Carb and cam suggestions for 79 pace car

[hcmclean]

New to the site. I have a 79 pace car with 58000 miles that I want to do some stelth mods to. The goal is to have a strong daily driver and look more or less stock when the hood is raised. This is what I have: Ford racing X306 heads, COBRA 1.7 roller rockers, Crane cams retro roller cam HR-216/325-25-12, Summit roller lifters, Weind street fighter intake, JBA shorities, BBK X pipe, Magnaflow cat back. I was looking at the Holley 570 avenger carb. Would this carb woork well or should I go with a diffrent carb? Also, does any one have any experiance with this cam? The car alreadt has a complete Ebach suspention, BBK subframe connectors and 4 wheel disk brakes.

[Ethyl Cat]

In your opinion how does it run?
Is there anything you wish it would do that it does not now?
What rear gears?
What head gasket did you use?

In my opinion you need:

More compression
A cam designed for 1.7 rockers and a carb
A bigger and better carb
1" open spacer

Waiting to hear your answers
Steve

[kevinsranger]

talk to ethyl cat, he knows his engine combo's, im talking to him about my engine build as well.

one question, you have the crane retro cam with the smaller base circle, what lifters did you use? summit brand link bar lifters? or did you drill and tap your block for the spider tray?

[Ethyl Cat]

Hey!!! Where did you go?

I was excited about this car and you just disappeared.

Steve

[hcmclean]

I have a 308 rear gear. I have not built the engine yet and looking for advice on the cam and carb. I do have thr small circle retro cam with the summit bar lifters. What cam would you suggest? Looking for a good daily driver that is strong off the line idles well and does not fall on it's face above 4000rpm. The engine is the stock 79 unmodified PC 302 with a 2bbl carb and 4spd tranny.

[Ethyl Cat]

I would be around the same @.050" numbers as the crane 218/224 but shorter seat to seat 272/280 and would reverse the lifts basically .544/.510. That would be the largest I would recommend.

These are numbers with 1.7 rockers . The lift with your rockers and the Crane will be .552/.575 way too much.

Also I would tighten up the LSA to about 110 and install at 104-106 instead of the Cranes 112 lsa and 107 ICL.

The footnotes in the Crane catalog say that your cam is a standard base circle. You do not need small base cams with tie bar lifters that I have seen.

The real issue you are going to have is compression. Those heads on your engine with a standard gasket is not even 8.5:1. Not even in the range that Crane suggests for that cam.

That is bad news when adding a heat sucking aluminum head with runners that are nearly 30% larger in volume than the ones you are taking off.

To run the way you want the heads are going to have to be cut to at least 58cc and you will have to run the thinnest head gasket you can find, maybe even a head saver shim at .018" thick. That should get you to about 9.5:1

If you do not take measures to increase compression, my cam suggestion is void.

I would look into a 650 Quick fuel on and RPM or STEALTH intake

[hcmclean]

So, what cam and carb would you sugest? Also, what would be a better head to use.

[Ethyl Cat]

I did suggest a cam, one of my specs.

I suggested a Quick Fuel 650 carb, but a Holley would work as well.

The best small runner head out there is the AFR 165. You can get it in a 58cc version.

You have a PM