Fe E85 cam?

[fe66comet]

Hi guys new around these parts so let me introduce myself my name is Jon and I had a question for the FE guru's around here. I am running a 445 cube 390 on E85 with two 750 Edelbrock carbs converted. 2" primary headers into 3" exhaust with dumps after the H pipe. Top loader wide ratio four speed and Mcload twin disk 10" clutch.electric water pump,fans and fuel pump.I am installing a roller can so 6000 is about it for rpm. Going with a 373 gear with 26" tires. Amy camshaft recommendation would be greatly appreciated seeing how E85 is a new venture for me and acts differently than alcohol or race gas. Thanks Jon

[jayb]

Welcome to the forum.  I'm not sure there is really any fundamental difference between an E85 cam and any other cam for a naturally aspirated engines; as far as I know the difference is in the carb or EFI setup.  More information on your build would be helpful, for example what is your compression ratio (if you've already settled on that), what is your horsepower target, what heads and what are the flow numbers if you have them, etc. etc.  I assume you want to run a hydraulic roller and that is why you are limiting yourself to 6000 RPM?  Also, are you running that new Edelbrock 2X4 intake, or some other intake?

[chris_r]

Welcome Jon  I have run e85 on street, track for five years now and works great for me. As for picking a cam we need more info like jay said. But you will need alot of CR to get it to perform well. Hope we can help.

[fe66comet]

I am running Edelbrock RPM heads 2.09 /1.66 valves milled .045 with a cosmetic 4.155/.040 gaskets. That gives me 11-1 compression with a -14cc piston. Intake is the Edelbrock dual quad 7505 intake with two Rob Mix 750s. Can is a hydraulic roller from Barry @ Survival, haven't decided on the grind yet.

[fe66comet]

OH BTW I am lightening the chassis big time but keeping all steel panels. Mustang II rack and cobra brakes. Aluminum  radiator and core support. Cal tracks rear suspension with Qa1 9 way adjustable shocks all around. Fuel cell and Currie
.heavy duty rear end with 35 spline axles and Detroit locker with 370 gears. Exhaust is full length 3" with dumps in front of the rear tire and H pipe just behind the collectors.

[chris_r]

Is it a street or track car, what cc is your heads, what do your heads flow, whats your HP target? i have had  problems with Edelbrock carbs weeping fuel in to the cylinders and then into the oil when the engine is not running. So if you run a Edel. carb and e85 its a good idea to treat it like your running alcy. and put a shut off valve in your fuel line and run it out of e85 be for you shut it off. I have had three carb. shops build Edel. carbs and they all weep fuel so a inline shut off was the fix. Now the holley carbs works great no weeping on this style of carb but if e85 is going to sit in the fuel bowls very long it will need shut off valve on it to e85 will eat up fuel bowls if it sits in them for a long time. So i treat my fuel sys. like i'm running alcy.  So i run alcy safe fuel sys. tank, lines, fuel pump, accl pump and so on.

[jayb]

I am running Edelbrock RPM heads 2.09 /1.66 valves milled .045 with a cosmetic 4.155/.040 gaskets. That gives me 11-1 compression with a -14cc piston. Intake is the Edelbrock dual quad 7505 intake with two Rob Mix 750s. Can is a hydraulic roller from Barry @ Survival, haven't decided on the grind yet.

If you started with the CJ style Edelbrock heads you probably started with a 72cc chamber.  Milling the deck .045 will decrease the chamber volume by about 7cc, so you should have about 65cc.  Assuming zero deck with a 14cc dish I get 11.75:1 for static compression ratio.  Nothing wrong with that, IMO, but I wonder how you came up with 11:1?. 

A cam with 300 degrees ADVERTISED duration will give you a DCR of  8.5:1 with this combination, which is about the limit on 92 octane pump gas.  Since you will be running E85, you could reduce the duration without worrying too much about detonation; 290 adv duration will give a DCR of about 9:1, and be very livable on the street (if that's where you are going with this). 

[fe66comet]

Well I kinda started off with gas for the build so I had 9.8:1, later I decided to change to E85.so I was playing with the numbers gasket wise and settled on .032/4.155. Then plugged in my bore 4.080 and stroke 4..250.then deck height 10.17 and piston to deck .155 .then took piston top to first ring .275 and dish-14cc.and played with chamber size and came up with 11.08:1 with milling 040 and ringing for copper. The car is street / road race oriented but it will surely see the strip also.The heads are Edelbrock 60069 out of the box castings with some goodies to hold the lifters down. I am planning to clean the ports and intake up next winter but just a clean up as it will just hurt me hogging them out.Intake I needs immediate attention kinda like some women I know. Looks great on the outside, inside ugly as sin.I really appreciate you helping me out on this one, my FE engine building skills are kinda weak as I have always run small block fords and chevys. Thanks ......Jon

[fe66comet]

Was kids thinking my powerband would be 2000 to 4500 or something like that and peak torque about 3500?

[jayb]

Your cam selection will have a bigger effect on the powerband of the engine than anything else.  Have you figured out what cam you want to run?

[fe66comet]

Well I am messing with unfamiliar ground I can't go over 6000 due to a roller cam. Ii really have no experience with building an fe 351 yes but no mods to FE engines just a whole lot of truck engines. My valve lift I was thinking 585 intake / 590 exhaust @ 10 deg.

[fe66comet]

I decided to install a fuel shut off solenoid valve like a diesel would have on the fuel log. It is 1/2 inch so should flow fine. I already have got PTFE lines for all the fuel system and a plastic cell. The pump and regulator are Aeromotive alky stuff so that should be OK. I never even thought of the bleed down, I only see that on tractors LOL. Great tip though and I do not want to waist the oil at almost 7 dollars a quart.