1986 302 EFI Camshaft Recommendation

[RXRXP1000]

Hi there, I am freshening up the 302 from my 86 F150. New bearings, seals, rings, etc.  2 of the cam lobes look pretty pitted up so I want to replace the cam and lifters.  I’m having a hard time finding an OEM equivalent or at least one that I can be confident will work with the speed density EFI for 86.  The engine is stock.  Thanks for any input.

[ReneH]

Hi, I have had my journey with cam and lifters. Two new cams and lifters fails during cam break-in.
I still don't know if the cams or the lifters or both were the reason for the fail...in the end, I've bought the cam and the lifters from comp cams. So far, after 250 miles everything seems to work.

I've used a 351W stock cam, that's available at summit racing. I also have a 302 EFI, but stroked to 347.
As far as I know you also can use the 351W cam in your 302. At summit there should it be available.
You also would need a computer controlled cam. So the same that I've bought. I can send you the links or article numbers from summit, if you want.

If my explanation is wrong, I'm sorry for that and think someone else will put it into the right way...

[ratdude747]

Question 0: What kind of condition are the existing cam and lifters in? Are the lifters out of the engine, and if so, were they marked/separated so they could be reinstalled in their original location?

If you're looking for OE equivalents and the stock valvetrain is still good and the parts haven't been scrambled, I say reuse it. QC on modern parts is scattershot these days... But, if the lifters are scrambled, they're junk. Old cam and new lifters from what I understand is fine (if one goes through break in as if it were an all-new setup, but never reuse lifters if they're not mating back to the exact cam lobe they were broken in with.

[RXRXP1000]

Hey there, thanks for the responses.  The pistons, cams and lifters are still in the engine.  I plan to pull everything this week (and mark the order of everything as it’s removed).  Right now I can’t get the lifters out of the top so they will have to go out the bottom once I remove the pistons, crank, and cam.  Either they are gummed up pretty bad or mushroomed a bit.  2 of the cam lobes look pretty poor from what I can see with a fair amount of pitting.  I also worry about the new parts being crap and wouldn’t replace the cam and lifters if I didn’t have to.  I was thinking of trying out a set of OEM spec Melling lifters and cam as that’s all I can find that appears to be close to OEM for timing and made for flat tappet lifters.  The Melling kit PN is CLSYB26.

[mat in tn]

generally, I have had good results using Melling and Qual cast parts but as often as I can I'm using roller systems. I have a flat tappet build coming soon but not right now. I hear horror stories a lot lately about the crap being sold and I restore every original part that is feasible. I find that unless you are going extra high performance, ford got a lot right. why do we love these trucks? perfectly imperfect I like to say. if you can locate a reasonable roller block then that is by far the way to go.