How big of a cam can i go with stock pistons???

mustangman70

Founding Member
Dec 30, 2001
1,235
1
0
St pete, Florida
I want to add a cam, if it matters i will be spraying a 100 shot on the car, so will i need any special "nitrous" cam or anything? The nitrous will only be used like 2-4 times a month tops, but here is where my question is......If i have stock internals, what are stock pistons like, as in they are dished right??? Ive heard that you can run a decant cam with dished pistons :shrug:

Im not sure exactly what pistons are in there, but the block is out of a 66 mustang, its a 302, and i giuess what im getting at is....whats about the biggest cam i can use without having to notch the pistons :nice: :shrug:
 
  • Sponsors (?)


If its a 302 then it is not original with the 66. The 302 wasn't produced until 68. Check the numbers on the block to get the build date. I not a NOS pro or really know anything, but from what I've read, it would be a good idea to match the pistons with NOS
 
See my screen name :rlaugh: I ran a 125 shot on my car for years,all it had was "stock" TRW cast flat top pistons,it did have small valve reliefs though.The last cam I had on it was a Edelbrock RPM cam with .490/520 lift.I did tap the valves a couple of times untill i changed the springs,the factory Edelbrocks were too weak,so you might wann go a little smaller.The diffrence between a nitrous cam and a regular cam is the N20 cam will have more durration and i think overlap to help in scavenging.I had a comp cam 270 before that worked great on the bottle. I also run a 130 shot on my 94' GMC pick up with a stock 5.7 that saw MANY bottles without a problem.
 
I have found its just the matter of trial and error...

Pam and some playdo

pam spray on the piston so the playdo does not stickand on the valves...Put a good headgasket on tq her down spin the motor around 10-20 times and see how bad the valves go into the piston's measure the distance with a dial caliper on the playdo and this should tell you how much room you have to play with !

I have seen 1.7's on a stock 302 with ease and some would hit the piston.

All depends ;)
 
The only way to know for sure is to mock it up and clay the pistons. There are too many different variables to answer this question: piston design, rebuilt rods?, head design, head and/or block machining.....