Ford Modular Engines - Follow The Leader - Tech

The engine was bumped over using a button attached to the starter solenoid. We had to bump over each cylinder to get the camshaft in the proper location so we could remove the cam follower. This was done for the intake and exhaust cam followers.

JPC's Adam Humm displays the proper use of the Ford tool and wrench when removing a cam follower.

Here's the Jesel cam follower (left) versus the OEM cam follower (right). Notice the roller tip on the Jesel piece and the overall body. Which do you think is better? The factory-stamped pieces were never designed for the severe performance that modular engines are capable of today.

Add some assembly lube to the cup of the Jesel cam follower before installing.

This is a dyno graph comparison of Jesel cam followers versus OEM ones. The Jesel components were far superior to the factory pieces, as you can tell from the graph. This supercharged engine picked up power from the start of the pull until the end. Peak rear-wheel horsepower shot up by 50, while torque saw a gain of 33 rwtq. These results were impressive, and the Jesel cam followers prevented valve float in the upper-rpm ranges. The valvesprings on this engine were never designed for big rpm or 20 psi of boost, but they worked fine with the addition of the Jesel parts.

Burcham added a set of Jesel cam followers to an NMRA Factory Stock race car he sponsors. The results were favorable, with a gain of 10 rwhp at peak power. Horsepower increased from 321 to 331.5 at the rear wheels. The torque curve experienced a similar jump. If you look at the graph, the curves with the Jesel product installed are always making more horsepower and torque than the curve with the stock followers. Those are the type of gains you want to see when you change an engine component.

The Jesel pieces go in the same way the stock ones came out. Be sure to hear the snap, and visually check the cam followers for proper contact with the cam and valve tip.

Once all 16 cam followers have been swapped, put the valve covers back on and fire up the engine.

Here is Eric Holliday's NMRA Factory Stocker, sponsored by JPC Racing. It normally runs mid-11s with ported Two-Valve heads, Rich Groh Racing custom camshafts, a stock intake manifold, shorty headers, and BFGoodrich drag radials. We didn't do back-to-back track testing with the cam follower swap, but the engine did pick up power in back-to-back chassis dyno tests.