I asked this on the Ford Muscle Forums but didn't exactly get the help I was seeking and the topic got derailed fairly quickly into a bitter argument and assumptions being made.


First off I want to say that this is for a '82 F150 with a 302, C6 transmission with a 2.80/2.90 to 1 axle ratio with 31x10.50-15 BFG All Terrain tires. I am looking to build a roller 302 to get as much power as I can while maintaining a stock feel to the engine. Smooth idle at 500 to 600 RPM like I have now, good sounding exhaust note (don't want a late model sound to the exhaust at idle nor reving, I know this is dependent on exhaust as well), and most of all low and mid range increase in HP/TRQ. I will be reusing as much as possible from my old motor as my reading indicates '82 was the first year for a 302 to have a 50 oz balancer and this engine was rebuilt in '92 and it came as a prebuilt short block so I know for a fact it currently has a 50 oz balancer on it.


Now to move on, second off I want to start off saying that I am going to be hitting up some junkyards to locate a 302 roller engine in the price range of $250 to $350. I will be selling every part off individually to get as much money as possible, from there I will start with just a basic short block (block, crank, rods, pistons) and I will take it to the engine builder we use at work next doors to our shop and have him tear into it go through it have the block magnafluxed, sonic cleaned, blasted and bored 0.030" over to 4.030" bore.


From there I will have him set the short block up for use with the parts I have desided on so far which will be listed below to have a compression ratio of 9.0:1. Now below is what I have desided on so far that I can change if I have enough reason to change it.


Edelbrock Performer Heads : 60cc chamber, 170cc intake port volume, 1.90"/1.60" valves


Edelbrock Performer intake manifold : without EGR valve


Roller rockers : Was told to go with the 1.6:1 Scorpion rockers as they have very low polylocks which would allow me to use my factory '82 valve covers for that OE look, I was also looking at Crane roller rockers as they had one set that looked like the nut on those did not stick up hardly at all above the rockers. I will end up going with what ever has the lowest attachment nut to gain the most clearance between valve train and valve cover.


Compression : 9.0:1


Camshaft, this is where I need help. I picked out four different camshafts but I can not get a clear cut answer on what would be the best for what I am looking for. The cams I found so far are as follows.


1) Crane : 449541 ; Grind HR-216/325-25-12 ; 112* LSA, 107* ICL, 216*/224* @ 0.050", 0.520"/0.542" Lift ; 1,400 to 5,400 RPM range / 2,400 to 3,000 Cruise RPM


2) Comp 35-310-8 ; 114* LSA, 110* ICL, 215*/220* @ 0.050", 0.533"/0.544" Lift ; 1,500 to 5,500 RPM range


3) Comp 35-420-8 ; 110* LSA, 106* ICL, 215*/215* @ 0.050", 0.533"/0.533" Lift ; 1,800 to 5,000 RPM range


4) Comp 35-510-8 ; 112* LSA, 108* ICL, 208*/216* @ 0.050", 0.533"/0.544" Lift ; 1,300 to 5,300 RPM range.


I have personally been looking at # 1 and #4.


Number 1 because it said the following in the description.



Number 2 because it has what I think would be an ideal RPM range for my truck with the gears and transmission I have. 1,500 RPM for example is roughly 40 mph for me and I typically drive 40 mph everywhere.


If there is a better camshaft that will give me a smooth idle at 500 to 600 rpm that will build low and mid rpm trq for the most part please let me know. This is a daily driver truck and I am trying to optimize the engine built with the rest of the truck which I had no plans to change.


Exhaust, I am looking at shorty headers but I have yet to fully decide. I am looking at a Ford Racing shorty 302 header as well as a headman shorty header. I am leaning towards the headman header mainly cause it appears to be longer and more like a midlength header than a shorty like the ford racing. The two headers are linked just below this.


http://www.summitracing.com/parts/he.../model/mustang


http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fm...view/make/ford






Now I probably will have more but I want to ask a question about vacuum ports. Mine has a vacuum tree that screws into the back of the intake manifold on my stock 302. The Edelbrock manifold has two vacuum ports one in the intake runner on cylinder 4 and another on cylinder 8. I was told by one guy on the ford muscle forums that will cause that cylinder to lean out to plumb vacuum line into an intake runner. Is this actually true? I honestly don't see how it could unless you have a vacuum leak and even if I teed a PCV valve into one of these ports as well combustion gasses would be sucked in and not air so that shouldn't cause a cylinder to lean out either. I just want to make sure because that tee will be threaded into one of these ports to supply vacuum to my brake booster and to my vacuum modulator and vacuum block on the firewall.


If anyone could help point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. I really would like to build a late model roller block up to hopefully get 300 hp and 300 torque out of it while still maintaining a stock like characteristics of a smooth idle at 500 to 600 rpm.

 

Not sure why you're insisting on a 302 when a roller 351W in stock form will do everything you're looking to do here. You probably wouldn't even have to rebuild it, only do a head and intake swap. Forget the Performer intake and go with the RPM, it'll do everything the Performer does on the bottomend, but give it that little bit of extra "oomph" on the topend, also allowing you to upgrade in the future if you so choose. The stock F4TE roller cam in these engines would be complimented with a set of 1.7 full roller rockers. Here are the specs of that cam with 1.7 rockers: 256/266 advertised duration (not the @.050 figure) lift is .445/.473 LSA is 116* The 351 will give much more bottom end torque vs a 302, which is what you need in a truck, especially with that gearing and tires. Oh, and the studs or nuts aren't where the contact point is inside the valve covers, the contact comes from the increased size of the rockers themselves in motion at the oil baffles.

 

Its the brackets for the most part. I would have to buy all new brackets then try to locate dealer installed AC compressor brackets for a 351w which I don't even think I could find them.


Then theres trying to find a 351w roller, those are a little hard to find around here.


The 302 I think would be enough for me, if I can go from the 120hp 302 I have now to a roller 302 and make 250hp there will be a huge change in the performance of the truck. It runs great now, just hitting the throttle hard from a standstill causes the converter to flash stall for a moment, hope to try and eliminate that as well as make more power. Id be happy with anything over 250hp but my ideal goal is 300hp.


I also haven't thought of using a stock 302 HO cam over a aftermarket cam.


I wonder what kind of buff to power a stock short block with stock HO cam could produce after being bored 0.030" over, compression bumped to 9:1, aftermarket heads, intake, 600 - 650 carb, and shorty headers.

 

Power bump ? Nothing from a 9 to 1 ratio, that was the stock spec, the only gain here would be in the heads (and intake) you choose. The HO cam's specs aren't much more than the specs in the F4TE truck cam and that only on the intake side plus around ten degrees duration

 

I'd second the 351 suggestion but if you can't get your hands on one then so be it. You will definitely get lots more HP and TQ over a stock '82 motor from this combo and I'd suggest cam 4 since you seem to be targeting low to mid power but that means you should really be using longtube headers to maximize gains at low rpms.

 

I will look at vans and trucks for a 351W roller motor. If I can find one I will gladly go that route.


If the brackets are the same but just an adapter was used I could probably fabricate adapters up if need be.


I also did not know they were 9:1 compression already, but I need to do a little figuring on it to see what compression would be if everything was kept the same but the block was bored to 0.030" over. I know it should increase the compression if I am thinking right.



I am leaning towards cam #4 that I found, #1 is a close second as well, I found a video of a EFI 302 truck 4x4 with cam #1 in it and it sounds like it has a fairly stock like idle. Hard to hear the idle but this is the video here.




But I think what I need to do is see if I cant find a 351w roller engine locally if I can then I will go with the Edelbrock Performer heads and the Performer RPM intake manifold. Camshaft would be different.


I would like to use long tube headers, but what has turned me off on them is we have a '82 long wheel base styleside at work that had them on it and the collector was a good 2 1/2" below the crossmember. I didn't really like that so I am trying to find the longest shorty or a midlength header that will fit. It wont maximize low end power like a full length header but it would be better than stock manifolds and a block hugger shorty style header.

 

The accessory brackets from EFI motors will fit both engines.. there is a pair of holes where they attach to the water pump to account for the difference in width. These brackets are meant for a serpentine belt so you need the matching crank pulley and accessories which is a lot of stuff to collect but this system works much better than the old v-belt system.

And I hear you on the longtubes, the very cheap version like those from Hooker or Flowtech hang much too low but those from Pacesetter fit much better. But if you find a 351 to use then shorties become more acceptable since this motor produces much more torque at lower rpms.

 

I am not against a serpentine belt system, but I prefer not to use it as it will raise the cost with having to buy the correct parts vs reusing what I have. If I can find the adapter that allowed the use of the 302 brackets on the 351W if I can find a 351W roller locally I would go that route.


I personally have not had problems with V belts but I know some have, like wise I know that alignment is very crucial for serpentine belts, customer of ours he tried shimming his A/C compressor on his Camaro on a March 1 belt system cause it kept jumping one tooth. Since he shimmed it, it actually started throwing the belt completely. Reason it was throwing the belt one tooth was the idiot had the A/C on and took the engine up to 7,000 RPM and Dale our engine builder called him a knuckle head saying that big block chevy was a stock crank and rod engine and it shouldn't even be taken past 6,000 let alone 7,000 with the A/C on.


So I think I will stick with the V belt mainly for cost as I already have all the pulleys and brackets. Only two things will keep me from going with a 351W is not being able to find a 351W roller, or not being able to find or make adapters to make the 302 brackets that I currently have work.


Then again, the truck runs great as is, I just thinking since I have oil leaks and coolant leaks coming about and with the bigger tires the engine seems to flash stall due to loading up the engine due to lack of low end power. If I could get 250 - 300 hp and trq out of a 302 that should make considerable changes to this truck and make it pull twice as hard off the line than it does now. That would be perfectly fine with me to be honest if I could double how hard it pulls off the line.


What I need to realize is that I don't want to go insane, I want to get better performance out of the truck but I also don't want to push it so far that stuff starts breaking. I honestly don't even know what power this engine is rated at, I know in '82 they were rated something like 110 or 120 hp. This is a rebuilt short block so god knows what power it has now might be 150 hp could be 100 hp depending on how it was built.

 

If the bottom end was a stock '82 spec rebuild and the heads are from the same smog era then it's got about 8.3:1 compression and the puny stock cam isn't even fully utilizing the flow potential they have so you would be lucky to get more than 150hp out of it. Put late model E7TE heads on it upgrade the cam to even something totally pedestrian like a stock 1994 truck cam with 1.7 roller rockers and add an exhaust with headers and you'll have a 9:1 motor with a stock buttery smooth idle that makes 250-260hp and upwards of 350tq. Use GT40 heads and a stock 5.0HO cam instead and you have the same torque but over 300hp, but all the extra HP will be above 4000rpm and the motor will be a touch softer below 2000rpm.

If you want the best of both worlds without doing any of the work try and find a '96-'97.5 Explorer or Mountaineer 5.0, that gives you a 9:1 roller motor with the F4TE truck cam and GT40 heads, all you got to do is strip all the EFI stuff off and add headers and your carb and intake of choice.

 

Ill see if I can find a Explorer, if I cant I guess what I could do is just go with the Edelbrock aluminum heads and go to ford and pick up an OEM cam from a '96-'97 Explorer then run aftermarket roller lifters and rockers.


I guess I was afraid of using a more modern stock cam cause I felt it might not work with a very low numerically geared rear axle through a power eating C6 automatic transmission.


But if I can do this, then I might not need to look at cams just get a stock cam, and get aftermarket lifters, rockers, and push rods then run the Edelbrock aluminum heads, Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold with a 600 to 650 cfm 4bbl carb and headers I should be set then.


That is of course if I cant find a 351W roller engine locally.

 

You would be amazed at how the stock 94-97 F4TE truck cam runs, especially after adding 1.7 rockers to boost the lifts specs at the valve, not to mention how well it makes a carb perform. I ran this combo in a reman roller 5.0 short block, topped with home ported E7TE heads, a Ford A321 highrise dual plane and topped with three different carbs ( a modified 1850 600 cfm, a 3310 750 cfm and a 570 Street Avenger) This was in an 89 Ranger backed by a wide ratio Toploader 4 speed and 3.73 rear. More fun than a barrel of monkeys around town, even pulled down 18 mpg on the freeway. Put all that in a roller 351 and you've got a package with way more torque and about the same HP to push a full size truck around. I'm basically running the same combo in my 96 E150 van (GT40 heads, roller 351W, stock F4TE cam, 1.7 Cobra rockers, shorty headers) It gets up to 17.5 mpg in the van with a 3.55 rear and E4OD transmission.