Pinto Car Club of America

Noticed a few degraded lobes on the cam in my 76 wagon progect.
I can through in a ranger cam I have on the shelf but I hate putting a stock cam in the Wifes project...:)

Normaly I would put what I want in the car but this ones has a automatic and power brakes....
The new head is milled to the pads, oversized valves, 2.5 inch exhaust and a pacesetter header to breath it out..the intake side will be stockish with factory carb and aircleaner housing with a K&N filter. Most leftover parts from projects past.
I guess I'm just worried about a nice sound and drivability.
Any sujjestions from those of you running automatic trannies?

Frank

don't put much of a cam in it unless you work rith the trans too.  the stock trans' have too low a stall speed to take advantage of what the cam would have too offer.  most automatic  trans equipped cars have a tall rear end gear to boot and this could make things worse.  if you don't modify the trans/converter then you should consider changing the rear gear ratio to something along the lines of 3:55 - 3:73 or so for street driving.  what you need is torque. you need to seriously consider what type of driving the car is subjected to.

I have already planned on putting my old 3:55 in the wagoon once I get a 8 inch rearend "good call on the tall gears thanks".
I also know the tranny and stall was a limiting factor in the size of cam. "That is why I posted". But I was wanting to hear responce about the specs and results since I havent messed with this combo out side of V8's .
You have to understand my wife told me not to go Tim Allen on this engine, how can I resist a little tweek here and there.:)

Keep the info coming and I will post the changes to the PintoWorks 76 Wagon project.

Frank

The later model 80's stock  turbo cams have more lift then the roller and stock Pinto cams if you want to keep it a slapper cam.

I have seen where all Ford 2.3 cams are the same L+D. Lots of turbo people change to the R/R ones; I don't know if they would do that if the cam was "worse" for proformance. The roller part keeps it from eating the cam more than gaining HP.

Bill

I don't know if this will help or muddy the waters, but some of the cam makers used to offer a regrinding service for stock cams. If you can track one down that still offers this service THEY may very well have a suggested grind for your application.

If they still do custom grinds but don't want to make a suggestion, you might be able to still do something economical using the stock cam once you find a grind that you like, if the journals are in decent shape.

P.S. I would be VERY surprised if the OEM cam being used with an automatic transmission mated with the 2.3 was the same speification as the one used for a factory MANUAL transmission car-even in the Pintos, as the torque requirements to get efficiently rolling would be different from auto. to manual. Just about every car that I've had occasion to check specifications for over the years has used a different cam for automatic vs manual, but I've been wrong before.

This may help you with an idea of specifications and a source for a replacement cam at low cost:
http://www.performanceparts.ford.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=798