I am planning on rebuilding my '77 302. I was considering putting a mild cam in it. I want a little extra power. I am also planning on putting a edlebrock performer 302 intake manifold, and a 4 barrel cab. The question I have is will the stock rail rockers that I have on my engine be able to work with the higher lift cam? I have heard the rail rockers are dangerous with a higher than stock cam because they can hit the valve springs releasing the valves into the cylinders. Does anyone know if this is true? What rocker arms are generally being used on the maverick v8s that are rebuilt better than stock?
edelbrock performer cam will work Well, I too wanted a little more umph, but didn't have a lot of cash to spend. I went with the performer cam and the lift is like .48 or something under .500 I spoke to summit and to a local speed shop and both were of the opinion that I could get by w/ no modifications to heads as long as the lift was under .500. Said anything higher that that risked loosening a rocker and wreaking havoc. Anyway the durations are 204/214 and although it wasn't anything monumental it definitely woke up my stock 302 when combined with a performer intake and 4-barrel.
So any lift under .500 is okay? And you haven't seen that there was a problem with your set up? Is that the valve lift or the camshaft lift?
those are camshaft specs only These are camshaft specs I got from edelbrock. Now I don't have any problems with my setup and I've put about 2000 miles on the car since, been down the track 3 times and the rest is either traffic or highway. I do burn some oil, but I think its a stem seal problem. But as for any noise or other problems, none. Hopefully someone else can back me up, I would feel better with some reinforcement but thats my experience. jonathan
I ran an Edelbrock Performer Plus cam for about 10 years with no problems - .478 exhaust valve lift , .448 intake valve lift - using rail rockers on 351W heads.
