Mrneau

I am looking to build my 302 to make about 500hp what is the best way to do it? Most economical would be nice but I understand takes money to make power.

guitarman376

At that horsepower level you need to be sure your car's chassis is ready. IE at least monte carlo bar, subframe connectors, and sound suspension. Maybe even a cage. To make that kind of power from a 302 you will need a LOT of money put into the heads and valvetrain, and the easiest way is to stroke that motor. That would get you into the 400's most likely, assuming this is a street motor. 400+hp is a lot..... then you need to worry about transmission choices, and rear end strength etc. Look at my thread, I just finished rebuilding all the susp/steering on my car and soon I will be doing subframe connectors. That way in a few years when power is increased the car is ready for it. These cars are so flexy I'm 90% sure I'll be putting a cage in at some point. You could put 500hp in an otherwise stock car, but it would twist all kinds of things I would imagine.

barnett468

hi,

a tru 500 hp stretches the threshold of what that block can reliably support.

take at least $5500.00

buy a dart block.

stroke it to 347 ci

get some 190 or 205 afr heads.

get your compression to around 12:1 and put in a massive cam in it and run race gas or possibly e85 or get compression to around 9:1 and buy a cheap on 3 turbo that might grenade and run around 6 lbs of boost with a big [not massive]cam and race or e85 gas.

you can also go nitrous.

run a us made hei ignition and multi fire ign box.

Mrneau

I realize strengthening other parts of car but still looking at around 500 hp to flywheel not rear wheels. I am thinking supercharger possibly???

guitarman376

What do you mean you realize? Meaning you have plans to strengthen the chassis? I hope thats what youre saying. Everyone always says the following. Fast, reliable, cheap-> choose two

barnett468

My post was based on flywheel hp.



A budget Paxton Novi 1200 Supercharger is around $2200.00 not installed. You have to build your engine stronger for supercharger than for a non superchargerd one. Not the cheapest way to go.

67mustang302

You clearly have no idea what you're asking.

First you'd need a ton of chassis and suspension work, read end, transmission, subframes, total replacement of all your suspension and brakes with **** that will handle 500hp (which isn't going to be cheap suspension and brakes). It would also be wise at that power level to add additional chassis reinforcement. Plus fixing all the little **** you WILL find along the way in a project like this on a car that old.

Then the engine, 500hp out of a 302 can be done, but not cheaply or easily, and not very reliably on a stock block, so then you're building an engine on an aftermarket block.

You basically came in here and said "How do I spend $20,000 on my car?"

And honestly, if you don't have experience driving high performance V8's, ESPECIALLY in leaf spring/classic cars...you'll just wreck your car at that power level. You'd be better off starting out small and working your way up.

Mrneau

Thanks for the input but because of ignorant people like mustang67 this is why these forums get such a bad wrap. I know a lot about automotive been building mud trucks for 20 years, so strengthening other parts is not an issue. I was merely looking for opinions and what people thought! My car is in pieces and needs to be redone from ground up. My intent is to get opinions and do it the right the first time not half *** it. 500 horse may be a little high for it but trying to get ideas seeing there are so many schools of thought on building.

guitarman376

I'm really trying not to be argumentative, but within the classic mustang community there really is NOT different schools of thought on this. Anyone that is familiar with these cars know that they need a lot of different things before slapping a high hp motor in them. Still you haven't mentioned anything to us regarding your plans for the chassis/suspension/brakes/driveline. I couldn't agree more with 67mustang302's first comment.
I'm getting the impression you want direct answers so here goes:
engine: get nice heads, intake, and exhaust
chassis: subframe connectors, monte carlo brace, under body brace, additional reinforcements=better
steering: if you have the stock p/s system ditch it for anything else really
brakes: minimum discs up front (good ones), preferably rear too
transmission: toploader, tko, maybe t5 if power is kept low
rear end: gears to match tranny, lsd, possibly axles if power is high
And the list goes on. $20,000 sounds about right

67mustang302

Ignorant is hardly accurate. Built plenty of SBF's and have a fair bit of experience with classics. They're not mud trucks. You throw a 500hp factory block 302 in a classic and you'll either blow up the engine or break the chassis in 17 different places, or fly off the road because of the suspension in the car.