alright guys first off i have an 86 f150 with a carbd 302 and a t-18 4spd. The guy i bought the motor for it off of said it was an 89 motor. the alternator, belt routing, and way the a/c compressor was set up is pointing towards it being a 95. is there any quick way to tell the difference? Im looking for a new 2bbl intake as well as a cam shaft but i know 89 motors had a non roller cam and the later 90s motors had a roller cam so thats why im asking. when i was putting it together as a stock rebuild i didnt pay much attention to the lifters but i think they were for a roller cam i just cant remember 100%. i do remember though they had retainers for them as well as a bracket for them that bolted to the block and held the retainers in place. any way what would be a good combination of intake and cam for a .030 over stock motor with a 500(roughly) holley 2300 circle track carb? ill be towing a drag car on a 17 ft open trailor and eventually an enclosed trailor.

 

A retainer in the lifter valley like in the pic below means it's a roller motor, and that's good because the lack of zinc in current oils is making using a flat tappet cam more complicated. You have lots of options for cams and as long as you're not looking for that hot rod choppy idle sound you should be able to get significantly more output from the motor in the 0-4000rpm range where it's needed for towing. Adding longtube headers and a small(2.5") high flow single exhaust system will maximize gains, and of course some appropriate axle gearing is manditory. Cam options will include the comp cams 35-410-8.

 

If it's got a 94-97 roller cam in it, leave it as is. Maybe just add a set of 1.7 pedestal mount full roller rockers to bump the lift up another .030. If it's the 92-93 pickup cam, then it needs help. As for an intake, I'd go with a RPM, Stealth or a Ford A321. The 500 Holley will work, but don't expect great fuel mileage. Other than the big 50cc accellerator pump on it,sucking the fuel, it's a damned dependable carb otherwise

 

well conanski that definitly is a familiar sight so i have narrowed it down to a 92-96 motor. i got all the parts for it thinking it was an 89. but i mean everything bolted up no problem. Ya i aint looking for that choppy idle and all that. im looking for somethin thats going to boost up the low end power and torque. its got the t-18 4 spd so first gears a creeper. Ive already looked into some flowtech full length headers and a true duel exhaust. and as far as my milage well lets just say its low on my worry list. ill be using the truck to tow a drag car, haul scrap and help my buddies move every once in a while. Im looking for the towing power, as well as reliability

 

If you have a block cast after 1987(E7TE casting number) it will be a roller ready block anyway and would accept all the factory roller components.

 

the motor i rebuilt, i used all the internal components from the same motor. the original 86 efi motor was scraped due to a camshaft breaking and just trashed everything. Basically what yall are saying is if its 92-96 is a roller cam but if its 87-91 its a hydrolic tappet?

 

'92+ truck engine will have one of 2 different roller cams, before that they got a hydraulic flat tappet cam. If it was a car engine it could have had a roller cam as early as 1986 and there were several different cams again depending what car it came from and what year.

 

Just FYI: I've run across one block that had problems with replacing the cam with a roller. The lifter valley bolt bosses were not fully formed and needed to be machined off before the bolt holes could be drilled. I guess just for that reason it was sent to the pickup truck assembly line to be fitted with a flat tappet cam.

 

the problem with long tubes is that they run extremely close to the starter. in some cases burning up the wire or even the whole starter. if you go with long tubes i would suggest header wrapping them and just to be sure i would wrap the starter too.

i switched from a edelbrock performer to a RPM air-gap and saw SIGNIFICANT torque gains on my 88 mustang.

 

I've had nothing but longtubes on my trucks for well over a decade now and no problems with starters, I'm not a fan of Flowtech headers though they hang much too low and make attaching the rest of the exhaust needlessly complicated, Pacesetter makes the best fitting set apparently.