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I cant speak for much of cliffords items but i can say when I compared my clifford headers to a set of hedman headers I had (v8) laying around, the clifford won out, just based on material thickness used.

Cliffords customers support has always been very friendly and responded quickly but they really dont know what the hell they are talking about...my issue wouldnt be with customers service or product quality...it would be with price...as you can find anything they have to offer for a whole lot less $$$$ elsewhere. Although probably not as much as you think, example. Cliffords headers are 200-300, you can get hedman for 135 or so but its not hedmans "heavy duty" header, now if you look at other companies, their I6 headers are 200-300 but Id bet made alot thicker material than the hedman, could be wrong but I doubt it. Im not saying dont buy the cheaper hedman, as im sure they would serve their purpose just fine and last forever, im just saying that cliffords outrageous pricing, isnt that odd when you notice other companies have outrageous pricing as well. Clifford just made/makes the mistake of thinking they have the monopoly on product when thats not even close to being the truth.

What I always found strange, was way back when, cliffords name got brought up alot on this forum and that was that. Then one of the more respected members started bashing them, which was odd, as they admittedly never used their product, seemed to enjoy their forums (when it existed) though, then slowly cliffords name became something to avoid and seems to have remained that way and then spread to the other ford inliners site. The guys that are heavily into performance ford 6 bangers, utter cliffords products they use but dont seem to bash them. On the flip side, if you go to jeep forums or a mopar site, they quickly become the go to place. Interesting phenomenon.


Take a look at the fordsix store....its nice the feller is pushing product for the ford inliner but hes not doing anyone any favors when it comes to product pricing.

 

To continue with the header example, there are a lot of companies out there that sell "upgraded" headers that cost about double what their normal headers cost. The upgrades typically consist of thicker flanges, heavier pipes, and full welded flanges. The problem is that those upgrades only cost the company about 10% more to add, and they are charging 50-100% more for product. The upgrades are really not needed in almost any application. Thicker flanges on a 300 are pointless because they have to be the same thickness as the intake anyway. Heavier pipes have thicker walls. That means that for a given tube diameter you have less area inside, so your headers are smaller than you think you are paying for. Fully welded flanges are well worth it, but you could have that done to any header at a local shop for a fraction of the cost, or do it yourself if you have a MIG welder.

I will also admit to never having used Clifford products, but that was their choice. I called to place an order and they wouldn't even talk to me about which parts to get unless I gave them a credit card number. Sorry, I'm not paying you to give me your sales pitch.

My other problem with Clifford, which has been hit or miss, is that they just rebox other products, up the price and sell them as their own. One of my friends from highschool bougth a Clifford cam and intake for his truck. The cam was in a Comp Cams box when it arrived and you could see on the intake where they had ground off the Offy logo and added their own.

 

I have an1986 F150 with a 300 that belongs to my Father-N-Law and I pulled it out to replace all of the gaskets and seals to stop the leaks. He wants me to eiminate the computer that it has and put it back to 1980-83 status. He bought it without a carburetor so I had a 2 barrel carb sitting around and I went ahead and bought an adapter so that it would fit the intake. I also installed an older electronic ignition that was used in the late model 70's Ford trucks. I replaced the distributer with an older electronic distributer do go with the electronic ignition module and I was eliminating the egr but found out that I will have to recurve the distributer. Did you have to recurve yours. Did you eliminate your EGR?

 

Selling a product claiming its yours isnt unique to clifford.

One huge example is springs, be it for the valvetrain or your front suspension, wanna guess how many companies in the U.S. actually produce springs.

I may have just been lucky with clifford, they always respond, if they asked for a credit card number just to discuss product, Id be pissed too and offer directions to a warm place south.

I think things were a little unsettled when the owner first passed away and for a couple years after. Its just sad that the one company attempting to keep the inliner enthusiast alive, really has a bad name. I can see why they dont envolke alot of confidence, as when Ive asked them the "hard" questions, I get some stupid vague answer that you might hear between two buddies shooting the chit and thats not what I want to hear, cause it just makes me think they dont know what the hell they are talking about.

Most recent WTF, was when I was discussing a single outlet efi header and its benefits, when I was told, A SINGLE OUTLET MAKES NO SENSE, WE WOULD NEVER BUILD OR SELL A SINGLE OUTLET HEADER, YOU HAVE A DUAL IN CAT AND IT WOULD SCREW THINGS UP, LOOK UNDER YOUR TRUCK. So then I politely gave the sumbitch their part number for a single outlet efi header. haha Then it turned into, oh well, yeah, ummm, we had issues with the flange or some dumb chit and we no longer offer those.

Stuff like that pisses me off. They also like to throw around words like, "well on the dyno". Then when you ask for a print out, they say something stupid like, well our dyno wont let us use different headers....ummm....

Again, may sound contradictory but I would buy from them if they have what I need but Id be sure to know what I needed vs relying on them to make a suggestion. I dont think product quality is an issue, more like customer service is friendly just dont expect much tech, other than a line about how their intake header cam combo cant be beat....and their prices are absurd, mainly the camshafts, makes no sense to pay double for a cam that was designed 20yrs ago, anything they have, you can get elsehwere for less and not sacrafice quality or performance. Dont even get me started on their "blueprinted" cylinder head....haha

 

There's no doubt that the industry, and any industry, is full of reboxers. But there a big difference between a cam that's "custom ground to our specs by an industry leader" and a cam that "we custom grind in house to ensure the greatest quality control". There is also a big difference between custom ground and a shelf grind. The Clifford custom was a Comp shelf grind.

I had a similar experience with the single outlet header because that is one of the parts I was considering purchasing. They couldn't/wouldn't tell me anything about the installation, the fit, the pipe diameter and length, etc. After a few minutes of this I got "call us back when you are ready to order and we'll tell you about it".

Poor tech support is not exclusive to Clifford, but they have no excuse for it since inlines are all they do. If you call Comp Cams and ask them questions about their 300 products they can't tell you anything, but at least they are honest and tell you that they just don't get asked about the stuff enough to know off the top of their head.

 

Missed that detail, they tried to sell your friend a "custom" camshaft but it was comp rebox.

Dont hate me for saying this, but you know alotta "custom" cam companies do that, especially if it comes close to what their data shows as being ideal.

They are *******s for doing it though, especially if they charge more $$$$.



Here is a thought, if all cam companies use the latest technology to create camshafts, why dont they all sell the same profiles? Makes ya kinda wonder dont it..haha...cause someone is giving up something somewhere just to offer you something that "appears" unique.

 

Have you ever noticed that many of the shelf grinds use the same lobes whether it's a Ford, Chevy, Dogde or whatever cam? The only difference is the lift, which is different because of the rocker ratio. Ford has a larger diameter lifter than Chevy, so you can make more power by opening the valve faster. The cam companies don't take advantage of that because they use the same lobes for both engines.

 

True.......

 

My xl 94, 4.9 L6 ,2wd 5spd,rearend ratio im not sure of but im sure its in the 3.?? series..
I got 41 miles out of 2.2 gallons of gas, 22 miles of that was on the interstate the rest was in town normal driving,, with power up the yang I have no problem running 70 mph barely touching the throttle and with plenty of power left to pass like a cheeta!!....

 

This didn't dawn on me until the second time I read your post. They don't sell the same profiles because they have different philosophies about what makes the best cam. Most of the Comp shelf grinds are on a 110 LSA because they are willing to give up a little idle quality for the sake of power. Crane I think uses a 114 LSA to help clean up the idle. It's all a matter of what is important to the company when they design the cam.

 

Be happy with what you got, your only going to sacrifice reliability/fuel milage if you start messing around. I have a n 84 with a 6 in it that I put a cam in it(with some mild headwork), offy c intake manifold/edelbrock 500cfm, efi exhaust ect a 1.5 years ago. I am still pissing around with it. I am doing a 5speed tranny swap(had a np 4speed). It does have allot of power though.

 

No idle problems with my 110 LSA Comp cam even idled own to 500 rpm...BUT, that is on my specific engine. Your results may be different.

 

You won't see any change on the smaller cams. The overlap is what hurts the idle quality and the 260 only has 20 degrees of overlap. Up to around 25 degrees usually doesn't hurt the idle very much, if at all. The Comp 268 has 24 degrees and is a little choppy, and the Crane Truck Power has only 19 degrees even though the duration is comparable to the Comp.

 

In answer to your questions.

I have one of these trucks. its an 88, not sure what all they changed in the five years but from my junk yard experience it wasnt very much.

My 1988 f250 LD was my first truck. Had it all through highschool and had lots of money to throw at it. In short. these efi 300's can be built to be beasts for a relatively cheap amount of money.

When i got mine the water pump, radiator and everything else was shot. the block was even cracked. Dont ask me how they managed to do that on this motor but they did. I found a junker and did a complete rebuild. Researched it alot, both on here and with alot of mechanics i know. I set it up with a comp cam, and a new factory head with slightly over sized valves, stock internals (before i even knew about high performance internals, which IMO arent neccessary on this motor anyway) a high volume oil pump and that was it. Stock exhaust manifolds going into a stock cat into a single 3" pipe, straight piped of course.

The whole rebuild only ran about three grand.

Now the truck wasnt a pavement pounder, not yet. But it did get up and go.

In interest of making this shorter here is a list of mods i did to the truck.

Upgraded to 32# fuel injectors ran off of a 302 ajustable fuel regulator

custom build a cold air intake for it using a huge canister filter from K&N

removed smog system(this is easy, just get a shorter belt and bypass the smog pump, there are a few lines you have to plug)

Ran a really good spark plug and 87 octane gas

Throttle body spacer

Installed a throttle body off a 351

After all these mods the truck, with stock internals, and the stock 3.88 gears (odd gear i know but the truck was odd in every way) this truck would run about a 14. I dont remember the actual number off the top of my head.

I was running the same tranny as you. And a hipo clutch. And i could smoke the tires into second gear (open rear end however so i should say i smoked a tire) All said and done i had about 4000 in the truck running alot of stock parts including the stock fan. All the power was in the cam, the intake work, and the fuel injectors. I still got a constant 14 MPG no matter how i drove. Just my two cents. If you want details on the cam specs or anything else just ask and i can look them up for you. Ive built lots of hipo engines including 302's 351's 390's 460's (which if you want all out rediculous power is the way to go) and ford modular engines and in my opinion there is no motor that stands up to the 300. If built right and you put enough care into it there is nothing these motors cant do.

P.S. I ended up shelling the 5 speed in that truck and never bothered to get a replacement. Other projects were more pressing. When i took it to the tranny shop they informed me the case had been warped and asked to dyno the motor so i said sure. came out to 620 torque. Dont remember the horse power.