Hi everyone,

I have got a 79 f150 short bed 4x4. I have a 400 I am building to go in it. I have sent the block off going .030 over, new high compression badger pistions, new heads, 4 bbr intake. I was wondering what cam to use. This will be a off road rig driven to work maybe two times a week for the fun of it. I want it to sound great like a muscle car with a big lobe but need it to be low rpm torque range for the woods. Any advice?

 

I asked Tim and he had Comp grind a custom cam for me.

 

I chose a Howards cam, grind no. 233215-10 it has durations @.050" of 217/225 and valve lift of .571"/.576". I based my choice on a dynoed build by 79silverstreak, build details below...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...uild-up-7.html

He was able to achieve an impressive 383HP and 500lbs./ft. torque. Please note that he ultimately had a distributor gear failure on this engine using the factory distributor gear. I used an MSD bronze gear just to be sure I don't have the same issue. Lifespan is not very good with bronze, but they are more tolerant of hard cams (Howards cast cams are induction hardened, as I suppose all cast cams are) than a factory cast iron gear. If I had it to do again I may just bite the bullet and spend the $130 for a polymer gear. Idle quality of this cam is very good, just enough lope that you know you've got something under the hood. Overall quality of the cam was only "fair"and given the cost of the roller setup, I would have it custom ground on a billet core if I did it again, and... again, use a polymer gear. I cannot yet comment on power and driveability since I have open headers at the moment and need to haul it into the exhaust shop to get the stainless exhaust finished.

Plenty of good cams out there, especially since you've increased the compression!

 

Thanks for the help!!!! This is what I have located. I don't know what all the numbers really mean but my dad recommended this one. The problem is he builds drag cars not off road trucks... lol

ADV Duration (INT/EXH): 282 / 292
Duration @ .050" (INT/EXH): 204 / 214
Valve Lift (INT/EXH): .484 / .510
Lobe Centerline: 112
Power Range: 1200-4700

 

Allen, that's probably a nice mild grind there. Should have excellent low RPM performance and you "might" be able to use factory springs with it, just check for coil bind as .510" is on the upper end of what the factory springs can tolerate. The only "downside" is I doubt you would have any lope at all. In fact, if you really wanted lope I wouldn't hesitate to suggest a roller with a little more duration that the one I used, maybe something in the 224/230 @ .050" and lift of .600"... it would come at the price of lesser low RPM performance though, and might make you wish for a higher stall converter. Is you truck a manual ou auto?

 

Right now I have a np435 I think I am going to change it to a c6 and run a 1800-2000 stall. I have to find out which way is cheaper. I have both transmissions but for the np I missing all the clutch linkages and will have to get the clutch kit on top of that. The c6 just need the new converter.

 

Right now I have a np435 I think I am going to change it to a c6 and run a 1800-2000 stall. I have to find out which way is cheaper. I have both transmissions but for the np I missing all the clutch linkages and will have to get the clutch kit on top of that. The c6 just need the new converter.

 

question, where the hell did you get badger pistons and why? Tims piston are the only ones I'm aware of that produce squish to provide quench. Hell I will give you my old badgers, they sit .070 down in the bore. Cam timing, hell it all depends. If its your first build cant go wrong with an old comp cam 268H. Now there are better cams, but better is subjective to the builder, driver and other components selected. My first 400 build, the one the badgers came out of, was exactly as your setting up. stock 400 rebuild carb, cam and manifold. With the 268H, had a nice idle, enough to hear. Plenty of power! and still pulled 10mpg, if I kept my foot out of it. I had 15.5x35 swampers at the time and it would roast em in first and squal em in second. That was with the stock 3.50 gears. Am I still running that cam? Hell no, but I have a better idea of what I'm doing now too. Talk to Tim, he will set you strait.

 

the lobe center line is to wide, that would be fine if your running a small NOS kit, tighten it up a bit for what you want,106-110 would work a lot better. Like your dad,i to drag raced for 28yrs.

 

I don't really understand your second sentence.... still new at this... But one of my dads friends build a lot of ford motors.... Dad is a big GM fan that is all he does... But any who.. I got new pistons, Rings, push rods, rocker arm's, and connecting rod's form him for 125.00 he did not need them so I think I got a good deal... and I am getting New valve springs to hold up to the cam... Any advice on the np435 vs c6 I will be running the Np205 case..

 

Allen,

If you are going to use the Badger pistons, you should have your block decked to bring them closer to the top of the bore at TDC. Factory pistons are something just over .060" down in the hole typically - this the main reason we use Tim's pistons as they have a small dome to increase compression.

As for the NP 435/ or C6 - As a kid I always wanted manual transmissions, but as an adult I prefer automatics. The extra torque multiplication of an automatic is nice for hill climbing etc. what tranny is in it now?

 

ok great thanks for the advice. Right now the NP435 is in it. but it is missing all the clutch linkages... I can get them all from Jeffs Bronco for about 185.00 plus shipping, and then it is 164.00 for the clutch set its self. I have a c6 in my parts 78 short bed f150. the stall converter is about 180.00 from summit....

 

That cam is summit racing #5200. I'm running it in my Cleveland in my F-100. Great running cam, lots of torque. (Peak of 415lb-ft @4,000rpm, but pretty much a flat curve from 2-4500) Smooth idle with high vacuum.

 

Allen, are you sure the cam you are looking at has a lobe centerline of 112? The summit 5200 cam, along with edelbrocks performer cam, melling mft-2 and enginetech es1805r (and others) are all the exact same cam and have a lobe seperation angle of 112 but have an intake lobe centerline of 107 and exhaust lobe cl of 117 (lobe seperation is (intake cl + exhaust cl)/2).

This cam is specifically made to blead off a bit of compression to help with detonation prone heads. It has a much higher adv duration than most cams with only 204 and 214 duration at .050 lift.

This is great if you have high compression but as stated before unless you deck the block a LOT the badger pistions sit farther down in the bore then the factory piston.

I'm refreshing a 400 right now and it has the badger pistons (they are .075 below deck!) and this motor has the same cam you listed. The compression ratio is coming in at 8.8:1 and that is with 1972 heads that have 76cc combustion chambers (lots of late 70's heads had even larger combustion chambers, some as large at 80cc due to variances in castings). With this cam and 8.8:1 static compression it leaves my dynamic compression ratio at 6.6:1 which is pretty low.

Not saying this cam won't work (it does have a noticeable idle, nothing crazy but it sounds good) but I believe there are better cams out there for your current components. Something with similar .050 specs but with less adv duration.

 

I chose it because it was almost an exact copy of the edelbrock cam, so it runs very well with my Edelbrock carb and intake. Also, I have a set of Aussie 2v quench heads that I plan on building and using to replace my open heads. This would give around 10.5:1, which is a little bit high, but the cam will take a bit off.