Motor is a Dart IE 347 (4.030 bore 3.4 stroke) AFR 205s, 9.3:1 compression, Victor Jr intake (fuel injected), custom hyd roller, PT76-GTS with .96 AR turbine housing, built AOD, 3500 stall non locking, 3.73 gears and 28" tires in a 4200# T-Bird SC. 90% street driven. Would like it to run high 9s and currently stuck at a traction limited 10.04 @ 139.

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Last time racing the car it looks like an intake valve spring dampner broke that resulted in an intake valve hitting piston and the valve head broke off and did a bunch of damage to the #4 cylinder and head. I've been revving it to 6800-6900 rpm for several years and I'm told those springs on the AFRs were probably only good for about 6300 and that is likely what caused the failure.

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Getting ready to do a full rebuild and wondering if I should look at a cam change at the same time. This is the current cam, which actually has very good street manners and spools the turbo pretty quick, but looks a little on the wimpy side compared to what most guys around here are using. It was speced by Isky for CHP when the motor was originally built back in 2004. Using 1.6 stud mounted rockers and Crane link bar hyd lifters.

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I would like to be able to rev to 7000 rpm without breaking anything. I've been told by a few people that switching to a solid roller cam would be the best way to accomplish this, but I see where some of the guys here are spinning hyd rollers to 7300, so not really sure what is really needed.

Here is a chart from the last time it was on the dyno with c16 and 22.7 pounds of boost.

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Car is already making more power than I can get to the track with stock suspension and IRS, so I'm mainly looking for dependability, but since I'm spending all this money fixing it more power or higher rpms would be a nice bonus. Guy building the motor will be using a new bare set of AFR 205 and using better valves and springs, so I need to decide if a cam change is happening or not.

Do you guys think a solid roller is a good move for a car like this or would I be better off sticking with what I've got or getting another hydraulic roller ?

David

 

Dave did you give up on the 3.8 stuff? What are your 60' with the irs and how does it react?

 

My .02 worth of advice: keep the cam and change your rearend gears. Cheers.

 

Check out the Hydra-Rev kit,

 

No I'm still very deep into the supercharged v6 stuff and real happy with my 91 Super Coupe. Makes right at 500 rwhp through a non locking AOD and runs high 10s with nothing more than a set of slicks bolted on. I'll be bringing it on the Hot Rod Power Tour this summer with 5 or 6 other guys who are also bringing their v6 Super Coupes.

60ft times in this car are usually around 1.65-1.62 launching off the trans brake with 6-9 pounds of boost. Can't seem to keep the rear end planted and as soon as some weight comes off the rear end, the tires start spinning. Since it was built mainly for personal amusement on the street, I haven't gotten very serious about suspension changes or other stuff that would improve track performance. I only take it to the track about once or twice a year, just to see for myself how fast it really is. The original goal for this car was high 10s on pump gas and low 10s on race gas with higher boost. Reached that in 2011 and now I've decided the car has a 9.8 in it if I can get a clean launch, so that's the new goal. Since it doesn't have a cage, I don't get much opportunity to race it. That's probably a good thing because I'm sure I'd be breaking a lot more stuff if I raced it more often.

Here's picture of how it looks launching.

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Here is an in car video of the pass I made this past November just prior to the pass where the valve broke. Had a 20 mph head wind, tires spun pretty bad the first 100 ft and I short shifted, resulting in a 10.06 @ 139

&list=PL8034FF2A9C6D2111&feature=share&index=21[/URL]

David

 

I'm using the 3.73s to get this heavy azz car rolling a little easier, but since I switched from a 2800 to a 3500 rpm converter, I could probably swap to 3.55s which would also help to keep the rpms a little lower.

David

 

I see that AFR makes a Hydra-Rev kit, but they don't list anything for Ford engines. Do you know of a kit that is compatible with a Dart iron eagle 8.2 deck block and Crane link bar lifters ?

David

 

No, my machinist told me abut them a while back when I was setting up the hyd. roller in my S10 motor, it was too much $$ for my purposes and my budget though. I remember way back in the day, it was pretty common for solid rollers to have a "rev kit" that was similar.

 

Dave that car is super cool looking and clean! I would just put a good spring it and not worry about it. I think the rev kit is more of an old school chevy thing and with the springs out today it's not used anymore.

I am still debating building a blow through carbed 3.8 yet.

 

Dave, your cam isn't much smaller than what I have in my 408, stay hydraulic roller, make sure you get the correct springs is all. We cross the line at 7220 with mine. I recommend the comp short travel race lifters, set them to comps specs, and have a blast.

Anthony

 

The Hydra Rev kit is new, it's specifically for hydraulic rollers, and the data I read suggests it's worth a LOT of extra rpm and horsepower, if they make them for your motor combo.

 

Thanks to everyone for the input. I've decided to keep the existing hyd roller cam and use better springs (beehive style), higher quality valves and lightweight retainers. Will also be checking out those Comp short travel race lifters.

David

 

Guy repairing/upgrading the motor and Comp Cams thinks I would be better off with a custom grind single pattern hyd roller 228/228 .574/.574 116 degree lobe center. Will be using upgraded Manely severe duty stainless valves, Comp conical springs and Comp 1.6 Ultra Pro Magnum XD rockers with a new set of AFR 205s. Should be a lot better than the sub par valve train parts I was using and will easily handle 6800 rpm, which I will likely stretch to 7000.

David

 

There are some guys going super fast on today's hydraulic lifters. I went with the comp magnum lifters in my ls motor and at arou d 750 hp it is fine so far. I did go with dual valve springs. I think you will be fine, but maybe make sure you are not getting too aggressive of a lobe. Not sure if you have heard of LilJohn motorsports, but I would recommend giving him a ring and just asking him his thoughts on the cam. Super nice guy and extremely helpful. He has speced cams for some of the fastest cars around.

 

Decided to go with the new more aggressive hyd roller cam mentioned a couple post up. Motor is ready to be assembled and will be picked up later this month. Guy doing the work is the same one who builds most of the fastest v6 motors in the country and found several issues with my old motor that will be address with this rebuild. Here is a photo album with comments on each picture.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.294477707379030.1073741880.207270676099734&type=1


David

 

First time out of the garage under it's own power since breaking the motor in November 2013. Drove it for a couple miles around the neighborhood and everything seems fine. Throttle response feels real snappy and I had a hard time keeping it out of boost. Now I need to charge up the laptop and see if I can remember how to data log it to make sure tune is still good.

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David

 

good to see it back out .

 

I see you are concerned with getting the car out of the hole, thus the 3.73 rear gears. What I did to help my car get out was to use the 4R70W gear set in the AOD(E) this will give you a 2.84 first gear instead of the 2.48.

 

I considered doing the wide ratio gear set when I last repaired the transmission, but thought it might not put enough load on the motor. It would be like having 4.30 rear gears in 1st. The last couple years I raced it I had issues with losing traction right after launching. While it's been up on jack stands I discovered the slicks were hitting the rear fender lips and I think that was causing it to unload and start spinning the tires. Bought an Eastwood fender roller to fix that, but I decided to sell the car a few weeks ago to a guy who lives in south TX that is in my Thunderbird car club. So all I'll be doing before it's delivered is making sure the new motor and tune are both solid.

David