[zoomie]

Hello all i am seriously considering using a comp cam XE258 part no 35-510-8 for use in my lincoln towncar. I will be upgrading to beehives, as well as hardened rods. also i will be using E7 heads for now unless i get a good deal on gt40s. i also plan on upgrading to at least an HO intake if not a gt40 explorer one. my question to you is who runs this cam and how do you like its performance, i know it makes some serious tourqe and that is what im after to get my heavy car moving down the track. also how is gas milage?

[cgrey8]

I know user name Adam McLaughlin has used it in the past on his V8 Ranger. It was used on a set of ported E7 heads, but the bottom end was a 351w. He seemed to really like it. He couldn't remember what cam was in his engine and he thought he was upgrading by replacing it with a Crane Powermax 2020 (pn 444211), but when he pulled the cam, he found it was that XE258, which is Comp's version of the Crane 2020 with VERY minor differences in lift, duration, and events. So it turned out to not really be an upgrade. He later replaced his E7 heads with AFR185s, which obviously were noticeable upgrades. The high lift of either of those cams somewhat goes lost on stock heads. The biggest benefit to having a high lift cam on stock heads is it holds the valve at a max-flow position for a sustained amount of time. The AFRs really appreciated the lift though since they continue to gain in flow capacity right up to the lifts these cams give. He probably would've done better with AFR165s with a stock F-150 intake and this type cam, but he got talked into the AFR185s purely because the bottom end is 351w and people just default to saying AFR185s work best on 351w bottoms.

I also know that Ken Collins of BadShoe Productions (www.badshoeproductions.com) uses the Crane 2020 in one of his cars and was VERY impressed with the output.

I'd recommend either of these cams to anybody looking for extremely high torque in the typical street RPM range (idle-4500 RPM range). They compliment stock or stock ported intakes perfectly and work equally as well with aftermarket street heads like AFR165s, TFS TW 170s, etc. Both peak around 4500 and start to fall off after ~5000RPMs and you pretty much need to be shifting at or before 5500 RPMs which works out GREAT if you are running a stock ported Cobra/Explorer intake since that's about where they fall off as well.

The downside to either of these cams is that they have such high lift, you WILL need to replace the stock springs, retainers, AND rockers. So figure that into your budget when considering this cam. When upgrading the rockers, do NOT go with 1.7 RRs. These cams both have very fast ramp rates and very high lifts. Going to 1.7RRs will just cause you complications especially with the XE258. If you want a cam that doesn't REQUIRE replacement of stock springs and rockers, then I would point you to RM Competition (www.rmcompetition.com) where Randy Malik sells custom grind cams. He has a series of cams he's developed for a few different applications. The lift is right at the limits of stock springs and rockers. He highly recommends replacing both to reduce the very high likeliness of valve float, but it is not absolutely required. Of his selection of custom grinds, I would recommend his HR256/263. The catch with this cam is to get the most out of it, you need to advance it 4-6°. He designed this cam to work in a Speed Density controlled F-150s with no computer tweaks required. But to get everything this cam can offer in a MAF-based system, you can advance it and get another 3-8hp across the RPM range. When advanced 4°, this cam is VERY similar to the XE258 and 2020 with the exception of the lift which allows it to be more suited for stock components and be, quite literally, a drop-in replacement for any stock cam. You will need to get a timing chain kit that allows you to advance the cam, but the difference in price between a standard chain kit, which you should be buying with a new cam anyway, and one that will allow you to advance the cam is minimal. If you want to look at the specs of this cam, I believe Clint has gotten all of Randy's cams into EEC Analyzer for you to review and compare. If not, respond back and I'll post all the specs into this thread.

And as for fuel economy, that will have more to do with your ability to stay out of the accelerator pedal. Given you can do that, there should be no loss in fuel economy going with this cam. I don't know for sure if they'll gain you fuel economy over a stock cam since the people that I know that have used these cams also did other mods at the same time and thus comparing fuel economy to their stock fuel economy wasn't comparing just the cam, but I don't believe either if these cams will cost you. I wouldn't be surprised if it improved fuel economy slightly. According to Randy's website, his cams do have a fuel economy improvement which would lead me to believe the other two could as well.

Moving on...if you are upgrading the stock intake, upgrade to an Explorer upper & lower and if there's room in the budget, send the bottom end off to Tom Moss to have him port it out for you. Or if you are not afraid to port an intake, port it yourself. There are documents in the Tech Docs section written by Tom Moss that talk about how to do this...and how NOT to. Porting only the lower (the weak link in the pair) should gain you a few HP across the RPM range, not just at the top end.

For others that read this and already have an aftermarket intake, aftermarket heads, and/or a stroker kit and are thinking these cams are just a little too conservative for them, and thus need a cam that can be a good street cam, but extend up into the 6000 RPM range, the higher performance version of the Crane 2020 is the Crane 2030. I don't know that it has a Comp counterpart that is as close as the XE258 and 2020 are to each other, but if I had to guess, I'd say the XE264-HR14 would be your next step up from the XE258. The XE264-HR14 and 2030 are not quite as torquey off-idle, but they are still good street cams and sustain torque higher into the RPM range...but only if the other components can support you that high also. Putting a bigger cam on an engine where the heads and intake can't keep up is more detrimental to the total engine performance than picking a milder cam.

[zoomie]

Thank you for the info mang , it is highy appreciated, one of the reasons of getting it is i know the XE264 is more for HP than TQ also a freind of mine who autocrosses a wagon suggested that i look into one of those two cams , so i started looking around. what i really wanted was tourqe so seeing as that cam has yet to go into a box i decided that was the cam for me, i will be upgrading to beehive springs, and im using 1.6 ratio rollers.
i will also be getting headers and full dual exhuast as well. i like to experiment and do my own porting.another deciding factor is that i found a new XE258 in a box for 180 bucks cant pass that up. I will also be using a lightning EGR spacer and 65mm TB as well as 19 lb injectors and a 3.55 trac loc rear. based on a DD the
XE258 with gt40 heads and HO intake will run roughly 292 Hp and 330 TQ if i use a after market gov i can gain another 35 HP by adjusting shift point 5500-6000 TQ stays above 300 from 3000rpm-6000rpm had a freind run this setup to guesstimate. i hope tomarrow i find some decent gt40 heads and intake make me some powah!!! lol
once agina thank you.

[cgrey8]

There's nothing wrong with the XE264 on higher CID engines (i.e. 347, 351, etc) or for people that want the engine to pull like a freight train up to 6000 RPMs. I would imagine on higher displacement engines, it performs much like the XE258 does on a 302, all other components being equal. There's a guy here that runs the XE274? and says he gets great results from it off-idle. But he also has other mods like aftermarket intake, aftermarket heads, and I'm fairly sure it's stroked or is based on a 351w. Personally, I wouldn't consider an XE274 unless I was running a 408w...but that's just me and what I look for in an engine (smooth idle, daily driver qualities, good fuel economy, longevity, etc).