89 towncar lopo mods

[ADOR]

I have a 1989 lincoln town car lopo engine in a project of mine. It has had a few mods done to it so far.

Long block is stock towncar lopo
1985 mustang roller cam dura spark 2 distributor)
MSD 6A box
Speedway headers with 2.5" dual exhaust going into magnaflow stainless mufflers(no H pipe yet, but it's coming)
670 cfm holley projection/ holley blue pump
Edelbrock 289 streetmaster intake. (single plane intake, high rise, made during the gas crunch in the 70's to improve MPG it won't fit under several stock hoods. They were going for long runner for a dense intake charge. The inside ports are smaller for better throttle response and torque, intake supposedly is out of steam by 4500 rpm so in a way it "matches" the lopo cam and E6 heads)

I have the engine running, and it runs good but I will be stepping it up later on. I will drive in on the street first to get a feel for it before I do go though with any parts swapping. I thought I had a HO cam put up but once I finally put calipers on it years later to make sure that was what it was it turned out to be a LOPO cam. I got a explorer camshaft from a 96 model in the junk yard to swap later on.

Who else has run a explorer cam on E6 heads? How did you like that combo?

My E6's are currently un-ported but I will either pull them and port them or swap them for a set of ported 1966 289 heads I have(54 cc stock valves but slight undercut and 1.6 RR)
(other parts in my stash are a set of crane cobra 1.7rr and GT40 3 bar heads(but will need to fly cut the pistons if I go that far)

The rest of the combo is stock suspension 1952 ford F1, 1977 FMX auto with gennie shifter, dana 44 with 3.92 rear gears and 275/60R15 rear tires.

[sly]

Since you're running a carb and an aftermarket ignition setup... I would say anything will work with proper adjustment of the carb to keep things from leaning out or flooding. Having a wideband O2 sensor and gauge would help with that. The rest is just setting the base timing and making sure the firing order is correct on the dizzy.

I would guess that an explorer cam on e6 heads would probably work about the same as the lopo cam and just have the HO firing order so it would be better on the rear main bearing. the stock e6 heads really choke the engine. The explorer cam should be able to go to about 5000 RPM IIRC, but the e6 heads may restrict that to 4000-4500rpm. Better heads would be much better.

[Tiggie]

Haven't run mine yet, but I plan to run E6 heads with an HO cam.

E6 heads aren't for any types of performance as you know. Any stock Ford cam will do fine for it but it won't make very much difference with those heads. It's all done by 4000 regardless - which is fine with me!

If I had them, I'd run the GT40 heads and a cam of your choice.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

IIRC the Explo cam is basically the same cam as the truck 302 engines got only it's compatible with roller lifters. Said truck engines got E7 heads, or in case of the Explo engines GT40s or GT40Ps. Truck engines are generally more suitable for low-end torque than high-end HP, Explo stuff tends to pull reasonably well at higher RPMs but IIRC their valve springs are not suitable for high revvs. For truck use (since you mentioned F1) I'd do the E7 heads cause they're dirt-cheap these days, the explo cam with the townie roller lifters, and that high-velocity moderate-flow intake you got. Good torque down low, acceptable mid-range, fuck the 5k+ top end. Rear 3.92 gears will help with pulling a trailer if that's what you intend to do, if no trailer I may consider regearing down to 3.55 or something even lower but test-drive first then adjust gearing as needed.

Really all depends on what you wanna do with your vehicle. For my use a high-revving engine is worthless, to many folks here an engine that pulls stumps at 2k but runs outta steam by 4k RPMs is horrible at best. Different setups work best for different needs, what are your needs?

[ADOR]

I have thought about pulling a set of E7's at the local yard to drop onto it as I would have about 5 different ones to choose from set wise. In my shop I have the above mentioned 66 289 heads and 4 sets of DO0E heads. These aren't the 351 version with the bigger ports and valves, it's the 302 version with standard sized ports and valves but with 58cc chambers.

I have found a couple of threads where a Lincoln owner dropped the explorer cam into the car and got some gains but they were vague on the details of the rest of there engine.

I am looking to get a little more out of the truck but not max performance. This isn't my only toy, and looking at making this one dead set reliable with good everyday performance. I am thinking the GT40's may wind up on my 67 Mustang but haven't decided for sure yet.

While building this truck I made sure I had stuff upgraded for later on like the exhaust, cooling, fuel delivery, etc.

The 3.92 is the stock gearing for this truck. You had two options that year 3.92 and 4.27. The rear end is in good shape for now but will be upgraded to explorer 8.8 (3.73 with traction lock or 9" later on) I don't plan on doing any towing with it at this time.

I have run several combo's though Desktop dyno 2003 and drag 2003. It shows the truck going though the traps at around 4500 RPM's so 4500 to 5000 should be the max operating range I need. Even though I don't plan on racing this truck a lot I plan on hitting the track from time to time just for fun.

Everything on the truck right now is for low and mid, I guess I need to decide on what head, port it a little and slam it own with that slightly bigger cam over the base cam to help topend a little bit.

The fuel injection I am running is 1993 holly projection alpha N. It's a 670cfm 2v throttle body, but is measured at 1.5" drop not 3.0" like regular 2v are. No digital controls. It's all analog. They make a add on box so it can alter the fuel tables with a oxygen sensor for everything but WOT. I have been searching ebay for the box but none have popped up as of yet. The newer control boxes that are still available have this built into them, the older boxes you can only add on. I have already planned on adding a oxygen sensor with a air/fuel ratio gauge on the dash for on the fly tuning while in the cab. I plan on doing the H pipe at the same time.