This is a great site! Getting started on a new project--looking for any tips and suggestions and will have lots of stupid questions maybe ya'll can help with.
I have a stock 89 F150XL, 302, 4sp, 4x4--getting ready to tear into it for my teenage son's ride. I've had the truck since 93 and have put lots of abusive miles on it. It now has 145k showing on the odometer, but probably closer to 160 on it--and they ain't been easy miles. Lots of heavy pulling and 4-wheelin. Rings are pretty much shot among other things.
While I'm in the motor, I was thinking about putting a little more cam in it. How radical can I get without having to have a custom chip programmed for the EFI? Where would you get a custom chip programmed to fit a certain cam? How much would it cost?
I'm new to hotrodding this EFI stuff, so ya'll go easy on me if my questions are stupid!

 

Figure out what you want done, while you have the engine out, final compression ratio, port work to heads, headers, etc. Would be a good idea to add lower gearing to the axles if you looking for more grunt. Once you know exactly what it is your gonna do, then call comp cams and speak with a tech, they will recommend an of the shelf camshaft that will bring everything together and keep your computer happy, the chip would be helpful as far as gaining a few more hp and tq but its wouldn't be required if you get the right cam. You could always drop in a 351w shortblock with a little extra work and parts. I would spend as little as possible on the 302 and save for more cubic inches, intalling headers and lower gears would be fine as they could be re used on the 351w. Just my opinion, comp cams is the way to go IMO, take two identical cams and the comp makes more manifold vacuum and more torque, ask around, good luck

 

If the truck has mass air, you can go pretty large on a cam without a chip. You would want to avoid that though because you have a heavy truck, with a relatively small v8, and the larger you go with a cam, the more low end torque you sacrifice. That low end torque gets you off the line, and makes daily driving much easier. I would call crane cams or comp cams and give them your specifications, and have them suggest a cam for your needs. That is the best wat to go about that. Also if you go larger with a cam you will have to worry about piston to valve clearance, valve spring pressure and clearance, compression ratio, vacuum pressure for your power brakes, exhaust, increasing the size of your throttle body and intake. The list goes on. If you need it I can get you a number for comp or crane. They are very reasonable with their prices, and they will give you some good tips.

 

his truck is an 89 so mass air would not be on that rig. your cams are very limited and a 351w swap would be a better investment for both mpg and the wear and tear on the drivetrain. you can put as much or less into getting a 351w and come out better in the end . the 302 is just best suited for a hotrod or car.

late

 

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the truck being mass air or not. Since it is not, and you are interested in a cam swap, you can always convert your truck to mass air, so you can run the cam you want. You could als do what everyone else is suggesting, and run a 351w. You just have to remember that the intakes, distributers, and oil pans are not interchangeable. You will also need to get a set of heads for the 351w, or machine the 302 head bolt holes to 1/2" and watch the compression with the 302 heads as they have smaller combustion chambers. If you decide to put a larger cam in the 351w, you will still have to convert to mass air. With the larger displacement, you wil also want to get a larger throttle body, along with a good intake. Trickflow makes and awesome 351w efi intake.

 

he can run a 35-255-5 cam in the 351w that will run speed density. mass air is not necessary unless you plan on stroking a motor and even then its not totally necessary if its setup correctly.

 

Save your money and keep the speed density.

Most people are under the impression that mass air will take care of modifications, thats only half correct. It will allow the engine to idle with less lobe seperation but you still have to tune the engine, because the mass air only adjusts idle. After that its no different than speed density, you have to tell it what to expect. If you plan on setting it an forgetting it, then a chip burnt for your application would do the trick keeping the speed density. Like previously mentioned though you don't need that aggressive of a cam to make tq with a stock engine, so an off the shelf grind would do and keeping the lobe seperation where it should be, will let you avoid shelling out the buck for a mass air conversion or chip. Who knows? later

 

Great input guys--I sure appreciate it. Now, for some of the stupid questions--what is Mass Air Flow and what is Speed Density--in laymans terms? (keep in mind, I'm a newbie when it comes to tampering with this EFI stuff). I know quite a bit about prepping carbed small block chevys to go round dirt tracks, but not much about fords and even less about EFI.
Also, if I drop in a 351W (W is for ford's Windsor plant--is that right?), will I have to change computers entirely along with all the intake, throttle body, distributer, heads and other stuff or can a chip handle the swap?
Also, I can't remember what the rear end ratio is now, but it is a Dana rearend and has the c-clips like the chevy rear ends do--its not a 9". But I do know that with the 4sp manual, it is already geared plenty low--On the highway, it always felt like you should have another gear to go to and in granny-lo, it feels like you could pull a house off the foundation.
For this build, I may go the economical route and just go with mild upgrades--sounds like bigger cubic inches is gonna cost lots of cubic dollars! I am breaking in a new driver with this rig so I don't want to make it too hot.

 

IN short speed density uses vacuum to judge how much fuel to add. Thats why the mention of the right lobe seperation on a cam, around 114 will keep the vacuum correct for the speed density to operate correctly. Mass air meters the amount of air coming in, and has a slightly broader fuel map at idle to understand more drastic changes or it has the ability to understand conditions that might be created by a cam that generates less engine vacuum, less lobe seperation.

If you pick a cam with the correct lobe seperation and use speed density, then your good, when you add better flowing heads/ intake and it will still idle/perform well to a point but at this point in time your concern is running lean- as the more efficient heads/intake will draw more air at any given time as compared to the stock pieces, since the computer only knows to shoot a certain amount of fuel at any given time, this brings on the need to install an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, this way you can adjust the psi yourself and more or less trick the computer, so when it activates the fuel injectors it will still operate as before but by increasing or decreasing the psi, you will get more or less fuel delievered under the same time frame that the computer opens the injectors.

mass air came out on california based vehicles and the rest of the country had it put on their vehicles in 96.

To do the 351w swap, you can do it a few ways...one, buy the entire 5.8 efi complete, plug the wiring harness into your firewall and call it good. You can use the 5.8 computer but its not necassary. Second option, get a 5.8 and install your 302 injectors/fuel rail onto the 5.8 connect all the other sensor/emissions crap and call it good. Speed density is like a modified carb, it is also known as batch fire, meaning a group of injectors get fired at once, in this case 4 get opened then the other four, so the fuel is suspended for a period of time before its drawn into each individual cylinder. Thats why you can reuse the 5.0 computer. The cylinder heads on the 5.0 and 5.8 for the most part have always been the same, only difference the head bolt holes on the 5.0 are smaller, nothing a few dollars and a machinists time can't fix, once the bolt holes have been enlarged you can use them on a 5.8. The only thing you have to change doing a 5.0 to 5.8 swap, is the distributors and upper and lower intake, due to the different heights of the two blocks these components by design are different. Now if you were gonna go mass air then you would wanna change the computer, it opens each fuel injector individually as opposed to speed density that opens them in groups of 4, obviously the mass air is designed to be more efficient by firing individual injectors so what little gain there is from this efficiency won't be realized if the computer is opening the wrong injector. Have I made any sense? I can ramble on for days and while it may make sense to me it won't make much sense to anyone else, I have re read some of my posts and they can confuse me.

Here is a link that will probably explain it better:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/24549/

If your breaking in a new driver, then leave it stock. You know he or she is gonna wanna beat on the truck for the first few years anyway. Might as well make it frustrating via lack of power. Good luck

 

JW--Thanks for that explanation--made sense to me. I nearly understand it now! Ha!
It is a boy--you know what that means, truck's probably gonna catch it--For now, I'll just do a mild upgrade on the cam and keep the lobe seperation stock. Another question--if I do this, but increase the cam duration or lift, it'd be like improving the heads/intake and the computer's still going to shoot the same amount of fuel with more air, so I'd need to increase fuel pressure for that too, right?
Also, without many other significant improvements, will helping the exhaust with headers or other mods help much on performance--or would I just be paying more for a better sound?

 

I wouldn't worry about it, preferably the cam you get would have the correct lobe separation-decent idle vacuum-happy speed density..no problem. Preferably the cam you get is gonna be low end torque bias...as that is what they will recommend from the major cam companies. There is a slight chance that adjusting the fuel psi would help but I wouldn't worry about, the cam won't be so radical that the stock efi can't compensate, the cam would more or less optimize the flow rather than completely change it. If you have a ford truck yourself, it might be worth your money to get a wide band air/fuel gauge setup, then you would be able to see whats going and and adjust accordingly, his truck and yours. Like I mentioned though the cam the cam companies recommend will be mild and not something that the stock system couldn't compensate for, the speed density is pretty narrow in what it understands and compensates for but there is some flexibility.

Headers couldn't hurt....long tubes build more torque...your gains with the stock engine wouldn't be that great...however slightly noticable but you could also look at it as an investment, of which will compliment any modification thats done in the future, you know it won't be long before your boy is flipping through the magazines (probably already is) and asking for money for some type of modification, whether its any count or not. The v-8 sound is everything...especially to a new driver. Good luck

 

JW--Actually, my truck now is a Ford--but its a 2000 powerstroke, so the air/fuel guage setup probably wouldn't work on it. If ole blackford (the 89 F-150) and the insurance on the new driver don't break me, I'm hoping to pep up the powerstroke next. Thanks again for your help.

 

Actually, that will be a Ford 8.8 rear and a Dana 44TTB in the front with it being a 1/2t. Most likely the gears are going to be around 3.55/3.54 ratio

 

MO4, that rear end in your f150 is the 8.8. i highly suggest you remove the rear diff cover and inspect the rear ring & Pinnion. if you there is another set of gears in side then you have the ford factory Limited Slip. its not a bad setup but can and will grenade if not properly maintained. no you have a few choices to strengthen it up , get a drop in locker $250-300 i believe this will eliminate the factory LS. Or do like me and swap a 9" out of a early 80's bronco/f150. make sure its at least 3.50 gear ratio.

if you have questions about this swap over email or pm.

late

 

Kemicalburns, If you run a near stock cam, of course it is not necessary to run mass air, but like I stated in my earlier post, if he wants to run a large cam, he will definitely need to go mass air in order to maintain drivability. I have ran plenty of stroked motors on speed density. That is not a problem as long as you retain the factory, or near factory cam. You just can't run one efficiently with a large cam or heads.