Rebuilding 69F 250 390 which cam should i pick?

[SoCal250]

I am having my 69 F 250 390 rebuilt at a shop I still have time to decide if I want to upgrade the cam , How do I plan on using the truck ? puller ? Hot Rod ? daily driver ? I liked the truck so I bought it I wanted a f 250 pre smog vechicle I did not drive it for more than a few hours before some serious issues went wrong so I am not sure how it was completely stock I got a bad deal but now I'm stuck with it so motor is out trans is out and both are being rebuilt I do not have a boat or a camper yet and I realize today to daily drive around in a 10-15 MPG vechicle well that's another story but I wanted to know if a cam up grade would benefit me it will be a fun truck period a loud blast from the past weekend beach mini bike in the back sit in the bed and enjoy all the money I spent on it, will I haul heavy ? maybe down the road but its going to be a daily hear the roar of the big block deal .
I don't want to go too wild I dropped too much on it all ready I have a rebuilt 7448 C 350 CFM holley 2bbl in a box I thought about adding some headers
maybe going edelbrock RPM intake and 600 CFM holley but have not decided is there a cam that is a step above the stock one that would work well with the 350CFM holley and cast 2bbl intake ?and if I later decided to go with the RPM 600 cfm later and another 500 bills would still work well with the same cam ? RV ? any part numbers experience of your own here would be great there are so many variations of cams I don't know were to begin thanks ...

[Ranchero50]

Compression is the most important part of a cam decision. Need to know the static comp before giving decent advice.

[SoCal250]

thanks for the reply: its pretty much a stock 69 FE 390 it had a 2bbl cast iron intake and someone put a Holly 4412S 500 CFM carb on it and a big alum spacer underneath from the looks of the valves I can tell it was running like crap with that carb .... I am going to put some headers on it regardless if I use the holly7448 S 350CFM 2bbl I have but I am leaning toward the Edelbrock RPM 600CFM 4bbl setup that alone should increase the HP from the 255/265 to at least 280 area

[Ranchero50]

If it's truck based, the compression is going to be pretty low and give much lower results than you'll like. for the money I'd put a set of pistons in it after checking the bore. If it's pretty good and not terribly out of round, depending on the intended use / duty I might slap some same size flat tops in vs. do a full bore job. My 360 still had cross hatch marks in the bores and would have been a good candidate.

[Jacksdad]

I'll second what Ranchero said. The valve timing and overlap on most performance cams will have a tendency to bleed off what little compression pressure you already have. If it's a truck motor, it's going to be low anyway. A set of hypereutectic pistons will run you about $160 from Summit (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/uem- ... /overview/) and should get you lot closer to 9:1 CR. Thin steel shim head gaskets will help too.

[Clunker]

Yes. Putting a 4bbl on an Edelbrock intake will definitely help. If you are not familiar with "The Great FE Intake Comparo" book by Jay Brown, he dyno'd a bunch of FE intakes on several high performance engines and found that the Edelbrock RPM outperformed everything. I put an Edelbrock Performer 390 and Holley 600 on my 360 and definitely got a bump in power. I would think that a mild RV cam or similar mild cam would universally improve your 390 over the stock cam. Anything more aggressive than that depends on how you are going to use it.

[Darren]

I used an engine pro MC 1776, which is listed as an "RV type" cam in my 390. Used a stock iron 4V truck intake and a 650 Summit-sorta Autolite flat top looking carb with stock manifolds and dual exhaust (corvair "turbo" mufflers). Could not be more pleased with the combination. HOWEVER..even with a rather tall 3.0 gear ratio and a standard transmission, mileage could be better. I'm averaging about 10.5 mpg in town.

[DuckRyder]

First thing to do on an FE is exhaust, the stock exhaust manifolds are bad.

After that you need to make an honest assessment of how you will use it and build a matched combination ...

With stock compression ratio of a truck motor, anything very big cam wise is not going to be good.

We’ve discussed this quite a bit, but the Edelbrock performer (not RPM) cam, the Crane cams with part numbers ending in 901 and 941 as well as all the identical and very similar cams from other manufacturers are the kind of thing I’m thinking.

[SoCal250]

Thanks for the replys they had told me at the engine shop that they do not install the intake as a part of a long block rebuild, but since it was a ford and i ordered the comp 265 or 275 dual energy cam Good thing it came with the Springs as "kit " I went to pick the motor up and the 2Bl intake was on it !! it is more for low end and mid range driveabilty than 5,000 up type thing i just left the 2bbl on for now after the motor is broke in maybe i will swap it out for a 4bbl its a Holly 350CFM says its a performance 2BBL ? i put the alum spacer back on it as well it has midas big honkin tractor mufflers on it from the mid 70"S those babys are at least 4 feet long my budget Got in the way as it usually does so after the initial cam break in and a few trips to meet the 500 mile mark i am looking into adding headers and getting rid of the peterbuilt mufflers ...

[colnago]

I used an engine pro MC 1776, which is listed as an "RV type" cam in my 390. Used a stock iron 4V truck intake and a 650 Summit-sorta Autolite flat top looking carb with stock manifolds and dual exhaust (corvair "turbo" mufflers). Could not be more pleased with the combination. HOWEVER..even with a rather tall 3.0 gear ratio and a standard transmission, mileage could be better. I'm averaging about 10.5 mpg in town.

I also used the Engine Pro 1776 cam, and the Ford 4BBL "T" intake manifold. Edelbrock 1405 carb, stock exhaust manifolds, C6 tranny, and single exhaust. I'm setting it up for towing, not trying to be (or look) fast. I'm getting 9.5-ish MPG in-town. I think my timing is too late (backfires out of exhaust when first starting), and my vacuum is really low, so I need to tinker with the timing this coming weekend.

Joseph

[Manny]

I used an engine pro MC 1776, which is listed as an "RV type" cam in my 390. Used a stock iron 4V truck intake and a 650 Summit-sorta Autolite flat top looking carb with stock manifolds and dual exhaust (corvair "turbo" mufflers). Could not be more pleased with the combination. HOWEVER..even with a rather tall 3.0 gear ratio and a standard transmission, mileage could be better. I'm averaging about 10.5 mpg in town.

I also used the Engine Pro 1776 cam, and the Ford 4BBL "T" intake manifold. Edelbrock 1405 carb, stock exhaust manifolds, C6 tranny, and single exhaust. I'm setting it up for towing, not trying to be (or look) fast. I'm getting 9.5-ish MPG in-town. I think my timing is too late (backfires out of exhaust when first starting), and my vacuum is really low, so I need to tinker with the timing this coming weekend.

Joseph

It's the weekend you tinker with it?? As for cam intake deal a 4 bbl intake with 600 cfm will help the cam. But a 1.24 big autolite 2100 or the 350 holley 2 bbl will also give you a little bump with headers and open the exhaust. Fe factory manifolds are arguably the worst anybody ever saw in my opinion. Those mods will help your cam bring it up even more.

[colnago]

It's the weekend you tinker with it?? As for cam intake deal a 4 bbl intake with 600 cfm will help the cam. But a 1.24 big autolite 2100 or the 350 holley 2 bbl will also give you a little bump with headers and open the exhaust. Fe factory manifolds are arguably the worst anybody ever saw in my opinion. Those mods will help your cam bring it up even more.

I'm hoping to upgrade to Sanderson shorties one of these days, but I need to recover a bit financially before Mama will let me go too wild with the upgrades!

Joseph

[Mach428]

If I had to rebuild my 360, I would go with a 428 rotating assembly with new piston for a 410 displacement. I never understood why Ford didn't use existing parts to compete with Chevy's 396. With a decent cam, intake, and exhaust (I really like the factory cast iron headers) you should easily make close to 400 HP and still look stock. JMO