Ford 302, 351 V8 Cleveland engines with carburettors.

The Ford Cleveland engine has a beautiful sound under acceleration with these cams, with an idle that you could listen to all day. Our series of Hot Rod Cams really wake these Cleveland engines up and make full use of the Cleveland heads.

KustomBitz Hot Rod Cams will give your Ford Clevo engine that rumpity, rump, tough sounding idle that will turn heads every time you pull into the car park or your mates driveway. Perfect for Falcons and Mustangs, makes them real exciting to drive when your gearing is right and you won’t have to rev them to valve bounce to feel the power.

Our lobe profile is kind to your valve train because of it’s modest lift and duration figures. However both Stage 1 & Stage 2 cams start producing torque at 1500rpm and produce exciting torque around the 2500 - 3300rpm depending on your other engine mods.

Stage 1 cam’s torque band is strongest from 1500rpm to 4200rpm and can be used with stock stall converters for automatic transmissions.
Stage 2 cam’s torque band is strongest from 1800rpm to 4800rpm, and we recommend using 1800-2200rpm stall converter in most cases, and higher compression and free flowing headers and exhaust.

Both cams work well with a manual transmission and have reasonable vacuum to operate your power brakes, [9-11 inches Hg on 2V head engine]

These Hot Rod Cams installed in the Ford Cleveland engines love a Holley 650 double pumper, if you are good at pedalling the throttle and finding the sweet spot when under acceleration then you will love it. However because the clevo has relatively large ports and runners for it’s cubic inch capacity you will need to spend time dialling your carbie accelerator pump shot and carb spacer, especially on the 302. If you are a throttle stomper and are running a stock stall converter then a 600 vac sec will not see you bog it down off the line.

A Cleveland engine even with it’s 2V heads will require you to pay some attention to gear shift points to make the engine work real nice. Luckily the C4 and C10 auto’s can be fitted with an adjustable vacuum modulator so you can dial in your shift points, both up and down. Once you get the shift points right with a clevo engine you are in for some fun with our Hot Rod Cam.

Final drive diff ratios
As a rule of thumb if you are running 2.73:1, 2.9:1, 3.0:1 or 3.25:1 diff gears and an auto with a standard converter then go for a Stage 1 Hot Rod Cam. If you are going to run an 1800rpm hi-stall converter with the tall gears you could step up to the Stage 2 cam for an even loppier idle however in the mid range power it my feel a little sluggish with the 302ci engine if you are not in the right gear when accelerating, unless you go for the 3.25:1 diff ratio. The 351 is a little more forgiving because of those extra 50 cubic inches and your diff ratio become less important.

Stage 2 cams work real well with final drive ratios of 3.5:1 and 3.7:1 gearing and with these gears you could even get away with a stock stall torque converter in a 302 if you are a good engine tuner to dial in your carbie and spark timing. However an 1800-2200rpm stall converter is more forgiving to novice engine tuners and makes the car more docile at lower speeds, however stamp on the throttle and it will really light up your day. An absolute tyre fryer with low gears and a stally converter behind a 351 cubic inch engine.

Going any higher with a stall converter in a regular driver is a bit pointless with a stage two cam, or going lower to a 4.11:1 gears, because you will be not be operating it in its optimum rpm range, so if this is the set up you want to run then you will need one of our Street and Strip cams instead.

If you want a street screamer then you need one of our Street and Strip grinds.