New to this forum.

[mattsmaverick]

Hey Guys, my names Matt, I live in Freeport, Fl, and I'm building a Ford Maverick (early Grabber clone). My plan originally was to scrap the strait 6 and drop in a late model 302. That WAS the plan until about four months ago. I went to a local car show, and one of the entries was a 80 model Mustang with a sweet little 200 I6 under the hood. While the car itself was really nice looking it was the engine that caught my eye. It looked like a jewel under the hood. I think it was the shear simplicity that really intrigued me. Whatever it was, I wasn't the only one. People seemed to linger around this car for just a little longer than they did the V8 cars.
So now I'm hooked on ford six's. I've got 2 of them to chose from for my little Maverick project. One is a 250 that came in my 76 , the others a later model 200 out of a 81 Granada or Monarch. I've already had the 200's head machined and modified. It's had a 3 angle valve job, and been modified to accept a weber 2 barrel. I've bought the weber carb, and a 6 into 1 header for it, but I still need to order a cam kit. Can anyone recommend a good performance cam that will work well with the mods I've described? I'm hopping that I can get away with leaving the bottom end of whichever engine I go with alone. Both engines run great, with no smoke, or funny noises. I'm just looking for a little more power than stock. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I'll be sticking with the c4 automatic transmission that cam in the 76. It's just been rebuilt and I have bell housings for both motors.
Thanks,
Matt W.

 

[bmbm40]

I can't help with cam selection but if you visit the dyno section on this site you can see what others have used and their results. If you don't have the Falcon Performance Manual you should get it. One of the sections is on cams and it is a valuable book for performance mods and data.
Mavericks are a favorite of mine, they look good and are fun to drive.

 

[Gene Fiore]

Welcome to the forum! As for cam selection, look over all the info on the sponsor of this site... www.classicinlines.com
For a mild performance build I would suggest either the 264 or 264/274 hydraulic cam with a 110 lobe centerline.

 

[rbohm]

8) when selecting a cam for a particular engine build, you first want to decide what rpm range the engine will spend about 80% of its time in. for instance if you are building a street engine, the rpm range you are shooting for is the 1000-4500rpmg range. select a cam that works in that rpm range, along with other parts that complement the cam, and you will have a nice fat torque curve, and a responsive engine in that particular ranges.

the next thing you need to decide on is what static compression ratio you are going to run. lets say you are going to run a 9:1 compression ratio, so that you can run the lighter fluid we call 87 octane fuel. but you want to pump up the bottom end power a bit with the automatic. then you would want to select a cam that has slightly wider lobe separation angles than a cam that might be used with a higher compression engine. the average street cam uses a 110 degree lobe separation angle, but with slightly lower static compression and an automatic, you might go with a 112 degree cam. or if you want a higher compression ratio, say 10.5:1, and want a bit more top end, but need to bleed off cylinder pressure at the lower rpm ranges, then a cam with a 108 degree separation angle is more along the lines of what you want.

understand though that any cam selection is a trade off of low end power vs high end power, as well as what fuel grade you can use, etc.

the cam gene suggested is an excellent choice for a healthy street engine, and is a good place to start when considering your engine build.