The Procomp Experiment

[andyl]

Well, I know I'll get some bites from haters, and I know this will make me a social outcast, but ... I've decided to have a bit of an experiment with Procomp bits, lol.

My stock 1978 casting 302W has annoying non-ULP compatible iron heads, stock cast manifold, 2 Barrel Holley, mild cam and is not the most exciting drive to say the least. It is however quiet and appears sound so far, so I figure it has enough life for a simple bolt on freshen up.

I have aspirations of putting something properly lumpy in it once the wife has stopped threatening wallet revenge having just bought the cobra recently ( would love one of those all alloy 427 crate Windsors ) so in the mean time I want to take it slow and just wake up the current motor a little while I get the suspension, brakes & diff where I want them to be.

So I have succumbed to the lure of the cheap bits from Procomp for the little Windsor as not much I'd buy for this motor would end up on the final power plant anyway so I don't want to spend more than I need to. I figure it will all be in the bin after a while anyway, if I get a year or so of better performance I'll be happy.

I've checked out a lot of sites and just cant find that supposed landslide of people who have bought the more recent heads and have horror stories, there are some, but mostly old posts with more recent comments markedly better. Most of the bad feedback is from people who have *not* tried them simply saying in their opinion they are s..t, but there are people who claim to have actually run them and say while they are not of the calibre of AFR/CHI/Brodix/RHS etc, they are basically ok as a stock bolt on.

I have to confess, a big part of this is morbid curiosity at whether such cheap bits would even fit together ok as a straight bolt on. Part of it is knowing if they don't and it all falls to bits I've got a good excuse to go the full hog sooner

So I picked up what would seem to be a pretty bloody cheap Procomp package consisting of;

Procomp Alloy Heads w/ 2.055/1.60 stainless valves, bronze guides, 60cc chambers, 3 angle cut, chrome moly retainers
Procomp 4 Barrel Dual Plane Manifold
Procomp Guide Plates
Procomp Screw in studs
Procomp Roller Rockers w/ Posi Locks
Procomp Sheet metal rocker covers
ATR 5" tacho (this will go in the ute, too damn ugly for the cobra)

This lot cost $1075AUD (plus $100 post) and arrived in good condition, crazy price me thinks for all this gear if it works ok.

I'll be using a 750 vac sec 4150 holley I have (probably a bit big but with vac sec should work ok). The only other thing I'm toying with at this stage is to do something on the exhaust side. It has the std windsor log jobs so I might have a hunt for something there but very little space with the tight clearance to the footwells so there may not be a simple cheap option.

I have no idea what HP it makes now, I suspect sub 200 and I'm not expecting a miracle but it will be fun finding out if bolting a bunch of cheap stuff together makes much difference to it.

It matters not if it all goes bad, I'm treating it as a fun experiment to answer the question first hand. Anyone care to rank the chance of a good outcome ? *expects a lot of zero percent comments*, lol.

Also any actual experiences from people who have actually run this gear would be appreciated, as would be any tips on problems found along the way I should watch out for.

Cheers,

-Andy