So the old 302 was set up mainly for road racing etc. AFR 165's, and initially ran LT's with a cheapo h pipe setup, a low rise dual plane and an ots Crane hyd roller. Converted to a custom hyd roller from Ed, RPM Air Gap and Dougs Tri-Y's with a Dr Gas X. The 302 never ran right, has a 5.7 SBC rod in it, runs great over 3k but ALWAYS had issues running lean under 2k, and so rich the engine wanted to die between 2-3, after 3 would normalize. Once the tri-y's went on, it got untunable(at least with the carb). Bewteen excess fuel thinning the oil, and leaning out, combined with a stock oiling system...beat some bearings out of it.

So now I have a 331 short block in the garage. Basically going from a 302 with AFR 165's, custom hyd roller set up for broadest torque from 3-6.5k, and 9.4 compression to a 331 with the same heads and cam, and 10.25 compression. Figure peak power will prolly be around 5,600-5,700 and shift at like 6-6.2k.

Definitely gonna need more tire though, never had enough to begin with. But considering the times were with a smaller intake, ots cam and a less than optimal LT setup, and was never really running right to begin with, I'm kinda curious what it'll run with traction, fair weather and a right and proper tune. It'll definitely be a beast on a road course though, especially for a 45 year old street car. =)

 

331, 10.3:1 compression, but with my custom 302 cam from Ed Curtis and the AFR 165's. Pretty ridiculous amount of torque from off idle up to 6k rpm.

Still has some rich spots that need some TLC with the carb, but it runs a lot better.

The heads are gonna need a valve job at some point, lots of miles. I'll either have Ed set me up with some ported 165's or go with like the AFR 185 Comp package.

 

^ Good to see an old, fast, driveable ride. Nice work.

 

Daily driver. Commute about 55mi each way to work, plus some occasional driving for work. So it sees between 110-125mi a day.

 

That's a good amount of miles. How's the fuel consumption?

My '94 is my daily, and it's pushing 175K miles. I'd like to be able to remove it from daily duty, warm up the 302 to 275+ RWHP and set up the suspension to handle. Then find a nice '03+ Crown Vic LX Sport to make a nice daily, but those two events won't happen anytime soon.

 

Right now mileage is prolly low-mid 20's on the highway. Barely 2,100rpm at 70mph. Most of my commute is highway. Still needs tuning though, running really rich.