iight i bought a 1988 GT for my first car and im buildin it up i wanna swap out the old 302 for sumtin new but im not sure wut...i was thinkin bout a big block but im not sure how much work it would take to get one into the car...my other idea was to put a 351 but how much power can i push out? i need sum advice...thanks

 

If it's your first car and your primary driver, you might wanna leave the 302 in for gas mileage sake... Cause if you're paying for your gas you're gonna suffer with a 351 or bigger.

A 351 can provide more than enough power for a street car, IMO. I would only use a big block if I were gonna drag race the thing... Not to mention they're a bit heavier than small blocks, so I would imagine the car wouldn't handle nearly as well with a 460 in it as opposed to a 302.

 

Are you doing your own mechanical work? If you have to pay a shop to do the work the it's gonna cost you plenty to swap to a different engine [:@]

& don't underestimate how much power you can squeeze out of a modified 302! Not to mention the small block is gonna be lighter than a 460 like FendrBendr said

 

WARNING: The 302 should NOT be f(cked with. Seriously. It's a hardcore engine. Get a s/c and some headers and it'll be faster than what you even want.

 

im not worried about gas mileage cuz im buyin a 2nd car for my primary driver so i could work on the mustang...my overall goal is to run 10 - 9 seconds 1/4 mile...can i get that out of the 302 or should i use the 351?

 

You can get it out of a 302, but I hope you're going to do some serious research as to what you're going to need to do to get a 9 second car.

I mean, you're going to spend WAY more in mods than what you paid for the car and the car won't drive much like stock anymore. It'll also have a full roll cage and just about every major component in the car will need to be replaced or compeltely re-built with high performance parts. Engine, transmission, drive train, suspension, fuel system, etc. etc.

All that will cost a lot, especially if you want it to stay street legal. Easier and cheaper if it's going to be a trailer car, but still expensive.

Either way, I'd strongly recommend you do some searches in the forums and look at a lot of the signatures of the people on here with serious drag cars. A lot of people list their mods, times and HP numbers in their sigs. that will give you an idea of what you're looking at.

If you just post up a "how do I make a 9 second car?" post, most likely noone is going to take you serious and/or give you any meaningful replies.

 

trust..i kno wut goes into buildin a 9 or 10 second car i dont plan on leavin a damn thing on the car stock...just curious which motor will give me more bang for the buck

 

351 or a built 5.4 would be more streetable

 

5.4 wuts thata 347?

 

I think it is a 331 maybe? They mostly come in trucks/suvs but if you bought one and put on a set of Cobra heads and a blower it would be a powerfull motor that would get better MPG than a pushrod motor