guys before you say any thing iknow this topic has been beat to death, but i searched and found nothing, so what im needing is some one to give me an awnser and not let the post drift away.
my question/ statment is

is there a cam shaft that make decint power over the stock, but doesnt require a aftermarket set of valve springs. please dont say an rv cam, thats just to broad of a statement. i was thinkin of something along the lines of a summit or an edelbrok cam.

thanks matt

edit.... this motor must last as long as the stocker
and its pretty much a plain rebuild no flattops or any thing 351m
been bored with tourqe plates and arp bolts on mains, rods,

 

Heavier springs are normally required when the cam lift is increased. If you replace the cam with an aftermarket cam, that has about the same lift, you should be able to use the same springs. I would have the spring pressure checked, by a shop. Then you could look for a cam that requires that pressure or less.

A cam that has the same lift and uses the same springs as stock will not do much for your motor over a stock cam.

 

If it is a high mileage motor I would replace the springs anyway so you can get whatever springs the cam manufacturer specs.

 

I have to jump in here and say my peice The whole purpose of an aftermarket cam is to gain perfromance in the rpm range you drive in. These new cam profiles require a spring that can follow them acurately. the cam does you no good if the lifter isnt following. You could give away all you have gained and more by trying to run stock springs. Canted valve heads have a tendency to break valve springs and the stock springs new were doubtfull at best and they dont get better with age. Spend the extra and put the right springs on,fords are blessed with a nice size spring pocket so take advantage of it. Comp cams latest behive ovate springs are the hot ticket imho but even a fresh set of regular springs will pay you back big time

 

ok lets say i used this cam how would i make sure my push rods were the right lenth and how i would set it up not to break any thing in my valve train

 

generic link, what cam is it?

 

no its the 3rd paragraph down and its says to click here to go were you where going or something

 

Give us a part number. Outside links to many sites will not work right. They want people to see the home page and search thru in order to get the maximum eyeball time on all the ads.

 

Crane makes a really sweet kit to make the heads compatible with adjustable rockers and is super easy to install . After all you are goin to use roller rockers cause ya know they are so much easier on the valve guides and reduce friction at the fulcrum. you can get the pedestal rollers but still leaves you with adjusting the lifter preload with shims and or longer pushrods.My last engine use the kit listed below and had no problems in 100,000 miles and i was using springs that were 300lbs open. I sold that motor as drop in to fund the motor i just built.Money spent on the valvetrain in an M block is money well spent.

http://www.cranecams.com/index.php?show=browseParts&lvl=2&prt=24 52655-16

 

ok here is the link. also ive heard that roller rockers dont realy help unless your turning 7000rpm all day

 

comp cams 32-206-3, or the 255DEH as we all know it. Duration 255/263, Lift .469/.505, the link pulled up the 255DEH and kits for a bunch of applications. doing the springs i agree is a good idea, what you want to avoid is having to machine the spring seats. sometimes you can use aftermarket retainers to provide the correct installed height and avoid retainer/valveguide interference. somewhere in Bubbas' site he gives a max lift spec for stock valvetrain, i forget what the spec is exactly? but some engines have valve rotators built into the stock retainers that might cause interference at a lower lift than plain retainers. don't forget to allow room for the valve stem seal to live in there too. all this needs to be checked out before you turn the engine through even one time! pushrod length is not such a big issue as retainer crash and/or coil bind. if you are not decking any surfaces more than a "clean-up" you shouldn't need to worry about pushrod length. are the heads on or off at the moment?

edit: i was afraid i was crying like chicken little but i found the info on Bubbas' site and that's what i thought. the 255DEH will require the heads to be set up properly to handle the lift regardless of what retainers you have stock. read the CAUTION box.

http://home.earthlink.net/~bubbaf250/parts/parts03.html

the 255DEH is usually highly recommended but personally i would go a little bit more, especially since you have to set up the heads anyways...

 

guys take a gander at this cam and then click on the tab that says suggested parts and tell me what you thing about the suggested stuff
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...rchType=Engine

edit. is there any advantages/ disavantages of a noisie gear drive timing set

 

now that link really doesn't work. there is a recent thread about gear drives...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=399016

 

here is the part number. SUM-K5200
www.summitracing.com

 

I just want to point out something about the stock cams on Bubba's site and Comp Cams 255DEH. The stock cams have similar timing to the 255DEH, but the lift is lower. If you look at a curve of head flow vs lift for a stock head, you will see that there is little increase in head flow after 0.45 lift. The stock cams are matched to this head flow. When you replace a stock cam with an aftermarket cam, some porting work should be done to increase the head flow to support the increased lift. If not the new cam will not produce it's designed power improvement.

The Summit K5200 is similar to a Comp Cams 265DEH. This is also a very good cam for a 400 motor. It will not produce quite as much low end torque as a 255DEH, but will run better at highway speed, especially with a high numerical ratio final drive. Again to take full advantage of the increased lift, some porting should be done.