Thread: Whats a good torque cam for a 351-W

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I have a 351-w in my 55 sunliner that the nimrod who built it put in a 302 cam and the motor does not run like it should so this winter I would like to put in a good torque cam that is correct for a 351-W,while its apart I might I also thinking about putting a better set of heads on it too.

Any of the various cams they call RV would be great. These are a step up from stock and are basically not high winders but more for street torque.

If you pick a brand you can call the cam maker and have them recommend a particular grind based on the usage, equipment, and what you expect it to do.

Don

A cam with the duration in the neighborhood of 210-220 @ .050 lift is a pretty good daily driver cam. Anything larger will lower your vacuum signal and affect idle quality.

I use 214/224 cams (dual pattern cams) in my mild build 302s and 351s. There is said to be a gain in power by using the 351W cam in 302s (using the 351W firing order of course) but I think the only real noticable gains are in the higher performance apps.

Your best gains would be switching to aftermarket heads or hogging the crap out of your stock heads and installing bigger valves. Anymore the aftermarket heads are cheaper that modifying the stockers.

Originally Posted by junkyardjeff

I have a 351-w in my 55 sunliner that the nimrod who built it put in a 302 cam and the motor does not run like it should so this winter I would like to put in a good torque cam that is correct for a 351-W,while its apart I might I also thinking about putting a better set of heads on it too.

If you'll list the pistons, SCR and heads, I'll run it through the DynoSim for you. I just did a 351W with Edelbrock E-Street heads, RPM intake, 650 carb, 1 5/8" headers, 9.3:1 SCR, CompCams 35-234-3 hydraulic flat tappet cam that made 363 hp @5000, 394 ft/lbs @2000, 430 ft/lbs @3500. Is that the kind of street torque motor you had in mind?
http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/Ca...?csid=876&sb=0

I dont know what was put in this motor except the cam has a 302 firing order,it was supposed to have 8.5 compression as I did not want to use premium and I think the heads are junk smog heads. I got it in the big garage now getting it ready for summer driving and will be doing a compression test and trying to see what heads it has,I have to run premium as with a stock duraspark distributor it will ping badly and I had to disconnect the vacumn advance or it would be worse.

Talk with Pat McCarthy he deals with Erson cams.
Erson has some real nice Torque series cams in thier line up.
Pat will steer you in the right direction.
Kurt

Also take a look at a Crower Baja Beast cam part #15935 these are torque makers! Or part # 15233 if you want something stouter.For a primarly street driven car the World Windsor Jr. $795 or the Ford Racing aluminum GT-40's are available at Summit for around $900 it would be interesting to see how they compare on the Dyno-Sim with the Edelbrock E-Streets.

Erson makes good cams. I have their Hi Flow1H (Pn E210421) .502 lift 228@.050 duration cam in my Mustang II fastback and it runs out really nice. Probably too much for your app, but a nice cam nonetheless.

I've also ran that Crower Baja Beast cam in a '69 Mustang I had. The mustang had 2.79 rear gears with an automatic and with 4 people in the car it'd still fry the 235/60-14s like no ones business. Nothing fancy about the engine, not even headers, just a .060 overbore 9:1 302 with a factory 4bbl intake, autolite carb, stock heads.

Tech inspector's got a good cam too, although I think you could go a step higher. I'd try and run the XE262 (35-238-3) cam through the computer and see what numbers it puts out.

Dano78; I ran a Sig Erson Hi flow 1H in my big block Dodge 440 for a while.
And it would break loose them big N50's and get the smoke to rollin out from under them fat rear fenders. Good Memories the guys would always know when I had arrived at work too. They said when I pulled up all the windows in the building would start ratteling.
HE! HE! HE! Yep good memories.

crower bajaq beast is the one i'd go with,used one in my 69 galaxie sportsroof,offy high rise with carterc/s afb headers and toploader 4-speed. the car had no opts on it when i bought it in 69,just a 302/3-speed manual.and i got 27 mpg on hwy.loved that car.

I drove the car to Daytona and something needs to be done and it definately has the wrong cam,going through the hills of KY and TN on I75 it would pull great if I was going over 70 and had not much power any slower. Its got a cam that wants to come on at around 2500 RPMs and it not good for a heavy car with a tall gear,its got 2.79 gears and have been watching for a center section with a set of 3.00 or 3.25s but found nothing so far and it might be cheaper to change the cam. I am planning on going back to a Y block but that might not happen untill a couple years after I round up all the parts so I need to get this motor to run better for the time being.

jeff, there is a guy locally selling World Sr heads for a 351 brand new for $500.
lemme know if ya want his number. I saw it on craigslist in Valdosta Ga.

how can a 351 even run with a 302 cam in it?

Hotrodestude; That manual 3 speed have Reverse where 1st normally is, and 1st where
2nd normally is. I had that same trany in my 67 Mustang Coupe for a while with a B&M shifter that was spring loaded to push it to the right so it would go right in to 2nd when I pushed it forward while speed shifting. I finally put in a FMX automatic after it started hanging up on the floor. That Mexican Style Boss made to much power and started twisting everything up. So I put in subframe connecters, then I ripped a chain right out of the frame and broke the motor and trany mounts. Fun, fun. And I was only running a little Erson cam called a TQ30. That car was a blast, good times for sure. Kurt

I came through there a couple times this week but I dont want to spend too much on that motor since it will be replaced with a Y block in the future,I will have to replace the cam since it will be over a year before the 292 gets built and I dont like the way the 351 runs.

Originally Posted by DeepRoots

jeff, there is a guy locally selling World Sr heads for a 351 brand new for $500.
lemme know if ya want his number. I saw it on craigslist in Valdosta Ga.

how can a 351 even run with a 302 cam in it?

I have a 351W in my Cobra. Nice and mild using a Comp XTREAM cam with Ford GTP heads, Edelbrock RPM intake & Edelbrock 750 CFM carb.

Nice mild 352 HP/ 414 Torque. Go's pretty good with a T5 and a 411 rear.

I can scan and e-mail you my Dyno sheet if you want. Just PM me with your e-mail.