Ford 289, 302, 351 V8 engines with carburettors.
The Ford Windsor engine really comes alive with our series of Hot Rod Cams. Windsor’s’ love to rev up quick and these cams help them bring out their real personality.
KustomBitz Hot Rod Cams will give your Ford Windsor engine that rumpity, rump, tough sounding idle that will turn heads every time you idle past them. Perfect for Falcons and Mustangs, make them real exciting to drive with little fuss and not having to rev them to valve bounce.
Our lobe profile is kind to your valve train because of it’s modest lift and duration figures. However both Stage 1 & Stage 2 cams start producing torque at 1500rpm and produce exciting torque around the 2500 - 3300rpm depending on your other engine mods.
Stage 1 cam’s torque band is strongest from 1500rpm to 4200rpm and can be used with stock stall converters for automatic transmissions.
Stage 2 cam’s torque band is strongest from 1800rpm to 4800rpm, and we recommend using 1800-2200rpm stall converter in most cases, and higher compression and free flowing headers and exhaust.
Both cams work well with a manual transmission and have reasonable vacuum to operate your power brakes [11-13 inches Hg].
Forget using the stock EFI computer, the OEM fuel delivery settings will just not cut it. You would need a programmable unit to run EFI.
These Hot Rod Cams installed in the Ford Windsor engines love a Holley 650 double pumper, if you are good at pedalling the throttle and finding the sweet spot when under acceleration then you will love it. The Holley throttle body Pro-Jection EFI works real well too, easy to tune especially for heavy full size sedans. If you are a throttle stomper and are running a stock stall converter then a 600 vac sec will not see you bog it down off the line.
Because of the Windsor’s long narrow runners they can run a fairly lopey cam and still have good manifold vacuum and are more forgiving for novice tuners, where as a Cleveland engine even with it’s 2V heads and manifold can be more work to get you carb and spark timing dialled in. So if you are running a street Windsor try and stick to the manifolds with ports that are not too big, unless you are prepared to run a stall converter.
Final drive diff ratios
As a rule of thumb if you are running 2.73:1, 2.9:1, 3.0:1 or 3.25:1 diff gears and an auto with a standard converter then go for a Stage 1 Hot Rod Cam. If you are going to run an 1800rpm hi-stall converter with the tall gears you could step up to the Stage 2 cam for an even loppier idle however in the mid range power it my feel a little sluggish if you are not in the right gear when accelerating, unless you go for the 3.25:1 diff ratio.
Stage 2 cams work real well with final drive ratios of 3.5:1 and 3.7:1 gearing and with these gears you could even get away with a stock stall torque converter if you are a good engine tuner to dial in your carby and spark timing. However an 1800-2200rpm stall converter is more forgiving to novice engine tuners and makes the car more docile at lower speeds, however stamp on the throttle and it will really light up your day.
Going any higher with a stall converter in a regular driver is a bit pointless with a stage two cam, or going lower to a 4.11:1 gears, because you will be not be operating it in its optimum rpm range, so if this is the set up you want to run then you will need one of our Street and Strip cams instead.
If you want a street screamer then you need one of our Street and Strip grinds.
