Not sure what unit I have, but ~950lb-ft ain't doing it for me

 

It wouldn't exact be a good idea, given that the water pump won't be turning

 

On any naturally aspirated engine head and cams are the two dominant factors affecting its output. The DOHC heads are the way to go for max HP but you will sacrifice your low end to get it, but then just re-gear. If you cant do the DOHC for whatever reason, take a hard look at a 3V head (I don’t know what it takes to put these on), but in my opinion is no different than anybody else doing a head change from a rules perspective. Last choice would be simple head porting. These gains can be impressive when done in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, but this is time consuming= expensive.

Absolutely go for the cams. Keep your duration and valve overlap the same and increase the valve lift. This will keep the shape of your powerband the same but will slightly increase it over the full range, which sounds what you are looking for.

 

Thanks duffman, sounds like you know a little more than the average bear. What about the two cams I have mentioned, any experience with them or do you know of one that might work for me.

 

The engine can survive a few seconds without water pumping. If the coolant's cold, it can probably go 20-30 seconds without overheating. I wouldn't do it on my truck, but it aught to be good for a few HP.

 

ReAX, I have some drag racing friends that do that from time to time. But you are right not on my truck. The risk is not worth the gains. But man those drag racer do some other crazy stuff too.

True Story: My wife drove a car (make and model not important to story, that means it won't a Ford guys) 245 miles without a water pump turning. It was so hot the paint changed color on the hood, the engine was cleaner than new, no oil grase or even paint on it. I knew it was history, changed oil, water, trans fluid, water pump. Run like nothing ever happened, got 50000 more miles before I sold it and the other guy still has it running.

 

Can you publish the specs?

 

Get a diesel, and go to town. Few mods on them, and a lot of HP, and torque.

 

Crower Baja Beast #62905-2
http://www.crower.com/cat/domestic/f...amshafts.shtml

Crane #379601
www.cranecams.com then at the top type 379601 in the search block

Hopefully that gets you what you need to know duffman

 

I think you are shooting low here. The Crowers are are more aggresive and the way to go. If it was me I would be looking at the next cam up and according to the chart I dont think the stage 2 would hurt your low end either. My dad had a 97 F150 with the 4.6 and I remember that that truck had a loose torque converter, I dont know if a SD one is different but that is something that you can do instead of a gear change that will mask a cam with poor low end properties if the stage 2 ends up being unsatisfactory.

 

Good point Duffman77, part of the equation is getting the engine up into it's powerband early and keeping it there for the run. If you can't increase that RPM and make the stock trans/converter work, is there room in the rules to play with the torque converter and get the trans to use the power you have at a different RPM lock up point?

 

Thanks for the info duffman, so after reading this thread you think I should look higher at Crowers Stage 1 (#62800-2) or even the Stage 2 (#62801-2) cam. I trust good advise, but remember I don't want to loss streetablity. I am lost when you and camperdaddy start talking torque converters. If the stage 2 will not just help my low end but accually help all across the board that sounds like gravy, but to good to be true. The stage 1 says it works Idle to 5500rpm so I assume the stock converter is OK. The Stage 2 says 1250 to 6000rpm. What exactly does this amply to the torque converter, if I try the stage 2 and I hate the reaction I may have to change my converter to get the spark back in it, does that change the streetability?

I need a little lesson in torque converters. If the stock converter "locks up" at ?800?rpm, just a guess, because that is what it idles at and if I let off the break it will start rolling forward in idle. If I use the Stage 2 the engine could be flat as hell until it gets up 1250 rpm+, which could hurt my hole shoot, so I change the converter to one that only locks up at 1250rpm. Does that mean I press the gas and run the engine up to 1100 rpm and go nowhere, that sounds like a crime. Help me out with understanding this please, don't mean to be a problem but I am getting out of my element with auto trans.

My past experience has been with cam changes have been with manual trans or someone else had made the discisions for me when I was younger and just said drive it. My brother had a sweet '85 F100 2x4 built to the huilt 302 w/ three on the tree. It didn't even run until you got to 3000rpm but when it did it was some bad a**. But you just changed gears or cluched it to do the trick. Hell if you were being a good boy and not racing someone it was only a two gear truck. If you wanted any trottle responce on the interstate at 70 mph you had to run in second gear! It would not red line until over 8000rpm and I never used all of in third gear before because we had no place to let it go. I don't want this to happen to my SD.

Fell stupid help out?

 

It looks kinda like you have the simple Idea of T/Cs, however there is a little more to picking one. If they have a dyno plot for the cam, look at how much power you will be producing at each RPM. The higher the RPM, the more power so you generally want to wait until your producing a good amount of HP/Tq. General rule of thumb, keep it under 3000rpm for a streetable T/C.

The higher stall will actually help your take off/hole shot, because your engine is making X amount of power before you take off. Your not having to wait while the engine gets up to speed.

That's the simple Ideas. Precision Industries has a decent write up on torque mulitpliers and stall speeds, worth a read.

 

Even a quality converter would help. If the stock stall is say 800 get maybe a 1200 rpm converter for more off the line power..Thing is you want to use your truck so if you go too high you loose big time on the road..as you know. Maybe such a small increase in stall rpm won't do much..I still think a quality converter even with a low stall will work good. They can make them anyway you want. They are built to a certain torque curve to suit your needs. Plus they have lower losses.


Dick

 

You won't get much more out of a 5.4 unless you supercharge it. If you want it to be a truck, leave the cams and heads alone. Go with a 'charger. If you want to race it, check out Manley's stuff for the 5.4 http://www.sullivanperformance.com/Y...ns/pistons.htm
http://www.manleyperformance.com/