Ford Mustang Comp Cams - Three-Valve Thump - Tech

Castaldo's ponycar features the usual assortment of bolt-on components, and the engine runs through the factory five-speed transmission. In this trim, the Mustang produced 333 rwhp and 350 rwtq.

With locks and retainers removed, the stock valvespring comes off and the new Comp valvespring and retainer combo goes on. We found the intake valvesprings were somewhat easy to install, for an experienced mechanic. The exhaust springs were time-consuming, to say the least. This job is not for the shade-tree mechanic. Our suggestion-let an experienced shop handle the job. It may cost a little, but it will be cash well spent. Remember, this process is repeated 23 more times.

Dab a bit of assembly lube on the top of the valve stems and cam follower cups before installing the cam followers.

This engine was equipped with Granatelli Motor Sports coil packs. There are mixed reviews circulating the Internet about these pieces, and our opinion is that it doesn't hurt to have them-especially in a high-horsepower and/or boosted application. They boast a 60,000-volt delivery and zero-ohm resistance.

All 12 valvesprings on the right side of the engine were swapped and the camshaft bolted on. Adding luster under the hood, we dropped on a set of JPC chrome valve covers. It took only a few minutes to reattach the wiring harness to the coil packs and fuel injectors.

The new camshafts and optimized tuning helped this Mustang spin the chassis dyno rollers to peak numbers of 368 rwhp and 368 rwtq.

We wanted to show a comparison of the two graphs to give you an idea of how much better the Comp camshafts performed, not just the peak results.

JPC ace tech, Adam Humm, started with the right-side camshaft and valvesprings. Once that was completed, work began on the left side of the engine. The same process was used, and Humm worked quickly through this side of the engine. The second side took a little less time, bringing the complete job to around a day's worth of work-without dyno time.

Burcham used a DiabloSport Predator to load up the tune he wrote for this combination. It took a few dyno pulls to optimize the tune-up, and Burcham adjusted mostly camshaft timing to get the engine to pull nicely through the lower-rpm range and still have a sparkling top-end charge, as the engine marches up to 6,200 rpm with ease.