hi people,

since it's clear that the old 302 has given up the struggle of life, most of you know i'm in the market for a new one...

got a few options though, and therefore some questions.

1: a rebuilt block (in the US btw) with performance cam, balanced, high swirl combustion chamber heads, roller rockers etc...
2600 euro's or around 3000 bux,

2: i decide to go for the real goodies and go for the 429 swap. completely rebuilt but bone stock, somewhere around 4 grand, but that leaves me with a C4 and i think that for a 429 i need a C6, right?

3: just a rebuilt under block and get myself a pair of jegs heads. or afr's. bang all my performance stuff from the old 302 in there. i figure around 3 grand also, but off course, no warranty on anything since you put it together yourself...

so the questions: what do they mean by high swirl combustion chambers? i suppose it'll be an aftermarket head, but they don't specify a make or a valve diameter... if i go for the 429 swap, what should i think about before i decide?... and finally, what would YOU go for?

thx guys

 

Option 2 would have a snowball effect on your suspension and brakes, don't do it. You can get big block power from a small block like a stroked 302 or better yet, a 351.

 

I agree, I would go with a 351 windsor and the AFR heads. The money you save on building your own engine would allow you to buy a quality crank a rods from scatt and go with a good set of pistons to get the cubes up. I seen AFR 185 heads and a mild cam make 530 HP on pump gas from a 393 stroker windsor at a peak of 5800 RPM. An engine like this would live a very long time because of it making power at lower RPM. If you take your time and build it right you won't need the warranty. No matter how good you build it or anyone builds it, a person can blow it up from abuse.