That's right, after spending so much time and money looking after the "show" aspect of my car, the time has come to spend some hard earned on the "go"!! I've picked up a set of GT40P's and an explorer manifold from one of the guys on here and Mick Webb is going to install the lot with a "little" cam of his own...

Can't wait!!!

Last edited by ef302 on Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Is the cam a custom cam by Mick?

I think so... It's the same one he put in gunit18's car a few weeks back. I don't know the exact specs, but he said it's a nice mild cam that isn't too lumpy at idle but will provide plenty of extra mumbo down low expecially.

Well if you ever feel like showing the cam specs, I'd be keen as I have 4 cam profiles I am looking at right now and would love to know what his cam can do before I put my money down.

No worries, I hope I can bring it to the AFD so you can see and hear it in action. I'll make sure I get the specs.

its a crane cam. i got the specs sheet but dont know how to read the thing. numbers all over the page! Just a quicky, my computer isn't coping too well with the cam he put in. It also stalls aswell with this cam.
But mind u i also did heads, edelbrock intake and 70mm throttle. Its pinging its tits off atm which im not happy about and idle is real rough. So im going to see a bloke called Bill S in braeside to look at getting an autronic or motec or something installed, plus dyno tuning. I think he did the 351 engines for the XW/XY GT's maybe, seen him in Ford Perf mag heaps.
anywho, micks knows what he's talking about, but my car took 2 weeks to get all that done. he doesn't dyno it after works done either and is a bit expensive.

Regarding your idle. Is it not possible that your ECU is still relearning from the rebuild? Maybe it will take a little time for it to adjust for all the changes?

The dizzy has obviously been advanced to raise the idle rpm to get it to idle better. Not the right way to do it.
You need to lift the base idle a couple of hundred rpm or so, and retard the dizzy.

how do u raise base idle then? if i do that and retard dizzy, will that stop pinging?

Take it for a drive and warm it up.
Switch it off (turn the key right back to off)
disconnect the Idle speed control (isc) plug.
give the idle screw a turn clockwise or so.
start the car & let it idle for about 60 secs (to stabilise).
adjust the idle to the rpm you want (probably about 800 rpm - for a guess).
turn it off.
plug the isc back in.

start it again, and let it idle for about 60 seconds in each condition:
in neutral with all electrical loads off.
neutral with a/c on.
in drive with all electrical loads off
in drive with a/c on.
dont touch the accellerator at any time during this.

test drive the beast and see how the idle settles down after a while.

You cannot set idle that way, there is no way of raising your idle and retain a stable idle. The EEC has a pre-programed base idle of 672rpm (this cannot be changed unless you have an edit), and then adds 100-120rpm through the ISC. If the base idle exceeds the programed 672rpm by much, the EEC will try to bring idle down using timing which often results in a rolling or surging idle. For this reason it is important to set base idle properly at 672-700rpm and let the EEC control the idle properly (via the ISC not timing).

With aftermarket cams, intake and other mods I have been told that it is often best to set idle based on idle timing, adjusting idle speed until you get 12 degrees of timing (from memory), and making sure the timing is stable at idle (this basically shows that the EEC is happy with the ISC duty cylcle and isn't controlling idle with timing). I have not tried this myself but apparently it is the instructions given to ford mechanics in the US to deal with modified mustangs.

If you have idle issues and the engine pings then chances are the MAF is off causing the engine to run lean. Although idle AFR's often stay the same, the EEC works harder trying to maintain the 14.64 target AFR,a nd this seems to also cause idle surge. This can also be caused by cold O2 sensors, especially with aftermarket extractors where the 02 sensors are much further from the heads. Other than that, TPS values over 1v at idle canalso cause major problems with idle (although it does not explain pinging under load).

I have a cam with over 230deg @ 050 duration and have it hapilly idling at about 900-1000 rpm with a std computer. Did it this way.
I set my timing based on the motor just not pinging under full load using the trial and error method.

I did this for the B303 cam I had in my old motor as well.

What can I say is it worked for me.

Your never gunna get a smooth idle with a decent cam anyway. All you can do is raise it so it dont stall.

Wow! What a difference! Certainly no mistaking the presence of the cam in that idle! Talk about lumpy! General driveability is certainly improved as well, low down torque is much better and the engine now revs all the way to 5000 rpm with no hesitation whatsoever.

Some issues are still to be resolved, including the LPG tune, but I'm just stoked thast my baby is up and running again after several dramas. The heads have been completely reconditioned due to 3 inlet and 3 exhaust valves being bent (at both ends!!!).

For those that care, the cam is a Crane hydraulic roller special, known as a powermax 2020 (previously the compucam 2020). I'll bring the spec sheet to the AFD if you want the nitty gritty details.

Be very interested to read the cam specs down at Geelong. Also very keen to poke around your engine bay.

2020, thats and interesting choice. Given a little time for the EEC to learn the idle should come back to pretty much stock quality. All up its a pretty small cam but one that should have some decent improvements, especially down low and through the midrange (where it makes the most difference to street perfromance anyway).