a couple oil drops is not a big concern, but you need to address the coolant leak before that all of a sudden becomes a bigger leak and you overheat the motor. first thing i would check is thermostat gasket, if its leaking it would drip right down on top of the water pump. if thats not it (and its only like 5.00 for a new thermostat and gasket), then its probably the water pump gasket or the gasket between the timing cover and the block. the only other possible cause is the intake gasket, but if your going to replace the intake you'll be replacing that anyways.

 

As long as your compression is over ~110psi and all the cylinders are within ~10% of eachother, you should be fine.

I wouldn't put money into the stock heads if you're looking to make power. To properly rebuild and port/polish a set of stock heads, including all the hardware, you're probably going to be looking at $6-700. For $800, you can pick up a set of World Products Windsor Jr heads that will flow better out of the box.

 

I'm going to recommend differently to most of the other guys here. Im my experience, getting a few more poies from a tired old motor simply makes it wear out much quicker that it was going to.
After 120,000 miles, the engine is tired. The rings are worn, the bearings are worn, the cam lobes will be worn (and the lifters) The oil pump and its fragile shaft will be worn. There ar so many things that will be close to the end of their life, that when you slap on a new intake/carby and some gears, you inevitabley will rev that engine harder an it will crap out very quickly. Im assuming that if you spend your money now, when the engine does crap out a couple of months down the track, you will be in trouble.
Believe me, i've been there a number of times now, and I know I sound like an old fart, but you should leave the engine alone untill you can afford to rebuild it. Drive it gently so it lasts untill you can replace it. In the mean time, a good tune up will make it run much better, and save you $$ on gas towards that rebuild.
Cheers

 

See, that is the way I have been thinking. I dont want to put money in it only to have it run for a month or two and then blow out and do serious damage. Does anyone else agree with that?

 

I'm gonna go with fast66 on this one. Adding performance parts to an already tired old engine will just shorten it's life even more. The technology of engines from the 60's even new(rings, pistons etc), can't always keep up with current performance demands from heads, cams etc, let alone when worn out. Plus, if you do parts of the engine in stages, then rather than it lasting for it's life and then dying, you get different parts failing on a frequent basis. 50k miles this goes, 20k later that goes etc. Put the money into things like brakes and a better transmision(if needed) etc, and when you have enough rebuild the engine with all new parts, or swap in a later model 302 etc. It'll be less trouble int he long run.

If you do anything to it now, I wouldn't do more than intake, carb and exhaust stuff. Just a few bolt ons. Adding heads/cam etc would be more trouble than it's worth.

 

I was planning on doing the same thing with a 90' 302. Im gonna check the compression and if all is good Im gonna throw some add ons.

 

Yes and no. I still think it's possible (depending on what your compression readings show) to get enough performance out of your motor to make you happy. Intake, carb, cam, heads, and exhaust, if they're all designed to run in the proper rpm (which I'd leave under 5500 in your case), will put out some respectable power. If it wasn't abused in the past, I think you'd be fine.

However, it would be very easy to slap parts on and push the motor way too hard, especially if it's tired and on its way out.

 

Ya, i think ill see if I can get it running decently the way it is now and keep saving my $ for a good engine build. Too bad I only get like 3 hrs a week now at my job... Anyone in CO hiring? lol.

 

When keeping a tired engine on the road, its a good idea to look at what are the common causes of catastrophic failure. The two I know of on the 289/302 are the following.

One-If your is a late 66, you may have the rail type rockers. Unlike the earlier 289s which had pushrod guides integrall with the head, the late ones have a rocker arm wich has a small leg each side of the valve tipto ensure the rocker cant rotate off the valve.
Over time, as the rocker and valve tip wear, the small legs get closer and closer to the valve retaining collets. If there is enough wear, they can actually push down on the collets and release the valve which would naturally fall straight into the cylinder. BOOM!
Its an easy check to do, just pull the valve covers and look at the top of the valves making sure there is plenty of clearance between the rocker "legs" and the valve collets.
20 minute job, saves a motor.

Two - You oil pump drive shaft. These are a piddly litte shaft that is driven by the dizzy shaft. When your engine getts older there tends to be a lot of crap like cork gaskets,floating around in the oil (even after a change) this can get caught up in the pump and make it seize. The oil pump drive shaft is very small and will break at the first sign of a problem, no oil pumping is a quick way to BOOM!
Its a good idea to replace the drive shaft with the high strength replacement item, and even remove the pump and ensure its all in good condition. Geep the oil changes regular, say under 5000 miles to make sure you are getting rid of the crap thats in there.
Cheers

 

Under 5k? I do oil changes every 3k religiously. 5k is a long time on non-synthetic, especially on an older engine which probably has a fair amount of blow-by.