If you had a 302 to build........
02-27-2017, 11:40 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2016
Location: FL
Posts: 12
If you had a 302 to build........
Let's say you pick up a complete 302 to build the way you want.
Without spending my kids college fund or sacrificing the breast implants I promised my wife for Christmas.... I am looking for input on what you guys did......
What have you done to build a great 302 on a decent budget USING 5k
Thanks-
dirtyhands
Without spending my kids college fund or sacrificing the breast implants I promised my wife for Christmas.... I am looking for input on what you guys did......
What have you done to build a great 302 on a decent budget USING 5k
Thanks-
dirtyhands
Last edited by dirtyhands; 02-28-2017 at 03:28 PM.
02-28-2017, 10:32 AM
#3
Foghorn Leghorn
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: I reside in a near constant state of amazment.
Posts: 2,923
If all you want is motorvation then I'd probably get a brand new engine from Ford and be done with it. Their base line Windsor motors are really cheap compared to what you'll spend in time and aggravation rebuilding a used engine. Or get their short block and stick your own heads & cam, etc. on it.
02-28-2017, 03:18 PM
#5
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2016
Location: FL
Posts: 12
If all you want is motorvation then I'd probably get a brand new engine from Ford and be done with it. Their base line Windsor motors are really cheap compared to what you'll spend in time and aggravation rebuilding a used engine. Or get their short block and stick your own heads & cam, etc. on it.
02-28-2017, 03:35 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2016
Location: FL
Posts: 12
this is whats in the car now, its originally a 289 car and we rebuilt the original, changed the cam,intake,carb and a couple other things. It just doesn't perform the way Id like it to. So I'm starting building a new engine on the side and just swap them out when I'm ready.
02-28-2017, 08:11 PM
#7
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: LA
Posts: 1,320
03-03-2017, 04:04 AM
#9
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Nebraska
Posts: 55
It depends on what your wanting. Do you want to cruise on a Saturday night and have some fun, or are you looking for a wild ride to take to the drag strip?
Back in the late 80's a guy I knew built his 302 from an article he found in a magazine. I don't remember any of the exact details, but I believe it involved a different crank connecting rods from a Dodge 318 and pistons from a chevy possibly a 350? He used 351 Windsor heads ported and polished with oversized valves. I wish I remembered details, but that was a few minutes ago. I do know it was not good for driving on the street, but on the strip it was something to see!
We used to have a lot of tricks back then. Porting and polishing the heads was standard, bigger cam, 4 barrel with an aluminum high rise intake, bored oversize and a few other things. We would even leave 1 piston ring off of the pistons. The reduction in friction would gain us around 20 hp on the dyno, but the engines did not last as long. Circle track racing they lasted about 2 nights if we were lucky.
If I were building a street cruiser now I would build a stroker.
Get a stroker kit will run around 900 to 1000 bucks, depending on where you find it. A good set of pistons will run around 700 to 800. I would go with an aftermarket set of aluminum heads will run around 1500 to 2000 for the set. I would probably go with 351 Windsor heads. A good mid range cam with roller rockers. Don't forget to get a decent high volume oil pump, and you will want a different oil pan. A decent aftermarket MSD ignition system to fire it off and you should have a decent runner.
The easiest ways to get more power is to reduce weight and friction of your rotating assembly and to increase air flow. The last 302 I built for drag racing, I wanted a decent bracket car. I just bored it out, bigger cam, intake and carb, electronic aftermarket ignition, 351 Windsor heads ported and polished in my garage with my dremmel. That tool forever but was well worth it, and made enough power in my light little mustang to stand her up on the rear wheels on a hard take off.
Some advice when ordering parts, be careful with places that advertise their parts as "blueprinted". My son races now, and I see a lot of companies are claiming everything is blueprinted, even tires and brakes. True blueprinting is nothing more than machining the engine to match the part instead of buying a part to match the machining. For example, a piston that is sold as .040 over may in reality be .039 over to simplify the numbers. So, blueprinting you measure the piston and bore the cylinder to match. Also, it is not unheard of to run through several sets of pistons to find a set that matches exact in measurement. The same with the rod and main bearings, the machining is done to match the part, not the other way around. For a typical every day driver it is just fine to bore the engine .040 for example the ordering a set of .040 pistons. So, be careful what they are calling blueprinting. One company when I talked with them about complete engines called theirs blueprinted. To them blueprinting is running dyno passes while tuning. Try one set of carb jets, run 3 passes then try another set of jets and run 3 passes then using the ones that gave the best power. Back in my day this was called dyno tuning and was only done by those with a lot of money or the brains to make a decent inertia dyno to use at the track.
Back in the late 80's a guy I knew built his 302 from an article he found in a magazine. I don't remember any of the exact details, but I believe it involved a different crank connecting rods from a Dodge 318 and pistons from a chevy possibly a 350? He used 351 Windsor heads ported and polished with oversized valves. I wish I remembered details, but that was a few minutes ago. I do know it was not good for driving on the street, but on the strip it was something to see!
We used to have a lot of tricks back then. Porting and polishing the heads was standard, bigger cam, 4 barrel with an aluminum high rise intake, bored oversize and a few other things. We would even leave 1 piston ring off of the pistons. The reduction in friction would gain us around 20 hp on the dyno, but the engines did not last as long. Circle track racing they lasted about 2 nights if we were lucky.
If I were building a street cruiser now I would build a stroker.
Get a stroker kit will run around 900 to 1000 bucks, depending on where you find it. A good set of pistons will run around 700 to 800. I would go with an aftermarket set of aluminum heads will run around 1500 to 2000 for the set. I would probably go with 351 Windsor heads. A good mid range cam with roller rockers. Don't forget to get a decent high volume oil pump, and you will want a different oil pan. A decent aftermarket MSD ignition system to fire it off and you should have a decent runner.
The easiest ways to get more power is to reduce weight and friction of your rotating assembly and to increase air flow. The last 302 I built for drag racing, I wanted a decent bracket car. I just bored it out, bigger cam, intake and carb, electronic aftermarket ignition, 351 Windsor heads ported and polished in my garage with my dremmel. That tool forever but was well worth it, and made enough power in my light little mustang to stand her up on the rear wheels on a hard take off.
Some advice when ordering parts, be careful with places that advertise their parts as "blueprinted". My son races now, and I see a lot of companies are claiming everything is blueprinted, even tires and brakes. True blueprinting is nothing more than machining the engine to match the part instead of buying a part to match the machining. For example, a piston that is sold as .040 over may in reality be .039 over to simplify the numbers. So, blueprinting you measure the piston and bore the cylinder to match. Also, it is not unheard of to run through several sets of pistons to find a set that matches exact in measurement. The same with the rod and main bearings, the machining is done to match the part, not the other way around. For a typical every day driver it is just fine to bore the engine .040 for example the ordering a set of .040 pistons. So, be careful what they are calling blueprinting. One company when I talked with them about complete engines called theirs blueprinted. To them blueprinting is running dyno passes while tuning. Try one set of carb jets, run 3 passes then try another set of jets and run 3 passes then using the ones that gave the best power. Back in my day this was called dyno tuning and was only done by those with a lot of money or the brains to make a decent inertia dyno to use at the track.
03-07-2017, 08:07 PM
#10
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2016
Location: FL
Posts: 12
I appreciate all of you guys great responses and taking the time to think about it. After lots of researching/obsessing over what kind of transplant I want in my baby. My best route for what I want was donor car. I feel sorry for my new 90' fox body mustang but it's high output EFI with that T-5 and posi trac rear end will be going under the "knife" this weekend or the next!!!