Cam Questions and other Upgrades

[Range98]

Hi everybody I finally got my donor vehicle and v8. I have a 1997 mercury mountaineer and I wanna dump the engine into my 1998 ranger. I have been scouring the internet for upgrades for the engine but I can't find many for my application. I'm planning on porting the heads, putting a more aggressive cam in it. I am still debating other upgrades like a throttle body spacer or larger injectors. Basically I wanna learn of a website or company that makes performance parts for my 97 302 or what you guys are running. Thanks for any info you can give.

 

[RangerSVT]

The ex v8 motors are basically 93 mustang cobra motors short of 1.7 rockets and different bump stick. The 87-93 sticks have slightly different separation and slightly longer duration. Other than that, just about any 5.0 part will work on it...

SVT

 

[Range98]

alright thanks! for the help, guess I'll have to keep searching for an engine specific cam. but that's good news then for the other mods I'm thinking of doing. Much more available then I thought they were.

 

[baddad457]

The ex v8 motors are basically 93 mustang cobra motors short of 1.7 rockets and different bump stick. The 87-93 sticks have slightly different separation and slightly longer duration. Other than that, just about any 5.0 part will work on it...

SVT

Well........ sorta.........................The 93-95 Cobra had it's own cam grind, different from both the HO cam and the Explorer's F4TE cam. The Cobra GT40 cam had a valve lift of .479 with 1.7 rockers, advertised duration was 270/270. The HO cam's lift was .445/445 (1.6 rockers) with a duration of 276/266. The F4TE cam's specs were .422/.445 and 256/266.

 

[2kxlt3.slow]

I am currently building a 302 myself for a swap, im planning on running the E303 cam available from summit, i dont think your block is a roller cam setup tho i could be wrong. so you would have to run the more expensive tiebar roller lifter to swap to a hydraulic roller cam, if wanted to run flat tapet any 302 cam will fit that motor, the only different between your block and any other 302 is well nothing, if its a windsor then you can find about anything you want for those internally, if your wanting to change things like intake like someone else said just not worth it unless you go with an intirely aftermarket intake like trickflow or somthing, and as for your heads your talking about porting them, DO YOUR RESEARCH, GT40P heads can be destroyed very easyly if your not very carefull, the intake side of those heads really dosent need help, all i did with mine was polish the combustion chambers and opened up the exhaust ports to the gaskets i will be using sense they are very restricted on the exhaust side.
Any way try summitracing for parts, or talk to a machine shop.
For the head work read up on DIYporting.com good info there

Hope thats helps you a little

 

[RangerSVT]

Every 302 block from 85ish on are roller blocks...

SVT

 

[Mac]

I am currently building a 302 myself for a swap, im planning on running the E303 cam available from summit

Be aware that in the Ford FRPP catalog, they have a disclaimer stating that the "E" cam will not work with Explorer EEC-V-EFI. A couple of Ford engineers did the late model swap using the "E" cam and Explorer ECU and had drivaility/idle problems. They got Ford to add that disclaimer. OP might have the std GT-40 heads, not the "P"s, depends on build date in '97'
Dave of the Nord

 

[RangerSVT]

I plan to run either the X or E cam in both SVT (97 explorer 5.0) and my Sport Trac (99 explorer 5.0), but I have an SCT X2 to compensate for it though...

SVT

 

[Range98]

Ok thanks for the info everybody. I'll keep researching on cams. I read that most late model efi engines don't like aggressive cams because the computer is programmed for a stock cam. I don't want to chance blowing up the engine over a cam so I will probably call a machine shop or find someone who is running my same set-up. I'm gonna start to break down the motor soon and I'll check which heads I've got.

 

[baddad457]

You're not going to blow it up over a cam change. The problem that most computers have is dealing with the increased overlap and trying to get the idle right. It may run OK, but the idle will be eff'ed up if anything. The Explorer cam has a really wide LSA, at 116* The HO cam is slightly less at 115.5*. The F cam would be the closest in the Ford Racing cams at 114*, the lift is .512, well within the capabilities of the stock valve springs.

 

[Range98]

I've got no problems putting in new rockers or valve springs if need be. I want this thing to sound nasty. I need a compatible cam with my ECU, I will also get it reprogrammed if need be.

 

[Mac]

I believe that the "F" cam with the 114 deg LSA is as low as you can go without problems. Dan (Dasfinc, member here) used to be here, did a '98' with the comp cam similar and had no problems.
Just idleing, just kind of a normal V-8 sound.

Getting on it, suppose the blower helps it sound that good.

Dave

 

[Range98]

Thanks Dave, that really sounds nice on the second vid. Do you know the exact model of the cam he used? I appreciate all the help!

 

[Mac]

Dan used the comp cam part 35-349-8, grind 264HR-14. I've got his whole build list for the swap stuck somewhere. Motor in thoses videos was a 80K mile motor/trans with just the cam change.
Dave

 

[baddad457]

I've got no problems putting in new rockers or valve springs if need be. I want this thing to sound nasty. I need a compatible cam with my ECU, I will also get it reprogrammed if need be.

Define "nasty". If you're talking about it having a lopey idle, that's not going to happen with an EFI setup. The two do not go hand in hand.You can do it with a carbed engine, but the idle speed controller on an EFI setup can't deal with it. The best it'll do is the idle will constantly move up and down by a few hundred rpms and sound like crap doing it.