i have an 86 f-150 with a 302 efi, im looking to increase the torque on the engine itself without goin too expensive at the moment. im lookin more for low end torque than high end. any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. thank you.

 

Long tube headers and a good, free-flowing true dual exhaust is a good place to start for torque. But your best bolt-in improvement would be a 351.


Pete

 

Probably the only way your going to see any real increase is with a cam swap.

 

what kind of cam would u recomend that i replace it with?

 

All I've done to mine is underdrive pulleys drop in K&N air filter shorty headers and true duals with glasspacks.....if I only have that little bit and can make a damn Hemi eat my shiny chrome rear bumper...then so can you...especially if you just wanna do bolt ons for the moment..same boat that I'm in.....u want some good juice?Convert to a carb and swap the cam at the same time with headers n exhaust...you'll be good to go.And it'll haul some ***......

 

wat do u mean by underdrive pulleys? ive heard it before but dont know wat it is or means

 

underdrive pulley kits usually come with a crank,waterpump, and altenator pulley.....the crank pulley is usually smaller while the later two are bigger than stock.With the crank pulley about 2 inches smaller in diameter...the motor will turn rpm's faster....the reason they put bigger pulleys for the waterpump and altenator in the kit are to correct this.....the bigger pulleys will bring the charging levels and water circulation back to almost stock but you'll be able to "spool up" to a higher RPM alot faster which will give you some more hp and help you get off the line quicker.

 

ill look into the underdrive pulley kits...they sound like they will b worth the investment. do u remember off hand how much the kits are goin for?

 

If the ignition is not computer controlled. ( dont recall) then to recurve the dist will prob be the best gain. But does take some tuning knowledge. Low end grunt is where it will be improved the most. But all over is significant one done correctly.

 

Ahhhh....it's the simpler tings that can make a big difference...forgot about advancing the distributor.Underdrive pulley kits...under 100 bucks.

 

wat would b the best to advance the timing? im thinkin 12 instead of 10 but wat do u think without goin overboard with it?

 

wat would b the best to advance the timing? im thinkin 12 instead of 10 but wat do u think without goin overboard with it? n should i set it with the spout disconnected?

 

You can twist the distributor a little see what the lower end likes. But afterwards you will need to modify the dist to keep the full advance correct. I start with about 15 initial timing. The motor might agree to 17-19 initial. But will also depend on your mech advance curve, vac advance curve, tranny, tune, altitude etc... The last 302 I messed with liked 17 initial, I don't recall the total.

On some models the mechanical advance is limited by a button in a slot. I have made new out of tough plastic with good results. The button can be filed to increase total mech advance so set for the aggressive initial tweek then to get the lower end working, then file down to set the total advance in range. Total timing is not far off with stock CR and cam. So if dist range is 6 initial to 34 total advance (example) mech advance is 28 deg. Setting for 15 to 34 requires reducing by 9 for a 19 deg total.

By spout I assume you mean vacuum advance. Timing is always set with the vac pot unplugged.
Keep in mind, cranking the dist without correcting is a compromise of the upper end. It reduces the symptoms of a slow mech advance ramp.

If this is a little much for your situation, then look into a mech advance curve kit. Will not be near as good. But is a reasonable compromise.

 

so basically i should set it to 15 initial n possibly higher if the engine will let me? the only part i really understood was settin the initial.

 

Changing the initial also changes the full advance. The motor will not like this extra timing up top. Especially if you free up intake and exhausts.

If you are not in a position to modify the distributer then I suggest remaining near the factory timing settings.