L29 engine specs

[496BBC]

Would you happen to know the specs on that cam? Is that on the stock ecm tune or custom tune? I've haven't personally seen one on a dyno but a lot of people say a ecm tune alone is worth about 50 hp. It is worth noting that the injectors will probably run out of flow above 350 hp, so if you were going through the work of a cam swap it'd be worth upgrading injectors and having the ecm tuned appropriately.

Here is a quote form our conversation;
I do a stump puller for these. It is 206/220 .470/.420 lift on a 109. Makes around 520#/ft and 350HP.

I asked specifically if this set up would work with the factory tune and FI, he commented that he had installed this cam in many of the Mercury EFI units with no tuning required. I also asked about the stock heads and valve train, he commented that while not optimal it will work without issue.

Neal

 

[Christian Steffen]

Interesting, that seems like a pretty good cam for towing then. But if when one is already going through the time to do a cam swap, wouldn't it be worth it to upgrade the valve train, injectors, and have the ecm tuned? Although that does require a bit more money and time to be invested.

 

[496BBC]

I would think if your upgrading to the point that you have the engine apart then yes if you want to spend the money. I would thing that to upgrade the valve train and have the PCM tuned would be the best option and money well spent.

My plans are to keep it as close to factory as possible so when the hood is opened unless you know what you are looking for you wont know the difference along with somewhat reliable to boot. I will not be opening the engine other than to install the cam and convert to CNP so I've opted to keep the factory heads and valve train as they are. The computer will have a tune in it to better optimize for performance but I do plan that once I have it running I will have it tuned or I will tune it myself (I really want to learn how so this may be the way I go).

Neal

 

[496BBC]

Chris stressed vale train geometry so I'll be checking push rod length and making sure if needed to get the correct length

Neal

 

[Christian Steffen]

Seems like you've got a pretty good plan going. I'll be interested to see how the CNP turns out, I think that'll be damn cool. I'm sure you'll be plenty happy with the power it makes in a 1500 as well. Tuning is something that I also am going to be trying to learn sometime in the upcoming months, it really is the way to go for the best performance (once you figure out how to do it). The only thing that can compare would be having it dyno tuned, but that is probably fairly expensive. I would say it might be worth the money to buy a mail order tuned ecm from someone to get started, then play with it and learn to tune from there.

 

[496BBC]

I'm running a 0411 PCM now so I'll be ordering another one tuned for the CNP set up along with a warmed over tune for the 7400.

That should get it running pretty good, if I have any issues I'll look into a dyno tune to line it out.

Neal

 

[Christian Steffen]

How do you like the 0411? I'm planning on swapping to the 0411 within a month, I'll also finally be upgrading injectors at the same time.

 

[496BBC]

The 0411 made a noticeable improvement,

The tune was also warmed over so between upgrading to the 0411 and the tune it is more fun to drive even with the 5.0

I upgraded the injectors prior to the PCM install

I would recommend the PCM upgrade to all,

Neal