Budget Weber motor

[Dave]

As most of you know I have converted a stock EFI 5.0 to 44 IDF weber set up. Now I am going to pull this motor and rebuild it while the car is at the painters.
I have a few questions i hope you can help me with.

1- What spark plugs should I be running?

2- I am hoping to fit this Comp cams... Dur @050 Lift w/1.6:1 Lobe Sep
31-490-8 272EHR15.... 216 218.... 0.566 0.555 115°
Apart from piston valve clearences is there any issues with fitting this cam to a EFI 5.0 block? eg timing gears/lifters/dissy gear

3- Heads- What is the cheapest alloy/steel heads that I can get that will work well with webers?

4- What other parts should I be looking at? This engine is just a street engine and more show than go, I'm happy with the 6000rpm the motor is pulling at the moment so just want to freshen the motor up.

 

[Randy V]

Dave -

Your distributor gear should be steel or bronze (steel preferred) which is what should be in there right now if you have a factory roller cam.

These are the heads I have on my engine; Dart PRO1

Dart 13211113 - Dart Pro 1 Aluminum Cylinder Heads - summitracing.com

But these heads - AFR165 / 60cc might be a better choice for the smaller displacement you have;

Airflow Research 1472 - AFR 165cc SBF Outlaw Street Heads - summitracing.com

There are some guys that are re-working E7TE Cast iron heads and getting some really good flow numbers, but you need to keep your compression at 9.5:1 or less and still run 92 octane fuel.

With the higher lift cam you are choosing, you'll need a new set of rocker arms. I'd recommend Comp Cam steel rockers. I prefer the 7/16" studs in the heads and matching rockers.

You'll need a really good set of pushrods that are matched to your heads / valve train.

It's not going to be cheap - but then a reliable well performing engine is not going to be cheap.. You already took your first step with the Webers.

 

[Rick]

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[Maurice Butler]

4- What other parts should I be looking at? This engine is just a street engine and more show than go, I'm happy with the 6000rpm the motor is pulling at the moment so just want to freshen the motor up.

Balance the motor and clutch, cc the combustion chambers and pistons, deck the block so the distance from the centre line of the crank to the deck is identical.

This will make the engine run a lot smoother at high rpm :shy: - surprising how rough factory balancing jobs are:cry:.

 

[Jim Nielsen]

Dave,
I would contact the cam maker and tell them what you have weber wise and tell them what you want to do with the engine.

Jim

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Comp Cams now own Inglese, one of the established Weber dealers. They should be able to give you some good ideas about which cam to use with Webers.

 

[Randy V]

Comp Cams now own Inglese, one of the established Weber dealers. They should be able to give you some good ideas about which cam to use with Webers.

That's one of the two cam specs that Inglese/Comp Cams makes specifically for Webers that Dave listed..

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

My take on this is that cam builders tend to have funny ideas about what is driveable on the street and what isn't....engine builders have similar funny ideas. Also, a lot of cams which are supposed to have decent low-end torque and pull smoothly from around 1200 rpm up in fact do not. They have little or no usable power below 2000 revs. I would use the milder of the two cams that Comp recommends for Webers.

My 302 was dynoed with a Comp Cams Xtreme energy 274. We are already anticipating having to remove it once the GT40 is running and substitute something of theirs that is milder, with less overlap and duration. I've been through this in my 289 Cobra. Start with a milder cam and get the engine sorted out, especially considering that Webers require a bit more care and feeding than a single-four-barrel setup.

By the way, someone on this forum suggested the Tomlinson book on Webers. If you are going to run Webers, get this book. It is different and better than the Braden book, I think. It is available from Pelican Parts. About 25 bucks with shipping and took a week. The man who wrote it built and tuned motors for CB Performance for years. I had a Beck Spyder with a CB engine in it and it was like sitting on a volcano when you hit the throttle. Those guys know their stuff on Webers and Dellortos.