my77stang

It's time to do a roller swap in my 289 (yes the rotating assembly is in a 5.0 roller block) I'd like to use the springs I currently have on the heads to save a little cash. They can safely handle .525 lift and have 120 lbs of seat pressure.

Motor is about 9-9.5:1 compression .030 289, ported 69 351w heads, ported Performer RPM intake, tricked out Holley 600, Hedman longtube headers, MSD 6AL, etc etc etc

Looking at the roller grinds it seems like it's hard to find a cam with any sort of long duration without going huge on the lift. The flat tappet cam coming out is a 300/300 .500/.500 and it snaps to the 7000 rpm redline with a quickness. I want to keep that high revving power yet the roller grinds I'm seeing that closely match the old cams specs are saying 2000-5500, cept for the lunati which says 2000-6000.

I've found 3 cams so far, Specs are as follows...

Ford Racing F303 : 288/288 adv, 226/226 @ .050, .512/.512 lift
TrickFlow Stage 1: 283/291 adv, 221/225 @ .050, .499/.510 lift
Lunati 51014LUN : 284/292 adv, 218/226 @ .050, .500/.510 lift

Obviously a dual pattern cam should be better, which makes me lean towards the Trick Flow or Lunati grind - but on the other hand the F cam is a *tad* bigger and may help it rev high.

If anyone has experience with either of these please speak up, or if you know of another grind from comp/crane/crower that stays fairly close to these specs but will perform better please speak up.

sn95_331_GT_ yellow

those numbers you are quoting are advertised duration...

look at the specs at .050", im willing to bet the hyd flat cam is at least 20-30* larger than the rollers you quoted...

honestly, you need at least a TF 3 cam, or some other VERY aggressive hyd roller to match that hyd flat cam...

custom grind would be the way to go IMO...

and going big on the lift isnt really a big issue, it just means the heads will make more power...

BTW, the difference in the 2 cams power (hyd roller vs hyd flat) is because flat cams have MUCH more aggressive ramp rates than a roller, to make of for its (noticeable) power deficit...

hyd flat < hyd roller < solid roller

mjr46

get a custom one made, but then again, you'd need to swap out springs and so forth, I had that ole crane fireball cam in my 66 and it was nice, honestly a cam swap to roller won't net you much gain in this case, I'd opt for different heads

my77stang

New heads are out of the question due to financial restraints (or they woulda been on the motor from the get go LOL). To be honest I'm looking at used rollers since they don't wear like a flat tappet and would really like to use the springs I have at the moment because I simply do not have the cash to fork out for any more sh*t than needed.

Knowing the lift ceiling I can run, are there any specific grinds that anyone can recommend which I'm overlooking?

Btw, wassssup mjr46!

mjr46

not much^^^^^ how you been??? my 66 is long gone, sold it last year and bought a 89 vert.........and fyi , lift springs can handle in this case means nothing, you wanna look at seat pressures and honestly 120 for a hydraulic roller is on the low side, all my set ups run nearly 140 closed seat, I 'd wait to swap stuff when you aren't financial restrained, I know it's hard to wait but truely would be best in this case, to rival the rpm potential you currently have in that crane fireball flat tappet cam, the hydraulic roller you'd have to drum up will need way more seat pressure than the current springs you have on there can handle, matching a cam to spring constraints will yield a very unhappy result, trust me

my77stang

Here's the situation... since building the 289 I've heard a slight tapping when i rev it up but it seemed to come and go. I parked the car cause I had too much stuff on my plate and it's been sitting for months and months.

So the other day I clean the carb bowls up and fire it up - let her warm up a bit and then give it a couple quick revs. All of a sudden it sounded like something let loose inside, like a rocker arm coming off or something. I pulled the valve covers and everything was adjusted properly, the sound doesn't sound like a rod knock its not that deep of a tone and it's coming from higher up in the motor. What I'm thinking is I have a sticking lifter - and if I'm going to tear down into the motor that deep I should just go ahead and throw another bump stick in there. Then again, maybe I should just grab a new set of flat tappet lifters..... Rhodes maybe? Argh I dunno