I'm in the process of building a 347 from a '89 Mustang 5.0HO roller block. I'm going to carburate the engine, run a 3-spd manual trans, 3.50 gears, and 33X12.50" tires on my 1971 Bronco. It's mainly a street truck but will encounter some back woods off-roading, some sand dunes, and some mild mudding. I've been looking for a cam to put in it and have contacted FRPP, Crane, Comp, and Edelbrock, so I've hit the majors on this. First thing that some of you may not know, but might find interesting is that apparently Crane grinds the FRPP E303 cam, and Edelbrocks' copy-cat cam to the E303. Despite doing that, they don't have their own E303 cam. Some interesting facts. Anyway, it's interesting the differences in rationale that each manufacturer has for their cams, even some of their own in comparison to others of their own.

Now here are my questions:
1) what do you think the max. or maybe optimal lift should be for my engine without risking valve to piston clearance issues. I have new KB Hyper-eutectic flat-top pistons with valve reliefs in them?
2) optimal lobe seperation for good low end torque and streetability?
3) optimal intake/exhaust durations?
4) optimal camshaft?

Some of the cams I'm looking at, or was told to look at by the manufacterers are:
FRPP E303
Crane 444231 (same as FRPP E303), 364211, 444211
Edelbrock 3722 (same as FRPP E303)

My local speed shop was real interested in the heads I'm going to use and said I can't choose a cam without know the heads. It sounded like they were most interested in the springs on the heads, which are selectable, right?

I wish I could find some freeware out there to just put in some cam specs and get torque/HP output. Anyone know of any?

 

What heads are you going to run ? Valve lift isn't the only factor in determining piston to valve clearance, it's just one of four. The other three are: 1.when the piston chases the valve up-bore on the exhaust stroke. 2. At TDC when both valves are open. And 3. on the intake stroke when the intake valve chases the piston down-bore. As for torque production for off roading, you can alter that too with intake choice. A dual plane intake and a smaller carb will move the curve down the rpm scale. As proof of this, the 331 I built had the power come in at 1500 and pull to 6500 with Canfield heads and a Ford Z303 hyd roller with 1.7 rockers ( .587 lift-228 degree duration @ .050) The intake and carbs I used had a lot to do with that, I'm sure. Intake was a repro Ford 3x2 high rise dual plane with 3-250 cfm Holleys. And I had no piston to valve clearance problems even though the heads were milled .060 and the cam had a nearly .600 lift. I think you'd also be better off with forged pistons over hypers in your case, the 347 is stretching the limits of piston stability in a 302 block, and forgings are more forgiving in that regard in that they're more resistant to stresses than the more brittle hyper's are.

 

All the Desktop Dyno stuff I Googled is copyrighted, so it's not free, but there's some out there starting around $40.

 

HUH?

 

Thanks for the advice. I haven't decided on heads, but was looking at all the typical stuff like Trick Flow, AFR, Edelbrock, and Ford GT40. I guess now that I've thought it all out some more, I'm not trying to create the "best" engine possible, but a good, strong, better engine than I could have dreamt of with my stock engine. So, I got an E303 cam, and am getting ready to get a new timing chain and probably lifters. My engine buddy suggested I do that...I've already spent all that other money on machining, stroker kit, heads & intake and carb(eventually), so why put in old stuff that would fail internally?

 

not a fan of the Ecam. works good in a mustang but thats not what your driving here so you might call compcam and get there opinion/suggestion.

 

If you not going to rev it over say 5500-6000, I'd just clean and reuse the factory roller lifters. They'll be fine. If you want it to rev over that, then spring for a set of better ones like Crane's factory style replacements. The E cam ought to go well in a pickup, my Z cam worked well in the 331 and I had this engine in my 89 Ranger.