hey, im new to the rebuild process and am hopping up my blown 351M. i have read about using 400 parts (pistons, crank, etc) and read about using cleveland heads, and i understand all of that. i am going to keep the heads, crank and whatnot, bore it thirty over seeing as that i wore 20 off already. turning the crank, ordered some badger pistons, getting the heads rebuilt, have an edelbrock performer 400 intake and a carter afb for it. my only concern is what cam to use. i want to use this motor in my truck, ford f150. i lifted it already, am running 33's and already have headers and dual exhaust. so right now i am in the need for the right cam. i will be using the truck daily so i will need good fuel milage, but it also a truck and will most definately be seeing offroad. i pull boats and trailors of all kinds around that are all in the boat weight department. so really, i want a good motor with good low end grunt, but decent highway mileage. i checked out the summit cams and the one with the smaller duration, the K5200 seems like a great cam and am wondering if anyone has used these or heard good things about these or related cams. i have searched and found one user that used this cam but i need some more information about the right cam for my application. it is a 4x4 by the way and is an automatic. thanks for any help!!!!

 

general consensus is that the Comp 255DEH is optimal for mileage and low end grunt.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...5&pagenumber=1

 

Try to find a cheaper grind that duplicates the 255deh or front the money for the good stuff. I heard alot of good things about the dual energy cams, they run a dual pattern, but hey, I'm a comp cams fan. I'm running a single pattern 268/218 by .494 lift cam and I'm realy impressed with the torq and exhaust sound, considering fords often like more duration on the exhaust side of things. I was getting 12mpg with it and a 500cfm holley 2v 2300. it wouldn't run with anything less than .79 jets. I'm now running a motor craft 2150 with .56 jets and it's running a whole lot better, just don't have any mpg figures yet, I don't know why the holley needed so much more fuel but it wouldn't idle when jetted smaller and with the big jets it was allways loading up. It was horrible; at any angle other than flat, without your foot shoved into it. It would run great wide open but thats was about it. I'm postive I'm getting better mpg now. Just keep asking questions and inform yourself as much as you can before you pick one specific cam. Good luck

 

The Summit cams are dual pattern also. I am running a K5200 in my 400 that I built 8 years ago. It has done very well. It appears to be the same grind as the Edelbrock Performer and is most likely made by the same grinder.

With a truck that heavy and with the big tires, I would not go any wilder than about 205 @ .050.

Good luck,
Doc

 

Does Badger makes a 351m piston ?

 

thanks to all who replies so far! yes badger makes a 351M piston, thats why i ordered them. they are supposed to be really nice and they were available at the local autozone. thanks again, ill keep on doing my reasearch.

 

I recommend the comp cam 32-206-3. I think it may be the 255deh cam, regardless i have not personally run the cam but on proracingsim it makes more power and torque than any other comparable cam up to 4000 rpm. I run run dozens of cams against this grind and they all lose. BTW I prefer crane cams.

 

thank you again to everyone.