Edelbrock Top End Kits

[WSM29]

So I just pulled my 302 out of my 76 tonight, I need to get the engine bay and some other things worked on so I just opted to pull the motor. While its out I plan on rebuilding it. The motor was orignally built about 5 years ago. I started with a bare block and bored it .30 over to clean it out and put in new freeze plugs, flat top pistons... Everything on the bottom end was done right. I had to get the motor running to go into an 80 f150, so with no more money, I had to put in a stock cam, resurfaced 2 barrel heads and aluminum intake I had laying around. The motor ran good, just not a lot of HP. A few months later I enlisted in the service and the motor got pulled and sat for about 4 years. About a year ago I put the motor in my bronco and it fired right up! I guess I must of have done something right when I put it together. So right now I pretty much want to do a top end rebuild. Looking at some four barrel heads, good mild/off road cam and intake. I am looking for some direction from you guys on what combos have worked well out of your broncos. I am trying to stay around the 1600-1800 dollar range for the three main components. ( heads, cam and intake) The first thing I found was the E street kit from edelbrock, ( 0-5500 RPM series) Just wasnt sure if anyone had used that kit, or had any advice about it. I am looking for a combo that isnt out of this world/ pump will have more torque and response than my setup now. I am wanting to keep things simple and stick with a flat tappet cam with hydraulic lifters. Dont feel like adjusting solid lifters all the time. Sorry for the long post. Thanks

 

[mp]

I have heard good things about the Edelbrock setups. Going to look at that route for my Dodge Dart project.

 

[jn2630]

My old bronco had ford e7te heads (ford produced) a mild cam (not sure what brand or the specs) and had the performer 289 intake and 670 cfm carburetor from edelbrock. It was great off road and a muscle car on road, lots of fun

 

[broncnaz]

The e street kit would be a decent setup. It is a hydraulic cam you rarely see solid lifter cams in kits. You may consider buying the intake seperate as many times you can get a used intake for less than $100. you will also need hardened pushrods and some rocker arms so the costs will rise above what you pay for the base kit.
Also if you dont already have them get some headers moving more air through the engine wont happen with stock exhuast manifolds to me thats the number one thing required to make any power with a SBF.

 

[WSM29]

Glad to hear that there are some good reviews on this kit. Would that cam be considered a mild type cam or more toward stock? I have headers already on the bronco but would nee the hardened pushrods and rocker arms. Does anyone have suggestions for the rocker arms for that setup? I will add the link to the kit.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-2027/

here are the cam specs
Basic Operating RPM Range Idle-5,500
Intake Duration at 050 inch Lift 204
Exhaust Duration at 050 inch Lift 214
Duration at 050 inch Lift 204 int./214 exh.
Advertised Intake Duration 270
Advertised Exhaust Duration 280
Advertised Duration 270 int./280 exh.
Intake Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio 0.448 in.
Exhaust Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio 0.472 in.
Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio 0.448 int./0.472 exh.
Lobe Separation (degrees) 112

 

[357Bronco]

My motor is an Edelbrock Power Package, and used Harland Sharp full roller rockers, and Competition Cam hardened push rods. I'm a fan of the power packages, the parts work together, and Edelbrock has good tech support. I like the idea of using the countless hours of trial and error, and dyno time they have invested. I don't own a dyno, I do have a budget, but do not have endless time to see what works and what don't.

 

[WSM29]

This is going to sound like a dumb question, because I havent installed a full roller rocker before... But can you install them on a non roller motor? Are there any adjusting to them that needs to be done? I will probably be ordering the top end kit from edelbrock here shortly. They make a hardened push rod as well. I looked into their rockers, but i dont have the $400 to spend on them...

 

[broncnaz]

The cam in the kit is what many people use in there engines here so its a well known and used cam its a mild cam. Roller rockers have nothing to do with a roller engine. roller rockers can be installed on pretty much any engine. Most aftermarket head are setup to be fully adjustable so you will have to go through a adjustment procedure to correctly set the valves.
AS for what rocker arms well there are plenty of choices personally I would stay away from the cheaper brands like proform. mainly because they are known to have cheap products that sometimes fail. I used a set of the cheaper Crane cams rockers they've held up well since 97. but there are many other options that should be fine.

 

[WSM29]

After talking with my dad last night ( pretty much dealt with SBFs all his life) he said exactly what your talking about broncnaz. The one thing he said to look for in the rocker arms was "zero lash" mean bolt them down on the stud and they are down. No adjustment. He said that Ford was always good about being zero lash on their cam/lifter and rocker arm setups. Are most all new rocker arms this way or what should I look for on this? Thanks for all the help so far. I rebuilt a few motors over the years with my father, but this is the first one on my own. I feel confident, I just want to fully understand everything before just diving into it.

 

[broncnaz]

Yes most stock ford small blocks have pretty much what are considered zero lash basically all hydraulic cams are zero lash. actually they have preload. Stock heads and rocker arms are normally just torqued down and you dont worry about it.
When you go with aftermarket heads most of them will be setup for adjustable rockers so you will have a adjustment procedure that needs to be followed. basically set to zero lash then add another 3/4 turn and your done.

 

[WSM29]

Awesome, sounds easy enough. I am assuming the adjustment procedure will come with the kit from edelbrock. Thanks again for the input Broncnaz, I am sure I will have a few more questions once the rebuild starts here in a few weeks! I have a shop down the road that has an all wheel dyno, so I will post the results of the kit once it is installed and I have my new NV3550 installed as well.

 

[broncnaz]

Adjustment procedure should be in the kit but if not most repair manuals outline the procedure plus there are numerous online articles for adjusting valves. Thats cool that you have a dyno availible dont get disappointed with the power numbers you endup with. Many people are dissapointed when they see the numbers when they thought they were building a higher hp engine. Quite a few guys thought they were going to have 400+hp and ended up with less than 300 hp.

 

[WSM29]

I am guessing at the wheel HP should be around 250 or so. I know the graph for the kit says like 320hp, but I will just go on the low end of things and if it turns out better than so be it! I need to start a build thread I guess, even though I already have alot done, the good stuff is still to come.... Just got the engine bay all cleaned up and painted with herculiner last night. Now I am ready to start the engine build.

 

[360 4V]

Edlebrock makes a quality and made in U.S.A. product. Edlebrock makes it very convenient too. You can't go wrong with Edlebrock. The issue I see is offroad tuning with the carburator. For a 289/302 Performer/RPM cylinder heads are probably perfect. Performer/RPM intakes for both EFI and carburated are great. I am not sure about their camshafts. I don't doubt the quality or reliability for a moment. For instance I have a common camshaft profile of 208/214 @ .050" which even Edlebrock sells. But Edlebrock does it with 270/280 degrees of duration seat to seat while Isky, Schneider, Comp and probably even Crower offer it with less seat to seat duration. The Isky 317252/257 for instance is 252/257 duration seat to seat and 204/210 @ .050" The Crane 2020 is just like my Schneider with 262/270 seat to seat and 208/214 @ .050". Comp has a couple fast grinds that come to mind: the 35-255-5 with a 254/258 seat to seat and 210/214 @ .050". The Comp 31-255-5 has 250/260 seat to seat and 206/212 @ .050". These are all hydraulic flat tappets. I think that Edlebrock makes a quality part but the cam manufacturers probably make valvetrain components with greater function.