Hey all. In the past, I rebuilt my 302 with stock crankshaft, rods, pistons and new bearings. Also, I replaced the stock truck heads with E7TE heads. I put a new camshaft in which had 278° of duration on intake and 290° on exhaust. It didn't do much, but I did notice a little bit of power increase and the power came in a little higher on the rpms. Since then, I've put stainless headers and a fully custom true dual stainless exhaust with cherry bombs. Needless to say, the truck sounds badass!!! But I'm sure I could run a camshaft with more oomph. My only thing is that I want to be able to keep my brake booster. Have yall found a camshaft that brings up the power more but still able to keep enough vacuum to have power brakes? I'm still running the 2150 carb because the 4bbl I have won't seal on the flange and a brand new holley is stupid expensive. I'm not saying I won't spend the money, but just not yet. I'm asking because I've read about duration and lift, but I haven't been able to come up with a relative way to determine a good camshaft. This will not be a work truck. It will only be for fun. There's still stuff I need to do, for example, I want a 5 speed manual to replace the NP435 and a limited slip rear chunk with 3.73:1 gears to replace the stock 3.00:1 in the 9" axle. But that will eventually come around. Just need a little help in the right direction for the camshaft. Thanks.

 

You're literally choking the engine with that 2150, they're only rated at around 280cfm. For about the price of a cam kit and the associated parts to swap it, you should be able to get a new 500-550ish CFM carb, which will be more than enough for a 302 and will noticeably wake the engine up. Or, for a fraction of the cost of a new cam or carb, you could probably just rebuild the 4bbl you have. What brand/type/size carb is it and what isn't sealing on it?

 

I have a 500 cfm chinabrock. The mounting flange is what is not sealing. It was cheap and new but the old adage comes with it. You get what you pay for.

 

Not sealing to the manifold or to the body of the carb? If it's not sealing to the manifold, have you tried to double up the gaskets, with a layer of fuel resistant sealer between them?

 

Speedfreak78 is correct. The 2150 is never going to flow enough air to do what you want. Conversely, the cam you have sounds pretty well suited for your goals. Take the money and effort you were thinking of putting toward a new cam and direct that toward a new carb and you should see some good results. As to the rear end, Ford got caught short with 9 inch rear ends in the late 70s and used Dana rear ends in some cases. Nothing wrong with that, but you will want to look into that before you shell out money for new gears etc.

 

As others have said you need more carb. you should be able to seal your Edlejunk up but it's still not much of a prize, get a Holley if you're not happy after giving it a try.

As far as the cam question, that ones easy. call Brent Lykins and have him order you a custom grind exactly for your build and vehicle. generic cams are a thing of the past for anyone that gives two craps about building engines.

 

Doubling up gaskets between two flat surfaces (intake manifold and carburetor base) and then tightening bolts at the 4 corners puts a lot of bowing pressure on ears, sometimes they break.

Thing about a small carburetor is that at WOT the engine just sees part throttle. No harm done, but it is limiting.

 

I used the Summit brand 500cfm on my 351Measly, have been super pleased with it, other than having to jet it down some... wasn't super crazy $$
I'm of the crowd that believe most guys over-carb their engines, especially depending on the application... years ago when I rebuilt my first 300, mid-90's, my machine shop/parts guy had been in, was still a tad into racing and circle track. I wanted to go with a Holley 600 or 650, he showed me an old chart he used showing flow and cfm by engine and build and what not, may have been his own, I don't really remember, but it was enlightening, and unless you're running WTFO a LOT, you don't need near the size carb you want lol.
Ex-gf's Jeep, had a 350 in it, always ran rich, coughed, sputtered up hills, got *****ty mileage, a guy friend had put a 650 on it, said she needed it... I had a 4bbl 390cfm in my shop from a previous build, did a quick refresh of it and put it on her Jeep, WHOLE different truck after that, basically doubled the mpg, was super responsive, had a kick when you floored it and opened up the throats, from what I know, it's still on there 6+ yrs later...

That being said, yes you need to go 4bbl to let it breathe, and jump up to at least a 390+cfm, you can always jet it up if needed..

 

I agree. I’m actually a little concerned that I over-carbed my 445 with a 750. I think a 650 might have been better for drivability but we’ll see. It happens a lot in the EFI world as well. Guys think they need to go with these huge 130mm throttle bodies on basically stock engines that displace about 6 liters. The restriction isn’t in the throttle body, it’s the heads, cam, exhaust manifolds, etc. In my humble opinion, given that you have stock heads, I think that a 390 might be your best bet. However, they are quite expensive these days.