If your in SO-Cal your in John Mummerts neck of the woods (or dirt of the desert since there's not many trees down there) It may be worthwhile to pay him a visit.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Thanks guys for all the input and thanks for puttin up with my dumb question. Now I better understand the foreign language of camshafts.

58 Ford Custom 300 - San Pedro, CA (So-Cal)

Im going to be a bit  blunt here, do you want to sound fast or be fast?

You can go faster with limited or no head work with a very mild cam.

A "Large" cam kills low end torque and horse power and moves it to a higher RPM range.

If your heads, intake , and exaust will not support the higher rpm range, you end up with a combination that has no top end or bottom end. It will be obnoxious to live with on the street. The FOM in stock form dictates the need for low speed torque. What you do to enhance performance should be keyed around this.

I once built an engine for my Starliner that a 6 cyl scrub would run away from below 3500 rpm. 3500-7000 it would pass any thing but a gas station (about 6 MPG). It was barely liveable with a 3 speed O/D and 4.11 gears.

I must be getting old but I would rather be fast than sound fast. Remember a new Mustang GT will run in the 12's off the showroom floor, and with about $3500 of improvement, push the 11 second bracket. There is no way you are going to be really fast with 60 year old technology. You can keep from being embarassingly slow.

Another reason not to use a long duration cam with the original Fordo is that the car starts off in second gear unless you drop the trans shifter to low so will have a engine labouring problem.



This is the advantage of converting to a FMX as when in "D" they start in low then shift second then high.

marv

Easy

This is the reason the large duration cams wont work well with a stock FOM. The problem with large duration cams is the idle.  With a stock converter that stalls around 1500 and a cam that has trouble idling at 800 or 900 RPM’s, everytime you put it in drive the engine will try to die. You may never get it to idle in drive.  The torque at lower RPM’s with larger duration cams is low and makes it harder to get the car moving until it reaches higher RPM’s. Thats why you need the higher stall converter. Its not that it will not work, it will be very difficult to drive the car.

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.

So, do you want the big cam sound or not? The smaller you get, the less of that you will have.


Lawrenceville, GA

Easy: I didn't select that Cam. This is just pass on info. You'l notice that John says he discourages use of anything beyond the 272 degree cam. His Ads indicate the 265 as the best choice, with Fordomatic. But best discuss it with him. One person if I recall on this site, quite some time back indicated he wasn't totally happy with the choice of the 272 degree. But that's from memory and isn't guaranteed...

Paul

Thanks Paul that's exactly what I was looking for. One question though, what's your justification for selecting the smaller cam when using the FOM?

58 Ford Custom 300 - San Pedro, CA (So-Cal)

Easy: All things being right, you should definately notice a difference in performance,with the 272 (advertised) degree Cam. Even his 265 degree Cam is a bit longer on duration & has more lift than the stock cams. Mummert is very familiar with Cam sellections for the Y-Blk. Ignore his suggestions at your peril! Personally, I'd likely go with the 265 on a Fordomatic. Note that most of the cams used in rebuilds in the past, are even milder than the 256 degree standard 1957 Cam.

Paul

Thats what John Mummert recommends, he is an engine guy so he would know.  Everyone that gave  you their ideals is trying to keep you from becoming discouraged with you project. If it is a pain to drive you won't like it. There are some forum members that have fast street cars, but it is the whole package that make them fast and still fun to drive. Too much in any one area can kill the drivability. I am with you on the intake, multiple carburetors looks really cool even if it won't preform like one of the new aluminum intakes and a single holley. One thing about you car you can upgrade the transmission any time you want without taking out the engine. While you have the engine out look for any casting numbers on the block and any tags or numbers on the transmission. If you go to www.ford-y-block.com  ,the tech area for lots of information on Y-Block. header in the works http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic59718-4-1.aspx

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.