Hey fellas, nice place ya got here!

First post so go easy, plus I'm a chevy guy

My buddy has a '67 mustang and wants to "beef it up" a bit

He has a stock 302 long block with about 100K miles on it, a performer intake, pertronix ignitor ignition, 600 CFM Holley carb and that's it. Cylinders hold 150+ psi on compression test.

We were talking about new cam, headers, etc and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a new cam (the current one is of unknown origin/specs) and possibly headers. I think the cam alone will make the biggest difference.

We were looking at a 280/290 adv dur cam (214/224 @50) with .476/.490 lift on a 112 LC - should make decent vacuum and work with the stock torque converter - any advice or opinions, wouldn't mind keeping it in-the-Ford-family as long as it makes the power we are looking for

Thanks in advance

 

Well, the Ford C9OZ-6250-C was designed for your engine by the people who designed the engine. This is essentially a hydraulic version of the 289 High Performance camshaft.

Intake: open 36° BTC (actual valve movement)
open 16° ATC (taken at 0.100" tappet lift)
Intake: close 74 ABC (actual valve movement)
close 20° ABC (taken at 0.100" tappet lift)
Duration 290° (Dur@.050 218°)
Exhaust: open 84° BBC (actual valve lift)
open 32° BBC (taken at 0.100" tappet lift)
Exhaust
: close 26° ATC (actual valve lift)
close 28° BTC (taken at 0.100" tappet lift)
Duration 290° (Dur@.050 218°)
Max valve lift: 0.470"
Overlap: 62°
Street and strip use

 

Great, thanks, that's keeping it in the family all right!

So if I got this right, this is a single pattern cam with 218° dur (290° adv) & .470 lift on both int and exh; cool!

A more few questions:
1. What heads are matched with this cam or will the cam work with all builds (within reason of course)?
2. Will this cam make good vacuum?
3. I imagine there is a noticeable idle quality with this cam, how much?
4. Where to get this cam without breaking the bank?

Thanks!

 

This cam benefits from Ford's many years in racing, mostly track, rather than drag racing. This makes for a more streetable cam than a drag racing profile.

1. Ford intended them to go with stock 289/302 heads, which IMHO are crap unless you port-match the exhaust, then they "ain't" half bad, (I did this to my 289HP) and are a really inexpensive way to upgrade. Ford's ultimate upgrade, back then, was to use 351W heads, which later became the GT40 head, with slightly smaller chambers.

2. Yes.

3. Well, the 289HP likes to idle at 700rpm, so that would be a reasonable target.

4. Probably several places, I do know Glazier Nolan lists it, I have their downloaded .pdf catalog here.

One note of caution, performance is almost always hurt by the distributor, which is almost always way off on the advance curves. I have put a lot of them on the machine, and I've never seen one that was in tune. Get yours done while you are installing the cam. If you can't find a local shop, GN can do it.

 

Thank you so much for such awesome info, I really appreciate it!

In regards to idle quality, is it lumpy or noticeable when sitting in the car idling or is it smooth?

Regarding port-matching to exhaust, manifolds I am assuming? How can I id the stock 289/302 heads, what casting numbers am I looking for?

Regarding the 351W heads you mentioned, do you have part numbers or casting numbers I can use to source these and are they identical L and R or are they side-specific?

In regards to tuning the dist, what sort of an advance curve are we looking for? Total mech advance & all in by what RPM? How much vac adv? How much total timing?

Thanks!

 

In regards to idle quality, is it lumpy or noticeable when sitting in the car idling or is it smooth?
No lumps. Ford Corporate policy was engines had to idle, even if they were 427 dual-quads. Their cams tend to "come on" at about 3000 rpm.

Regarding port-matching to exhaust, manifolds I am assuming? How can I id the stock 289/302 heads, what casting numbers am I looking for?
These numbers, underneath:



Regarding the 351W heads you mentioned, do you have part numbers or casting numbers I can use to source these and are they identical L and R or are they side-specific?
Ford heads work on either side. The 351W head has a large chamber, due to longer stroke. You either need pop-up pistons to maintain decent compression ratio, or a GT40 or similar later performance head. The 351W head was C9OE-A, B, D, F, J, D0OE-C, D1AE-AA, AB, and probably others. Or, as I said, you can port match your exhaust and the 289/302 head really wakes up. You can do this yourself in a couple hours.
The 351W head was C9OE-A, B, D, F, J, D0OE-C, D1AE-AA, AB, and probably others.


In regards to tuning the dist, what sort of an advance curve are we looking for? Total mech advance & all in by what RPM? How much vac adv? How much total timing?
Total advance is only a tiny part of distributor timing. The rate at which it advances, at certain rpm/vacuum checkpoints is critical. For example, I once pulled the distributor off a 67 GT350, and the total advance was perfect, but when I ran the curve, It maxed out at 800 rpm because some fool had put a pair of lightweight springs on it. Consequently, it ran like crap.

I reset it to fit this profile, and it started smoking the tires.

 

Awesome info, thanks!