RAGNAROK

Well i am happy that my stang is running , but it runs like dog crap. Something is wrong with it and it's always bogging down or dying. it feels like it is loosing power the last few days and it uses gas like a damn tank. Iwish i knew what was wrong with it but I'm not happy with itif it worked fine anyway. Not alot of power and a lame cam. Can't get a better cambecause of the gay pistons , and the heads are garbage.So I'm going to build another short block for it.I gota 302 from a 72' Maverick. My uncle is giving me the whole car free . I think maybe someone said they have a 9 inch rear end too , that'd be cool. Anyways, I am going to get it bored .30 , and get all new internals. I probably wont be trying to break the 350 hp mark with this engine since I hope to build a 460 in the future to quench my need for serious torque and brute power. Well anyways here is my question.</P>


How expensive will it be to get everything i need to rebuild the engine?Would I be better off buying a short block from somewhere? </P>


Also does anyone know anything about the heads that are on that 72' maverick 302? If i had them cleaned up and ported would they be better than the stock 88 cougar heads I got now? I plan on getting AFR 165's when i get some money , but for now I gotta live with what i can get cheap.</P>

RAGNAROK

Also any ideas about what might be wrong with my 5.0 would be welcome haha. Here are the symptoms.</P>


When i start the car the choke stays on for a few minutes and i have to keep revving it up to get it unstuck.</P>


Sometimes dies or almost dies when i a accelerate from a dead stop , or while going slow.</P>


uses gas like a mother, i'm talking like a half tank in only 30 miles the other day.</P>


has lost alot of power over the last few days. </P>


I hear kind of a clicking noise coming from the right side of the motor. It almost sounds like the header is leaking but i torqued all the bolts down good. </P>


Motor was running about 10-15 degrees cooler than normal today (I know it sounds like a stupid thing to worry about)</P>


Anywayswhat do you guys think?The only thing anyone has told me so far was maybe I had a fouled plug or the carb wasn't running right </P>


</P>

84stang

Well i basically did what you are thinking about for a new motor. I had an 1986 302 with flat top pistons and really wierd heads with heart shaped valves. A friend gave me another block and i cleaned it up. You can clean the bore up with line honing tool if you buy one. Other than that this is what i have into the motor.

New crank from autozone-$135
high volume oil pump from autozone-$35
comp cam-$189 [On sale]
Keith black hypo pistons-$189
Arp rod bolts, head bolts, intake bolts-$120[$70 to have the rod bolts machined in to the rods]
Full gasket kit-$105
Performer RPM air gap intake-$220
And top all that off with a set of 185cc AFR heads-[$-Id rather not talk about that price.]

I basically have all the other bolt-ons for the motor too,pulleys,msd 6a iginion,headers,x-pipe,proform carb body, roller rockers, and an electric fan.

But that is basically what you are looking at for the bottom end, minus the heads, intake, and the boltons. Dont let people tell you, you need forged internals and other bulls**t to go fast. You dont even need to have it bored .030 over. My set up is more than i could of asked for out of a 302, 12.20 at 111 mph is my best time yet, on drag radials. But for around 700 bucks or so your bottom end would be solid for the horsepower you have now and plan to add. I plan on adding a supercharger and i have no fear about it.

I hope this information helps you.

RAGNAROK

Cool. Yeah it does help man thanks. I'm mainly doing this for peace of mind ya know? I want to be sure that the motor I'm running has good internals and everything is in good shape. But I also want to get more power out of it than I'm getting now. I am glad I swapped out my 2.3 for my 5.0 , but it isn't as impressive as i hoped. Of coarse it was a cougar 5.0 and not an H.O. , but still. I think I'll be happier with a fresh built 302 and peace of mind instead of a crappy 88 cougar 5.0 with almost 120k on it. I just need to find out if the heads from that 72 maverick are going to be better than the cougar head I got now.</P>

Buzzstang

if it is using so much gas where is it going? your oil? is it washing the walls down?</P>