Mild 401,2.73 gear, looking for a cam,+ car pics

AMXFSTBK390 wrote: To get your Matador to pull hard off idle you need a numerically higher rear end ratio. The 2.73 is not suitable for fast acceleration from a dead stop. A 3.15 or one step higher ratio will probably get the results you are looking for.

I second this^^^^. 2.73 isn't going anywhere fast off the line. Not that a cam swap won't help you obtain what you are after, but, if your compression ratio is higher then say 9:1 (example) then you may very well be limited on your cam selection to keep from detonating. What is your compression ratio? You said earlier that you had .030" taken off the heads, so, without knowing what the piston volume is, I'd think you're north of 9:1.

amxdreamer wrote: I changed my 2.87 to a 3.31 in my AMX and it is a different car around town....and on the highway! I would change the gears and leave the engine together :)

401jim wrote: I have had good success with Edelbrock performer plus cams for the street. The part # Is 2132 it goes from idle to 5,500. We have sold a ton of these. They are not a rock and roll cam. Most people like them due to being a real torque type cam. Just my two cents.....

He said that he ran an Edelbrock Performer cam in another 401 and "it ran out of steam at 4500 rpm." I had one in a 360, and it made good power to 5200.

amc401t10 wrote: I don't really want to change my gear, I have 2 other cars with (gears)and they don't get driven as often as this one. The other 401 with performer cam was in this same car, and it launched like crazy hard, it just quit pulling at 4500 rpm. It was 15-18 years ago and I don't remember the cam specs. Did they change the grind later on? This was a performer not a performer rpm. I would give up just a little on the bottom to reach at least 5000rpm pulling hard. I almost wish I still had that cam, I put it in a jeep j10 pickup with a 360 and 3,55 gears with 12/33/15 mud tires,and it pulled to 5200 Rpm, and would light those tires up at a stop.

The cam hasn't changed. The small Summit cam mentioned should pull about 500 rpm higher than the Performer.

I guess I can not really go along with a gear change to something like a 3.54 or greater.
Yes of course from a dead stop what ever it is in will pull hard until I runs out of rpm.
But as most of my driving is out on the open road, the droning engine noise becomes more of an annoyance than I wish to deal with any longer.
If you want to launch hard do with with transmission gearing, a wide ratio standard shift 4 or 5 speed or better that gives short 1st gear to make up for the tall final drives.
I like the 3.15:1 I have in my Javelin with the 5 speed I am currently running in it.
I did not like driving the car with the same transmission with the 5 speed and frankly did not like it with the 4 speed either when it had the 3.54:1 final drive.
For an automatic, I like the later ones with a lock up torque converter and at least a 2200 rpm stall converter.
If budget was not a particular limitation I would look at something in the high 2.xx:1 or low 3.xx:1 with a 4 speed automatic and a 2200 rpm stall converter.
Driving my collector cars to activities on the week ends gives me a great amount of pleasure as does no longer listening to the engine droning away while I am doing it.