros than early boxes to pick from.
                        86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                        5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                        91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                        1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                        Originally posted by phayzer5
                        I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by knucklehead0202 View Post
                          ...If I go full retard and put a blower or something on the car later i'll probably run a quarterhorse or tweecer. Time will tell.
                          Full retard, lol.

                          Could always run a single plane with Holley's Terminator self learning EFI system...
                          1985 LTD Crown Victoria - SOLD
                          1988 Town Car Signature - Current Party Barge

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by DerekTheGreat View Post
                            Full retard, lol.

                            Could always run a single plane with Holley's Terminator self learning EFI system...
                            My brother is putting the victor single-plane with an elbow and fuel rails, etc, on the Dart motor that's going in the '89 coupe. It's an Iron Eagle block 331 with AFR heads being assembled right now. Since half his turbo kit got stolen, the debate is on whether to just buy the stuff to complete that kit, or scrap it and go twins. Hmmmm.... Either way, I get the old motor out of the car, and possibly a set of Dart Pro-1 heads to go on it too. If he goes twins, I could buy the stuff to complete the other turbo kit and throw it on the box....that'd be interesting.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              so i know zero about speed density and all but i do recommend once you have the other stuff figured out ( rear end , general use, expectations, tranny) give the cam manufaturers up. I have talked to a few and honestly my favorite is comp cam. very knowledgeable and great service. I also like summit tech support bc they will research stuff if they have to and call you back and are reliable.

                              just my .02 cents
                              Wide open until you see God, then BRAKE
                              sigpic

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X