I have a 302 block from a 75 F150 that I want to rebuild and put into my car. My goal is 350 RWHP naturally aspirated (no s/c), it must be daily drivable, and my budget is less than $2000. Where would be a good place to start? Would a stroker kit be the way to go? How much would it cost?
Is the 75 block worth starting out with? I have a machine shop at school, so labor wouldn't be a factor.
What ignition, fuel systems would be best? I was thinking of going fuel injected.


Wow, bunch of questions... lol

 

Try andersonford.com they have some nice kits.

 

fuel injection might be too expensive for your budget, but thats just my opinion...

 

double post...

 

I was thinking of something along the lines of a cobra intake and fuel injection system. Or would a 94-95 5.0 be better. What was the difference between the GT and SVT 5.0's in 94-95?

 

5.0's get their power from the heads cam and intake. the stock heads have only 124cc intake runners so other than a s/c or t/c heads give the most power as far as 94-95 cobra motors go they are identicle to the 93 cobra except for the intake you can get a power package made by Trick Flow for about $2,450 it comes with everything but the lifters

 

thanks, is comp cams a good brand? and the 93 cobra's did they have the GT40 heads?

 

Imo scrap the 75 block. I don't know where your from but greenleafauto.com. they have a 94 GT block, that has been remanufactured for only 1996.00 including shipping to the area code that I typed in, or 802.00 for a used 95 GT block with 100,000+ miles. For what it is thats the path that I would take. Let me know if you need help with green leaf.

 

yeah they had GT40 heads with crane 1.7 rockers as far as the comp cam I would get either the 274HR or the 282HR

 

Is that the price for just the bare block or complete engine assembly? If thats the bare block that price is insanely high.

 

Your gonna do your own machine work? That'll save some coin fer sure, 2k and right around 400+ at the crank, that's gonna require some pretty good parts on a 302 (1.32hp/ci)

Hmmm.... check out the AFR site for some ideas
http://www.airflowresearch.com/ford_dyno.php
You can reference the heads for flow data and get an idea of what you need - I'm not endorsing AFR, but thier dyno engines make for a handy reference and you can check out flow data to see about where you need to be. On the 402hp engine they use a Vic jr. manifold, so it shifts the power up in the rev range and makes getting the big peak number easier.

Is your block bare or do you have a crank and set of rods to go with it? 2k is a tight budget since a good set of heads will soak most of that up, if your going F/I then you won't be able to get all crazy with the cam (lift is no problem but duration and overlap are), if you have a crank and a set of rods, not muchto be done there, clean up the crank and clean up the rods (polish, weight match and fit with new rod bolts) and get a good set of inexpensive forged pistons and a good set of rings (nothing fancy, just make sure the valve reliefs are minimal). Stick with small chamber heads as well, your gonna need to keep the compression up and the small chamber will also help control spark knock (as will an aluminum head).

 

yes, i have crack shaft, piston, rods,all factory.

 

Stock rods and crank will do if you don't pound on them with a big shot of nitrous, just inspect them and clean them up and get new fasteners for the rods, well all new fasteners for the engine would be a good idea in general - no need to get all fancy with studs, just good quality bolts will do.

Are you going to do a roller motor or flat tappet? Roller will cost more, if your going flat tappet and F/I remeber to use the 351 or HO firing order, Ford's efi is sequential and is based on the 351/HO firing order, older 302's used a different firing order so the caming timing events are different and wont work with the F/I. Roller (meaning hydrualic roller) stuff tends to be all 351/HO firing order. if you go flat tappet it will be easier to rev the motor, but it wont be as an aggressive cam, if you go hydraulic roller, you can get a more aggresive cam, but you'll be limited in rpm (you can get hyd roller to rev, it just costs more - hollow stem valves, titanium retainers, beehive valvesprings - that kind of stuff).

If your doing your own machine work, a good bit of power can be found by squaring the engine up (blueprinting so to speak, and generally indexing it off the crank), also torque plate hone the motor and get as close to zero deck as you can - the former will make sure the bores are round with the cylinderheads clmaped down ,the latter will help build compression, increase quench and minimize dead space which all helps in controlling detonation and improving the burn. Also degreeing in the cam and checking valvetrain geometry will be a big plus. Also set your clearences correctly, no need to get crazy unless your ultimate goal is using some sort of power adder, by using a fairly tight setup, you can run a thinner oil using a stock volume and pressure oil pump which doesn't take as much power to turn. The onething I would get heavy duty would be a waterpump, this allows you to run underdrive pulleys and not worry about cooling problems and with a good pump running high block pressure you can get away with more compression (reduced hot spots and steam pockets).

Like I alluded to earlier, your gonna need a good set of cylinderheads, stock stuff would have to be significantly modified in order to get to that 400hp at the crank using reasonable compression and cam timing, by the time you've spent the money modifying the stock stuff, you'll have spent enough to have purchased a good set of aftermarket heads (I learned this after spending about 5,000 dollars on 3 sets of stock heads).

Ultimately if I were you, I'd map out the engine first (heads, intake, cam are the most relavent, then exhuast) and get a parts list going so you can budget things out - also call the parts vendors and get thier input, just need to tell them what your interested in building and what thier reccomendations are and go from there.

 

thanks for the info. another question, transmission? manual or auto, it is auto now, and I like auto, but would it be reliable enough, or should I find a T-5?

 

Depends, I suppose, IMO I prefer a manual, I went through 2 automatics before I switched my car over to an M5, but given the power output your after I don't think a T-5 would hold up any better than a DOA if the car hooked up, I think the cheaper route would be to get a C4 and beef it up, the only downside would be a lack of overdrive and running a significant amount of gear and stall depending on engine combination.

Might also want to think about your combination as a whole and what your goals are? One of the nice things about the fox car is its light weight, which can be made lighter still if your a bare bones kinda person. Converting the car to manual brakes, manual steering and setting it up for drag duty (big n' little wheel combo) along with stripping out the AC and cruise control can make the car down right feathery in weight which would reduce the amount of power you need if your hunting for a specific ET.

 

Thats entire remanufactured engine assembly, no exhaust manifolds, intake tube or ac

 

seeing as how you have the bottom end you should be good with the 75 f150 block. Just check the block before building. You wouldn't want to use a cracked block.

 

I also have the stock dis, carb, cam, oil pump, water pump...

I have been thinking of using 93 cobra heads, and aftermarket rockers, cam, etc... for the 93 heads. would the crank be the same, or should I get one off of a 93 block?


My goal is primarily a show car, but one that if I wanted, could run 11's or so in a quarter mile. It'll probably be driven at least 100 mi. a week, some time a little more. Would the rearend in mine be acceptable, how could I be sure as to which rearend I have anyways?

 

Heads are interchangible, so no need to worry about crank problems, 93 cobra heads are non adjustable so that presents a slight problem, but the heads are good none the less since they are basically GT40 heads.

Are you running a carbed or EFI engine? and have you decided on hydraulic roller, roller, or flat tappet?

 

I'm going to use roller rockers, EFI...

Would I need a higher perf. fuel pump? Would 24lb/hr injectors be good enough?

I found a comp cams kit, part # k35-349-8 I wonder if it would do good...