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Hello, new to the group! I have a 400, .030 bore, stock stroke 78 f100 that I grew up in. It was my dads old truck and he handed down to me. The engine was built 25 years ago by a friend of my dads and he threw a fireball 302A cam shaft in it. The engine is wore smooth out and I am rebuilding it for me and my son to make memories in. I have scoured the internet trying to find the specs for this cam. Cannot find it anywhere. I have found the cam for other engines but not the specs for a 400. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I still have the Crane Fireball cam in my 351M that I put in in the 1980s. The 351M and 400 share everything except pistons and the crankshaft. I don't recall that 302A number ... but it seems to me there was only the one Crane Fireball offered for these engines. There were other Crane cams, but just seems they had a different names.. I used a "timing set" that included chain and two sprockets. Crank sprocket has three keyways and marks for advanced, retarded, and straight up. I put new set in straight up with cam change at time, used a Crane cam, hydraulic, same specs as Summit Racing Part Number: EDL-2172. I used new OEM lifters and never touched valve springs until I had the heads redone a few years later ... but they are non rotators. I seldom ever see tach over 4K even. Uses stock 1.73:1 rockers.
Basic Operating RPM Range: Idle-5,500
Duration at .050 inch Lift: 204 int./214 exh.
Advertised Duration: 282 int./292 exh.
Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.484 int./0.510 exh.
Lobe Separation (degrees): 112
The same profile is widely available .... Summitt, Edelbrock, and others. It's a "torque grind", I've even seen it in the NAPA parts book.
Just have someone plot the cam profile for you then you'll know all of the specs. I do this for customers who have a cam where they don't have any specs. Sometimes good useable and or interesting stuff can be found and the information can be really helpful when it comes to figuring out the lash requirements and what spring loads will be appropriate.
.I would assume that the same lobe is used on either engine. According to the catalog.300 lobe lift goes from .480 valve lift with a 1.6 rocker ratio to .519 with the 1.73 used in the Cleveland engine. Lash goes up to .020 and .022. I didn't know that there were solid lifter Fireball cams. I wonder what the "A" suffix means too. Was that a different lobe in the series with similar duration but other differences?
