460 Windsor or move to a big block

[Three Peaks]

I have a 392 stroker on a stock 74 Windsor block and a Comp Cams XE 294 cam. 35-254-4 - Xtreme Energy

From the person I bought the cam from he had it in just about an identical engine set up as mine and had it dynoed at around 515 hp. I just finished the car a couple months ago and it is a beast to drive, but it also doesn't like to drive much below about 1800 rpm. I have 3.27 rear gears and it is pretty slow to get going in 1st gear sometimes unless I lay into it, then it is crazy. I will be considering changing out to 3.55 or 3.73 gears one of these days but I can live with it at the moment as I can break the rears loose in 4th gear without trying too hard. I'm sure it helps my car only weighs about 2,000 lbs.

If it were me, I would change out the cam to something with a better low end and mid range and change the rear gears to around 3.73 or so. It will feel like a completely different car. I don't think I would worry too much about the exhaust. I run 1 7/8" headers and it sounds and runs great after warming up- don't have a choke on my Holley 750 dp.
A few suspension tweeks may also make the car a bit more enjoyable to drive but I would try the cam/rear gears first and see where you end up. You can just about guarantee Brent can help you out with some solid advice when the time comes. I've always been impressed by his no-nonsense approach to engine building and customer service.

Bob

[Ace23]

Originally Posted by brainsboy

Having just built a 460 Windsor, I can tell you its not a saving money idea, even if you already have heads. Its just one of those things that's its easier said than done. There are a lot of issues and problems that most people don't realize and they all cost boat loads of money to address. Very few people have even posted on some of these problems so let me give an example, first is that when you put a 4.250 stroke into a Windsor your rods are going to hit the cam lobes. This means you will never be able to run a typical off the shelf camshaft in your motor. If your building a chevy, this is not a problem because chevys always have this problem, so every cam company carries cam cores with smaller diameters. Fords however never have this type of issue, this is important because for this reason no one carries smaller diameter cam cores for the ford small blocks. This now means your only choice is to have a billet cam cut from a solid chunk of steel. Don't confuse this with having a custom cam cut from a core, your now getting a billet custom cam. Lets say you throw down 800$ plus, on a nice new billet cam, which will be around a .300" smaller diameter than stock ford cams just to start with. Life is great now, but you now have an interference motor between the cam and rods, this is because a ford stock cam is somewhere around 1.4" diameter, so now your going to end up with a billet custom ground cam say around a max of 1.100", this is just enough to clear lobes against the rods, this means you have interference points when the motor is not in perfect timing. If you jump a tooth or break a timing chain then your also breaking internal engine parts, rods, cam, block. Also how much smaller of a cam do you need to clear rods? 1.100"? 1.000" .900" How do you tell what you need?, how small can you go without cam deflection? Are you thinking about smaller rods yet? How much smaller than 2.1" chevy journals are you going to run? How much smaller on a crank journals can you grind before heat treating is gone? Do you get a billet crank with Honda journals? Are the Honda rods strong enough? Don't expect the cam company tell you what you need, or expect a refund when the new billet cam still doesn't clear. Im not saying all this cant be done, and Im not trying to say don't do it, I just want to get you to think about the problems and time that is spent on this type of project. The list go's on for other problems. You can have a builder do all the work for you, but these problems are still there, you just wont be the one choosing how to address the problems, in some cases you wont even be told about them until you go to change cams and the motor wont turn over. Just something to think about

Well that sounds like a can of worms so I have to ask.....is this what you found out during your 460 build or did you go into knowing all of this? I've only spoken to 2 builders about SBF 460 using my existing Dart block but I didn't get the feeling they were swayed in another direction. I had to come back and edit this to say I forgot to tell you congrats on such a sweet looking motor as I noticed all the CHI product. What is this going in and what type of power did you make. Tell us more about your build.

Originally Posted by Pman1961

I agree with bainsboy comments as I have experienced the same issues in a 434 sbc.

A lower gear if you like your existing engine combo or the proposed cam change with the current gearing. Either way would be a noticeable improvement. Ahhh....decisions

We will soon found out between my 60 hour weeks and your side jobs!

Originally Posted by Three Peaks

I have a 392 stroker on a stock 74 Windsor block and a Comp Cams XE 294 cam. 35-254-4 - Xtreme Energy

From the person I bought the cam from he had it in just about an identical engine set up as mine and had it dynoed at around 515 hp. I just finished the car a couple months ago and it is a beast to drive, but it also doesn't like to drive much below about 1800 rpm. I have 3.27 rear gears and it is pretty slow to get going in 1st gear sometimes unless I lay into it, then it is crazy. I will be considering changing out to 3.55 or 3.73 gears one of these days but I can live with it at the moment as I can break the rears loose in 4th gear without trying too hard. I'm sure it helps my car only weighs about 2,000 lbs.

If it were me, I would change out the cam to something with a better low end and mid range and change the rear gears to around 3.73 or so. It will feel like a completely different car. I don't think I would worry too much about the exhaust. I run 1 7/8" headers and it sounds and runs great after warming up- don't have a choke on my Holley 750 dp.
A few suspension tweeks may also make the car a bit more enjoyable to drive but I would try the cam/rear gears first and see where you end up. You can just about guarantee Brent can help you out with some solid advice when the time comes. I've always been impressed by his no-nonsense approach to engine building and customer service.

Bob

I already have the cam that Brent specified so the plan is to change it and see how it goes.....if I still want more then gears would be next on the list. I'm expect we will see positive results from the cam alone. I've looked at the gearing calculator and with my TKO-600 with the .82 5th it doesn't really give a good outcome for interstate speeds.....looks like it will keep me about 2000rpm in 5th at 50mph and close to 3000rpm for 70mph which would suck.