B303 And Bbk Ssi Omfg

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Okay..I'm your huckleberry. Since when does advancing the cam and adding lift and duration increase low end torque? You are telling him to add to the problem. You have a similar combo? What a B cam? You have an Explorer intake, GT40P heads, he has a SSI intake with Edelbrock heads. :scratch: And you would replace the Edelbrocks with a set of GT40P's? Really?

Advancing the cam increases the cylinder pressure which increases the torque. It's pretty widely known and a search on Google turns up multiple results.

He can either replace the heads or replace the intake and cam to more closely match his parts up. He currently has relatively large port heads, which on a small displacement engine, tends to slow the flow down. When you slow the flow down it affects cylinder filling while kills the torque. The crappy springs on the EStreet heads restrict the RPM that the engine can turn to get into the upper RPM where power is made.
 
Not every combo can take advantage of big valved cylinder heads and you know it. AFR 165s would be much better for his intake and cam.

Alright, first off AFR 165s are a very, very different head from junkyard GT40Ps. You're flip flopping on your suggestions, and you're just gonna confuse the guy.

Let me bring a few things to light here...

First off, all this hoopla about his intake valve being too big is just bogus. The SMALLEST Twisted Wedge head you can buy (as-cast 170) has a 2.02 intake valve, and nobody believes that to be too much head for a street driven 302 in any way, shape, or form. Trick flow has sold a billion of those to happy customers with mild 302s.

Secondly, the 2.02 E-Street head is a 170cc intake port head. I don't have the port cross sectional info in front of me, but being that it is an inline valve head just like the AFR, and roughly the same port CC, I would be willing to bet it has about the same port cross sectional area. As such, airspeed is going to be pretty much exactly the same. SO you just basically recommended him to scrap his current heads, about $1000 worth, and buy a $1500 set of heads that will perform more or less the same.

His combo is really not terribly mismatched. It's really just a typical scratch built H/C/I 302, and I don't see anything about it that would make it terrible to drive on the street. I agree with you that he could benefit from 3.55s or 3.73s, but I also think that 3.55s or 3.73s should be one of the first mods ANY 5.0 Fox should get. If I were to change anything about it, it would be that dollar store camshaft he's got :p
 
I don't think it's a horrible set up, let's face it he's not gonna run 10's but that's not what he was shooting for. Keep the set up the way it's is with the 2 exceptions: get rid of the intake, spend 200 on an explorer intake (polished 1 on eBay right now) and gears (IMO 410's). The car will be fun to drive and sound good. There's room for improvement but it will come with time, $$ and experience. The intake I have heard horror stories and rarely here anything good, I have never ran one I'm just talking to what I've heard. Gd luck
 
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I'm thoroughly disappointed.

Back when I put the engine together for my car about a year ago (before I came on here and really learned what a good set up was) I was flipping through Summit pages and stumbled upon the letter cams. Me and my dad both liked the B303 because it showed it started making power at 1500 RPM. I thought "awesome, I have a daily driver and this will be a good cam for low end torque", well today I was messing around on here and someone brought up the B303. I thought I would look up the specs again for sh its and giggles since I forgot it. Well when I went to Summits website and searched B303, I learned that I either read it wrong in the Summit mag a year ago, or Summit had a typo. Because the B303's advertised power range is 3000-6000 RPM.

I also went with the BBK SSI intake. Now this I did no research on when I put it on. A guy my dad knew was selling it off his '95 Cobra (he was going back to stock with the engine) it came with 70 MM throttle body, fuel rails, and 24 lb injectors all for $400. Couldn't pass it up. Since I found out the ACTUAL power range on my cam, figured I would search how the SSI does on a dyno. Found this http://www.mustang50magazine.com/techarticles/m5lp_0505_ssi_intake_manifold_dyno_test/viewall.html

So, basically I have a cam designed for over 3000 RPM and an intake that works good on the top end too. And all this is on a street car that I had planned to be a nice daily driver with a lot of low end torque. I didn't want a top end screamer.

Anybody have an idea on what this things driving habits are gonna be when I'm driving it in town?
I'm still waiting on it to come back from the damn body shop or I'd go out and drive it to see how it's gonna do.

Drive that mother down the road for a while and see if you like it or not. There's no wizardry here (you already know this so I'm just echoing the little voice in your head that gets drowned out when it's your OWN combo that you're thinking about).

If you get to the point where you're thinking "Man... I just KNOW that this combo could be better" then go to FTI's website and fill out their cam profile worksheet. Compare what Ed sends you back with the profile on the B21.

The idea that swapping out a great set of aluminum heads for some GT40-whatevers is probably the ludicrous suggestion of the month.

I wish I could remember what magazine i saw it in, but there was an article where some folks took a stock 5.o HO and swapped larger and larger heads out on this thing with no other changes. Guess what? The continued to make greater peak numbers all the way through 220 cc heads. They later REALLY woke those combos up by adding the supporting mods. So the idea that downgrading heads to accomodate X is just silly.
 
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I don't think it's a horrible set up, let's face it he's not gonna run 10's but that's not what he was shooting for. Keep the set up the way it's is with the 2 exceptions: get rid of the intake, spend 200 on an explorer intake (polished 1 on eBay right now) and gears (IMO 410's). The car will be fun to drive and sound good. There's room for improvement but it will come with time, $$ and experience. The intake I have heard horror stories and rarely here anything good, I have never ran one I'm just talking to what I've heard. Gd luck

A good buddy of mine has the SSI on his street car and has had zero problems with it. I know some people seem to have fuel rail issues with them, but other than that it's not a terrible intake. There are better ones out there, but I don't think he needs to swap to an Explorer/GT40 at this point.

Drive that mother down the road for a while and see if you like it or not. There's no wizardry here (you already know this so I'm just echoing the little voice in your head that gets drowned out when it's your OWN combo that you're thinking about).

If you get to the point where you're thinking "Man... I just KNOW that this combo could be better" then go to FTI's website and fill out their cam profile worksheet. Compare what Ed sends you back with the profile on the B21.

The idea that swapping out a great set of aluminum heads for some GT40-whatevers is probably the ludicrous suggestion of the month.

I wish I could remember what magazine i saw it in, but there was an article where some folks took a stock 5.o HO and swapped larger and larger heads out on this thing with no other changes. Guess what? The continued to make greater peak numbers all the way through 220 cc heads. They later REALLY woke those combos up by adding the supporting mods. So the idea that downgrading heads to accomodate X is just silly.

Are you talking about this one?

http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_1101_cylinder_head_comparison_test/viewall.html

Just another piece in the puzzle that fuels my fire for using "big" heads.
 
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Alright, first off AFR 165s are a very, very different head from junkyard GT40Ps. You're flip flopping on your suggestions, and you're just gonna confuse the guy.

Let me bring a few things to light here...

First off, all this hoopla about his intake valve being too big is just bogus. The SMALLEST Twisted Wedge head you can buy (as-cast 170) has a 2.02 intake valve, and nobody believes that to be too much head for a street driven 302 in any way, shape, or form. Trick flow has sold a billion of those to happy customers with mild 302s.

Secondly, the 2.02 E-Street head is a 170cc intake port head. I don't have the port cross sectional info in front of me, but being that it is an inline valve head just like the AFR, and roughly the same port CC, I would be willing to bet it has about the same port cross sectional area. As such, airspeed is going to be pretty much exactly the same. SO you just basically recommended him to scrap his current heads, about $1000 worth, and buy a $1500 set of heads that will perform more or less the same.

The Estreet has not gotten good reviews here or anywhere else.

And I didn't recommend the TW head. I recommended the AFR 165s with the 1.90/1.60 valves. Small displacement engines need high velocity and the AFR 165s and GT40/P heads provide that.
 
So, basically I have a cam designed for over 3000 RPM and an intake that works good on the top end too. And all this is on a street car that I had planned to be a nice daily driver with a lot of low end torque. I didn't want a top end screamer.

Anybody have an idea on what this things driving habits are gonna be when I'm driving it in town?

It'll be fine and low rev torque will be better than stock. Yes there are better heads than the E-Streets, better cams than the B303, and better intakes than the BBK SSI, but the sum total will probably be better than the individual parts. With a tune it should be good for ~290rwhp which is enough to get your LX into the low/mid-12's. Should be a fun drive.
If you want t go faster, you'd be much better off spending the money on a supercharger rather than changing the HCI combo.
 
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The Estreet has not gotten good reviews here or anywhere else.

And I didn't recommend the TW head. I recommended the AFR 165s with the 1.90/1.60 valves. Small displacement engines need high velocity and the AFR 165s and GT40/P heads provide that.

I've heard the E-Street has some bad reputation for junk valve springs, beyond that, especially relating to this conversation and air flow characteristics, I haven't really heard much.

I was using the TW as an example of a head with a "too big" intake valve that is a time-proven performer on mild street driven 302s. I didn't suggest that you recommended TWs.

Once again, AFR 165s and junkyard iron GT40s are in a completely different ballpark. 165s post more than 50 CFM higher on a flow bench. I don't know why you're lumping them together.

Could you tell us what "high velocity" is? What is too low and what is too high? How is it measured on a running engine? Are displacement and valve/port size the ONLY determining factors here?

I'm not meaning to attack you here, but I think you're posting some very misleading misinformation.
 
It'll be fine and low rev torque will be better than stock. Yes there are better heads than the E-Streets, better cams than the B303, and better intakes than the BBK SSI, but the sum total will probably be better than the individual parts. With a tune it should be good for ~290rwhp which is enough to get your LX into the low/mid-12's. Should be a fun drive.
If you want t go faster, you'd be much better off spending the money on a supercharger rather than changing the HCI combo.
Thank you for the answer. And speaking of superchargers, I can get a Paxton head unit for $600 that had been rebuilt and been packaged up in a box for years. I would have to piece together the rest of it IF I even wanted more power. But I think $600 is a great deal on it. It's NICE
 
Could you tell us what "high velocity" is? What is too low and what is too high? How is it measured on a running engine? Are displacement and valve/port size the ONLY determining factors here?

I'm not meaning to attack you here, but I think you're posting some very misleading misinformation.

High and low velocity is dependant on the needs of each engine. I'll be honest and say I don't know how to measure it on a running engine. Displacement and valve/port size are not the only determining factor since the velocity changes as the air moves through the port. Reversion can also play into velocity particularly as the air slows down.
 
Well since everyone was saying I needed lower gears, gonna put 3.73's in my new rear end.
A while back we scrapped out an Explorer Sport. 8.8 out back and on the tag said 3L73 as the first four letters. It was a low mileage Explorer (junk engine and body) so they should be good. My dad will be setting it up for me since I've never done any gear swaps before. Free mods FTW!
 
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