Should be a nice little daily driver, just don't expect too much from it. Been there, done that with Ford production heads. I would not have used an extreme energy cam, but then if you haven't used one of them before, you would not know about their noisy characteristics. If you are in competition, then it makes sense to yank the valves open and slam them shut to get all the area under curve that you can, but with a street motor, it makes more sense to me to use a cam that's easier on the valvetrain with ramps that are a little slower. My choice for an intake manifold would have been the Edelbrock RPM, part number 7121. The high-rise, dual-plane design is the best plan for a street motor. It will make more torque and hp under curve from 1500 to 6000 than any other intake manifold you can bolt onto the motor. Use lots of air cleaner, like a 14" by 4" if you can fit it in there. Let the motor breathe the best it can. I predict that phasing the cam will be an exercise in futility.

 

Look up cam research on the web.. they are up in Colorado and do nothing but Ford cams. They will ask you a bunch o fquestions about the weight of the car, the gears, and other performance questions including the proposed use of the car and then grind a cam to suit. I use them as i feel that from the other guys I am getting a repurposed SBC cam that may not work to my liking..

Sam

 

My research brought me to this cam. I makes the power down low to fit the kind of driving I intend on doing. It's not a big lift cam at all I think the intake .46 and exhaust is .47. I am using the performer intake because that is what I got with the motor. I do plan on adding a half inch or inch four hole spacer. This is intended to be able to be a weekend cruiser and a tire smoker!! It's not gonna see the quarter mile. At best stop light to stop light. Im thinking a 60's era door door falcon will make a cool little sleeper.

I plan on running 195's or maybe if I can fit them 215's in the rear with 195's up front on 15" wheels. Im not looking to get 500hp out of the motor but I would really be happy if I can get between 300-350 ft/lb of tq out of it. Thanks Anthony

 

The heads hold you back, but given the small cam they will work OK, as Tech said, ditch the performer, go with the RPM, lose the shorties and look at the Dougs Tri-Y, for Carb I would be using a 600 minimum, likely a 650 for best results.

 

I don't think it's a bad combination of parts, should get you around 250-260 HP and 350 ft.lbs TQ. You could change some of the other stuff like cam, intake, headers as has been mentioned in other posts but I don't think those will make much difference until you buy an aftermarket head.....stock SBF heads just all suck except the GT40P's off the Explorer, and even those aren't that great.

I would be worried about the rear axle in the Falcon, hope it isn't that tiny 6-1/4"? or 6-3/4"? 4-lug model.

If you have to rebuild those E7 heads you would be better off looking at the Flowtek heads sold by Speedway Motors, a couple hundred more spent here gets you this much better flowing aluminum head, probably 50+ HP gain. Then the other parts changes would make a difference worth doing. A plus is the lighter weight on the nose of your Falcon.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Flo-Tek-203505-Small-Block-Ford-Aluminum-Cylinder-Head,46332.html

 

I am going to recommend some changes,the 289-302's are temperature sensitive the Edelbrock Performer intake needs to go, clean it up and ebay it or craigslist it so you can go this route:SBF Ford 289 302 5 0L Aluminum Intake Manifold Mustang Small Block V8 347 Dual | eBay And here is why,check out the pictures of the bottom of the intake you will notice it has front and rear water passages this promotes more even current flow,this intake is patterned after the original Weiand Stealth when Holley bought Weiand they took the cheap route with their castings Like Edelbrock(yes,that RPM too) and blocked off the rear water passages Ford Motorsports had a hydraulic cam that is no longer sold through Ford all roller these days but would work well for you it is reproduced here:http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lun-10310100lk/overview/make/ford

 

It seems that no one likes that intake. I guess I will look into changing it out. I sure wish I had seen thoughs heads before I bought my e7 heads. I have about 600 into them with the rebuild and milling and the crane rocker conversion. Probably won't be able to get my money back out of them. So i might be stuck with them.

As for the rear axle in swapping the stock 7.5 for a maverick 8" rear. And since I have swapped the front to Granada disk and 5 lug and the rear is 5 lug. So I will be good there. Going going to go through the c4 when I get it pulled. Anybody wanna buy a set of freshly rebuilt e7 heads lol. Thanks Anthony

 

Heads - GT40 P at a minimum or spend a bunch of bucks to update the E7's to a little better. When you disassemble those heads, you will probably find the guides are way beyond spec as I did years back and before decent GT's and aftermarket heads were reasonably priced. You then get into a major and expensive rebuild Performer Rpm intakes work well and as far as temps, mine never goes beyond 190 on a 90*+ day and for sure is NOT temp sensitive nor have any other SB Fords been that I've put together. I thought about changing the intake on my car but only found a single after market manufacturer that makes one in that dual plane configuration with rear water passages (and promptly forgot who:drool. I don't need that expense. A 600 cfm carb would be a better choice since E'brock doesn't make a 550 cfm in the 1400 series Performers. I'm no lover of Pertronix ignitions though others think they are just fine, s-o-o-o-o. A Ford big cap Duraspark with a box modified with a GM module or an MSD box would be my preference along with Taylor spiral wound wires as my luck with the Ford Racing pieces isn't good. If your wallet is full, then a full MSD ignition or their ready to run is sure nice. Camshafts - if you had a later block, then a Ford letter roller cam would be a nice choice. Your choice will be determined on what your intent is for the car - DD/cruiser or street and an occasional blast on a quarter mile. Hundreds if not thousands of choices.

Dave W

 

Though you may not have an overheating problem with these intakes,the "temperature sensitive" I refer to has to do with the actual temperature of the cylinders themselves by restricting the coolant passages,if all cylinders are equal in temperature they would also be equal in the amount power produced by that cylinder.As long as we are on the subject of heads someone on a budget may want to check this out:Six Budget Ford Heads That Work - Car Craft Magazine Note: that some heads have larger 2.02 valves,and most rebuilder style pistons won't clear those without some machining so keeping with a 1.90 or 1.94 valve would be a better option as far as cost.As long as we are talking cooling and aluminum parts if you want those to last please install this: JEGS Performance Products 51994, JEGS Anti-Corrosion Plug | JEGS Performance Products No doubt you have seen used intakes with corroded water passages,this is cheap preventive maintenance from electrolysis.

 

All the components I have listed are parts I currently have and most of them I am not going to be changing out. I looked into the gt40p heads and there are no headers that will fit that head and a round body falcon. The same as my choice of headers was based on what fits into my car. I will look into changing out the intake, but im happy with my other choices. I do like them trick flow heads though. And with a 58cc chamber I would be running 9.7:1 compression. That makes me think a little lol. Thanks Anthony

 

Now you guys got me thinking. And when I'm thinking its a dangerous thing lol. Can you tell me the Ford racing gt40x heads are they based off the the cast gt40 or the gt40p? It looks like with a different set of heads and a bigger carb I could pust it close to 400hp. Thanks Anthony

 

casting mis-match

Ford used to. (mabe still does) try to get too many parts out of casting dies . sometimes you will find casting flash inside the ports on the seams. I always check inside with a finger and feel the seam. then use a die gringer to smooth it out. Not try to increase port unless you know where and how the reshape. And I always check inside the carb bores for the same mismatch. The old stock 4 barrel autolite were the worse for mismatch and clreaning them up really helped

 

I think im just going to wait and watch for a good set of used trick flow heads. Then my little falcon will have all the power it will need. I think im gonna go position for the rear as well. Thanks Anthony

 

Check out the Mustang site "The Corral" there is always guys swapping around stuff to go faster and they have an active classifieds.

 

I will have to go check them out. Thanks for the tip.

 

Can someone tell me what the advantage would be to switch to the lunati cam over comp cam? Is it just better valve train life or are there other advantages as well? The reason I ask is if the lunati cam is much better I think I can switch them out and not be out anything.

I am planning on swapping out the intake as well. I have been kicking that idea around for a while any ways. Im going to match the intake to the cam. Thanks for your guys help and hopefully I can build something that is reliable and makes great power as well. Thanks Anthony

 

So I think this is going to be the final build plan. Going to use the speed pro listings with the 1.615 compression height. 60cc chamber aluminum heads. Just about any aluminum head is going to flow better than my e7 heads. A different intake like what has been suggested. And a 600cfm carb. Im going to be using Doug's tri y headers. Probably switch out to the lunati cam. So what you guys think. Does this sound like a strong but reliable motor? Will I be close to my goal of 350 ft/lb of tq? Thanks Anthony

 

I think you are on the right track, :thumbup::thumbup:when do you think you will get it done? Let us know how it works out.

 

. Yeah, looks like about 250-275 HP and 325 lb.-ft. for your original build if decent compression ratio and engine quench effect... enough to make your little Falcon scoot out good... the Performer intake and 500 CFM carb. looks like a good match for that...

 

Should be done in the next couple of months. I have to get my 250 i6 pulled before I can go any further. I need to get the tooth count on the flex plate to make sure that I have the correct one before I have the rotating assembly balanced then I will be getting it back together. I will keep you posted as it goes. Thanks Anthony

 

Ordered the flex plate and harmonic balancer today. Will be dropping the rotating assembly off at the machine shop early next week to have it balanced, and then I will start the build full on. I still need to sell my e7 heads and get the aluminum heads ordered. I will post up more as I go. Thanks Anthony

 

. Sounds like it's progressing along... will be a stronger engine than originally planned...

 

So with the better heads should I step up the cam a bit? Maybe to a cam than makes power from 1500 to 5500rpm? Or will the comp cams cam I have be fine? I still would like my power to be made on the lower end of the rpm's. Just want to make sure I get this right. And I also don't want to have to buy a fancy stall converter. Thanks Anthony

 

Anthony, it seems to me that you're just being pig-headed and don't really know what's good for you. It's just downright silly to build a nice, strong street motor and then put a tight, stock converter behind it that was meant to haul Grandma to Bingo once a week. Use a good-quality 10", 2500 stall converter that will allow you to use a moderate cam in the motor and not have to stand on the brakes at every stoplight. I would even go so far as to say that if a rodder went with some short gears in the diff and a looser converter, he might find that he had enough acceleration to satisfy himself without any work done on the motor at all.

Secondly, you don't need an XE cam. If you were driving in competition and needed another 5 horsepower to drive around a competitor and could put up with the noise of an XE cam, then fine. If this is intended to be a street motor, then ease up on the ramps and go for a cam with a Hydraulic Intensity of around 52-55. Subtract duration @0.050" from advertised duration to find H.I.

Apparently you didn't get the memo about matching the camshaft timing up with the static compression ratio. Here's a decent read.....
http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Cam_and_compression_ratio_compatibility

Now, assuming the motor will be bored +0.030", the static compression ratio with 60cc heads, an 8.205" stack of parts, an 8.200" block deck height, H120CP30 pistons and a 4.100" x 0.041" composition gasket would be 9.6:1 with a 0.036" squish. (Assuming the piston pops up 0.005" above the deck.)

I'd use a Howards retro-fit hydraulic roller part #CL221145-10S
Advertised duration 272 / 278
0.050" duration 219 / 225
Valve lift 0.544"/ 0.533"
Lobe separation angle 110
Intake centerline 106
Exhaust centerline 114
Operating range 2000-6000 Performance Street, best used with aftermarket heads. 2500+ stall, better intake/exhaust.

Dynamic compression ratio with this cam and 9.6:1 static compression ratio will the 8.417:1.

 

Read through this, think you need to take a deep breath. This is not a chassis built for a 400 horse engine. It lacks sufficinet strength and stiffness, it lacks the necessary suspension, brakes, rear axle, and wheels.

Unless you've done a lot of beefing up in these areas that is not mentioned here you're headed for a machine that is downright dangerous. Been there, done that with these early Falcons. At 200-250 horsepower it will be a handful, at 400 you'll be busting spot welds and distorting the chassis to where the thing will be nearly uncontrollable if not one toke over the line.

The original rear axle will not put up with any of this, the question has already been asked and seemingly passed over without response. So it needs to be asked again along with the full context of what your doing with the rest of the chassis. Don't let dreams of aluminum GT40 heads and bigger cams and intakes that tie the rear cooamt returns together get your eyes glazed over.

Bogie

 

I have upgraded the front suspension to a mix of 65 falcon and Ford Granada parts. All parts are new. This was done for better steering geometry and better braking. I will also be adding a 65 mustang front sway bar. I have 15x7 wheels up front with 195/60/15 tires.

The rear will have a rebuilt Ford maverick rear possibly with posi. New leaf springs and new shocks. The rear will also have 15x7 wheels with 215 tires. I will then tie it all together with sub frame connectors that are welded not only to the sub frame but also to the unibody.

And your right I don't know what's good for me when it comes to this motor this is my first build and im going it alone!! That's why I come here with stupid questions.

The heads are 58cc and by my calculation should have around 9.7:1 compression. Im using a stock undecked block so my deck should be 8.206. With the combo of parts I should have .001 of deck clearance.

Im still learning all this stuff so please bear with me. The intake will be upgraded to the one that was linked. And I changed out carbs to a 600 cfm. The headers are Doug's tri y' s. Thanks Anthony

 

If the motor is as I described in post #25, where I figured the SCR at 9.6:1 with 60cc heads, then using 58cc heads will put the SCR at 9.85:1 and make an even better match for the cam I recommended, with a DCR of 8.63:1.