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    Roller Cam Engine? Do I have one, how do I know?

    I have a 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis LS. And since my car only has 88k miles, 3k of which I have put on it myself. I would like to do some work with the engine over the next year, right now I'm in the planning and parts gathering phase.
    This phase comes with me asking a lot of dumb, or rehashed questions if I can't locate a clear and straight forward answer for my small brain.

    Does my 5.0 engine have a roller cam, if yes, does this mean if I were to go through the other mods required to do the HO swap, would I need to do anything special to use a roller cam? If I'm changing heads, is there anything special I should worry about with oiling differences or should any Foxybody HO compatible head work with the right cam kit and lifters?

    I'll be doing the engine mods when the car gets paint later this year, I'd just rather spend the money on parts now, so I can spend the money on all the unexpected stuff and unknowns when I actually tear into it later.
    Expect the unexpected.

    #2
    There's no such thing as a dumb question here. Yes your 87 has a roller cam and the HO heads/cam will go right in. Do you have a HO donor engine? Personally I'd get a different, mild cam when doing the swap, OR a different torque converter. The power curve doesn't suit these big cars very well. A comp cams XE258 is a nice substitute, or you could probably get away with something a little bigger if you wanted, like an XE264. You can always go bigger and better, and more complicated with a build, but if you're sticking with a stock HO computer with no tuning, that's my advice.
    Last edited by Brown_Muscle; 02-18-2021, 01:49 PM.
    -Phil

    sigpic

    +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

    +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

    Comment


      #3
      I'm curious with this; would an Explorer top end with a HO cam work in this/our case?

      Comment


        #4
        I believe from what I've read in the past, some people get it to run okay, and others don't, basically it's a gamble. Now if you're going MAF and doing tuning, it doesnt matter, go hog wild
        -Phil

        sigpic

        +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

        +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

        Comment


          #5
          Ah; I forgot about the SD; gotchya.

          Comment


            #6
            I will most likely be going with an aftermarket head and an aftermarket ECU. I'd like to build (or find) a PNP ECU that isn't the Megasquirt. This is likely difficult, but there seems to be a couple companies I've reached out to that seem to think it IS possible.

            That way I might be able to keep the SD, if not, MAF conversion will be a must.

            I found some used, reworked, supposedly like 100 miles or so, ProMAXX aluminum heads that are ready to bolt on with roller rockers included. Came off a Foxbody.
            Most likely go with Foxbody shorty headers and grind the outlet to be 2.5 inches instead of 2.25, because I want the full system to match everything after my current downpipes., since that seems to be the only header option.
            I'd like some AFR heads, but that may be a on down the road expense when I get dumb enough for forged internals and a supercharger.

            I already have an Explorer upper, lower, fuel rails, injectors, elbow, and throttle body. One of my friends is going to be doing porting and polishing on the intake and TB, likely for the practice, but I trust his hands to not mess them up, as he's done a few of his own cars including his wife's daily driver, so, it wasn't down for more than a full day.

            Car has 3.27 rear gears, I like the way it pulls from about 60 to 100ish already (surprised a Camaro the other day with the torque in whatever rev range that it), so that gearing will likely stay, just may get a posi unit down the road, as sometimes it likes to pull both rears, but doesn't have the code for it. Very strange.

            Cam selection and transmission/torque converter work would be the parts that I haven't thought through at all yet, at that point. I know I'll do a frame mounted trans cooler as I have on other cars before, even if everything else was stay 100% stock, that would happen.
            I like manual transmissions, but as much of a "manual swap the world" guy as I am, this specific car deserves to stay automatic.

            Comment


              #7
              Maybe I really should start a build thread for these ideas... One of these days.

              Comment


                #8
                OK this is a full build- I thought by your first post you were just doing a HO swap. There are a bunch of aftermarket tuning options out there, including using a stock a9p or a9L ECU (if you go MAF). I'd look into seeing if you can get a self learning system. They are getting more and more common, and although fine tuning is still involved to make the system work perfectly, its a lot easier than starting from scratch. I did too much with stock ECU's and Moats quarterhorse tuning to ever do it again- I'm personally getting a Holley Sniper unit that self learns, and can tweak parameters from there.
                -Phil

                sigpic

                +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

                +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

                Comment


                  #9
                  How are you attaching the throttle cable and throttle valve cable? YOu pick up a lightning egr spacer or going custom to attach the bracket for the aforementioned pieces?
                  ~David~

                  My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                  My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                  Originally posted by ootdega
                  My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                  Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                  But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                  Originally posted by gadget73
                  my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by AngryMcMuffin View Post
                    I will most likely be going with an aftermarket head and an aftermarket ECU. I'd like to build (or find) a PNP ECU that isn't the Megasquirt. This is likely difficult, but there seems to be a couple companies I've reached out to that seem to think it IS possible.
                    Don't know if you'd be interested in this got it for my fox body I want to say 15 years ago & never used it so it's brand new. I don't know if there is still support for this system & have no paperwork for it will sell it cheap.Click image for larger version

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Brown_Muscle View Post
                      OK this is a full build- I thought by your first post you were just doing a HO swap. There are a bunch of aftermarket tuning options out there, including using a stock a9p or a9L ECU (if you go MAF). I'd look into seeing if you can get a self learning system. They are getting more and more common, and although fine tuning is still involved to make the system work perfectly, its a lot easier than starting from scratch. I did too much with stock ECU's and Moats quarterhorse tuning to ever do it again- I'm personally getting a Holley Sniper unit that self learns, and can tweak parameters from there.
                      Do you know if they make a Holley Sniper system that's for the EFI cars? I had a regular in the restaurant I work at sometimes who had a corvette he used for drag racing that used the Holley Sniper stuff a few years ago. He got in and tried to do some tuning himself instead of just letting it work it's magic. So he had to send the unit back to Holley to get the base tune fixed. Funny memory. After that it was great!

                      Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
                      How are you attaching the throttle cable and throttle valve cable? YOu pick up a lightning egr spacer or going custom to attach the bracket for the aforementioned pieces?
                      Haven't sorted that out yet, will come back to it, hopefully Spring or early Summer, if nothing else comes up. Any and all ideas are welcome, was hoping between me and my friend, we could think something through, since he also has had to do a fair amount of fab work for his job.

                      Originally posted by Mustang Eddie View Post
                      Don't know if you'd be interested in this got it for my fox body I want to say 15 years ago & never used it so it's brand new. I don't know if there is still support for this system & have no paperwork for it will sell it cheap.[ATTACH=CONFIG]55810[/ATTACH]
                      Potentially! Even if it just gets me started in the 5.0 EFI tuning world, any idea on the software it uses or a model number on it? PM me or I can PM you? If it's powers up and plugs in, it'll get me headed down the right path.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        That must have been an old version or something, you can tune the new one with you laptop and easily reset the base tune

                        Here ya go: https://www.holley.com/blog/post/how...xbody_mustang/

                        Plug and play, self learning, uses stock equipment
                        -Phil

                        sigpic

                        +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

                        +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Brown_Muscle View Post
                          That must have been an old version or something, you can tune the new one with you laptop and easily reset the base tune

                          Here ya go: https://www.holley.com/blog/post/how...xbody_mustang/

                          Plug and play, self learning, uses stock equipment
                          This could be the route to go. I wonder if you can keep cruise control with it, and if you can set up things such as launch control. I imagine so.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            AFAIK cruise control is a separate module/unit, so no problems there. Not sure about launch control, but the system seems really adaptable. Says it can even control some electronic transmissions
                            -Phil

                            sigpic

                            +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

                            +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Brown_Muscle View Post
                              AFAIK cruise control is a separate module/unit, so no problems there. Not sure about launch control, but the system seems really adaptable. Says it can even control some electronic transmissions
                              I spoke to one of the Holley tech guys a minute ago, and surely he was thinking "this guy has no clue what he's doing", and he said it basically would depend on if you'd need more than 4 inputs and 4 outputs to accomplish what you want. In summary.

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