20 replies to this topic

[boblhslr]

what quarter mile times have you guys run with a crane 288 or similar cams in a 308 with early heads.
Just raising the question as looking to upgrade my combo. At the moment running a Crow 5803, strip master, early heads, 11.5:1 comp, flat top pistons, 4000 converter and 4.11:1 gears. Best ET is [email protected].
Thanks Mitch

[boblhslr]

At the moment I only shift at 6200rpm. Looking at a cam upgrade and maybe some head work to see if we can get a low 11sec consistent car.

[myss427]

just had a look at the cam on crows web site power is from 3100-6200

 CC288 is a Crane Cam, and I think the power band is higher than that. I think you need to look at your heads if you want lots more power, early heads take huge amounts of work to make high horse power, if your aiming at low elevens you need roughly around 450hp or more. I would chuck them for dash 3 or dash eleven alloys.

Edited by myss427, 13 August 2018 - 08:10 AM.

[ozyozyozy]

Speak to the cam companies directly, give them your engine and driveline specs, tell them what you want from the car, they can best advise not guess.

[Redslur]

I ran 11.56 @ 116MPH with an F280 and 3.55 gears but with a 355. Either go VN heads or as Brett said, the dash 3 heads. I personally don’t think you will get much benefit from a F288 with early heads unless they are well worked..

[boblhslr]

Not planning to go vn heads just yet. I am going to get mine flowed first then go from there. Thinking about running it on methanol as well. Low 11’s should be possible with early heads.

[myss427]

Not planning to go vn heads just yet. I am going to get mine flowed first then go from there. Thinking about running it on methanol as well. Low 11’s should be possible with early heads.

 

Your still only 308 cubes, its a big ask from that combo, you must have milled the shit out of the heads to get 11.5 to 1 with flat tops, need more compression if your going Methanol to get any benefit. I still say better heads fastest improvement, why spend more dollars on bad castings to get close to good heads, when your going that way anyhow?

[mick_in_oz]

Pretty much everything has already been said on the matter.

 

Another option, or prolly more an absolute necessity, would be forget the flat tappet and put a solid roller in it, a roller with similar .050" duration figures to the 288 will give you maybe another 25-35hp, but your heads are gonna have to be good, and not just an outright flow figure, they are gonna have to have velocity where its needed and pretty much everything spot on, small cubes are unforgiving when it comes to filling cylinders if they are not spot on, bigger cubes can tend to cover up things that aren't quite right with a set of heads.

 

Bigger solid roller cam again and let it sing, think 8000+RPM, but again the heads are gonna have to be good!

 

So, gotta buy a cam, gotta muck with the heads lots, prolly need to improve the extractors (custom length and all merged collectors) why not put all that towards a newer set of heads and make life easy. A roller will mean a new valve train, but the 288 will prolly need that anyways.

 

My old engine was 326" HQ iron heads, 1.90" intakes, and made about 486HP according to the slide rule over the local 1/8 mile (3300lb 98.2Mph) those heads are very old and were expensive nearly 18 years ago, I'd hate to buy them today. The figures work out at about 112% VE.

 

Combination will be everything if you stay with the early iron heads....

[boblhslr]

Hey mick what were your times over the 1/8th. Problem is all those upgrades cost money. Just trying to do little upgrades to improve on times. My heads hopefully will get flowed next week. So will have to wait and see.

[mick_in_oz]

Its dearer to do it twice, or three times!

 

Best at the local track was 7.013 @ just over 98.2 Mph, 0-60' about 1.52

 

It was geared low, VERY LOW, I got the gears cheap so used em, then found 5 Mph in setup and tune, 5.83's, 26" slick, 8000RPM at the finish line in top gear!!!

 

But fruck it sounded cool with all those RPM's and lots of people kept talking about it 

[boblhslr]

I bet it sounded good at those RPMs. Nice job tho.

[gtrboyy]

You're going to want higher comp,shorter gears & alot more convertor to make it work assuming the heads are good enough.

 

F280 vn headed 355 would run those times easily enough & still be nice to drive on a regular basis....except for fuel costs.

 

See what your heads flow & costs involved versus set of vn edelbrock & single plane

[boblhslr]

Not really worried about drive ability as this is a drag car only car.

[boblhslr]

Finally got the car together. Jus a recap. LX Torana stock stroke 308 HQ red heads crane 288 stripMaster manifold. 11.3:1 compression 750 Holley. Only a couple runs on the new combo. So far have a new PB of [email protected]. Got a couple of gremlins to sort out and hopefully run a little quicker.
Thanks all for the comments.

[Redslur]

Good results so far. 

 

I am so hanging out to run a car down the strip again. Been a while now..

[boblhslr]

Out testing with new ignition system and slightly better weather conditions netted a new PB of [email protected]. Might have to change diff gears now as shifting at 7200 and only crossing the finish line at 6300rpm. I am currently running 4.11 and thinking of goin to 4.29. Would this be much of a gain.

Thanks

[warrenm]

I don't know what your tyre size or diff is, but as a rough calculation you would lift the revs about 300 rpm with 4.29 gears, where as 4.5 gears would be about 700 rpm more & 4.7 900 rpm more, closer to your red line. Hope this helps.

[boblhslr]

Thanks warrenm. I have 26” slicks 9” inch diff. Sounds good I have a set of 4:56:1 here I could try.