50Stocker

I read that article(http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0307_ford_302_v8_engine_buildup/index.html)
someone posted the link off this discussion, https://mustangforums.com/m_4296451/tm.htm.

The article was very impressive. But they went with a carb and obviously an intake that we can't use. Any one running just the heads and rockers on EFI with a stock cam? What intake manifold do you guys think would match up best with this?
I'd be really nice to spend $1,400 on the heads, change out the rockers and put a new intake on and forget about idle issues and headaches that may come up with switching the cam. But then again with EFI set-up you would be changing your injectors, throttle body, egr spacer as well assuming it is pretty much all stock like my '93 GT is right now, so gains wouldn't be nearly impressive and the car wouldn't run right if I didn't. I just got a little caught up in how much easier/cheaper it is for carbs! [:@]

I know rockers avg around $200, but I have seen comp cams has some for around $400, anyone know how much the ones in the article went for? Thanks.

tinman

I'm thinking those rockers are close to $300.......

r.barn

You have to take that CarTech artcl with a HUGE grain of salt.
Those are engine dyno numbers on a fresh engine. Have to look at them as
best perforamnce "Lab Numbers". Unfortunately we dont drive the engine
dyno down the road. We drive a car.
Installing an engine into a hot engine bay, with accessory drive and full exhaust
makes a HUGE difference.

My car made 265rwhp with AFR 165's, stock cam, 1.7RR's and BBK intake and stock 100k short block
Still needed a tune to maximize performance.

After having it tuned and going thru all the work of swapping heads
I found myself wishing I had gone ahead and done the cam too.

50Stocker

r.barn: Thanks for the response. I am just getting a little sick of magazine articles, it's good to hear from people who have actually done that on an EFI set-up. The numbers looks great, but for the money, I think in the future I am going to go with something with more bang for the buck like the Trick Flow Top end kit. With the rockers and cam all included etc. That is far away though.

$1,400is reallygood moneyfor a set of heads, but that's what you get paid for being on top. AFR's are the A-Rods of Ford heads! hahaha

67mustang302

My guess is when they dyno'd that engine it had an electric water pump, electric fuel pump, external electrical source etc. No accessory loss at all, which when you add power steering, an alt and a water pump can be pretty significant. A real world setup like that as it would be in a car that you drive,with accessories and full exhaust is more like 325-350hp give or take. Still though, that's pretty decent for a stock cam.

Very rarely is there a truely unbiased magazine article like that, and there's really know way for use to be certain as to whether it's honest or not. The other thing to consider is that too many people get hung up on peak dyno numbers. There's a lot more to performance than just peak numbers, you need to look at averge power numbers across the rpm range you operate in, not just the peak. An engine with less peak power than another may be more powerful simply by virtue of a stronger powerband, and having more average power, but not necessarily the highest peak power.