The time has come and I've dreaded this over and over but finally have come to terms with it. I need to rebuild my 302 . and I really don't know where to start with rebuild kits or doing it in general.

I would like to use the same block I have but if I come across a great clean 302 block for under 200 i will most likely jump on that.

Now I have my block, where do i start? I'm keeping my edelbrock performer manifold, and carb. i'd like to get GT40p heads unless someone recommends better ones for the same price or cheaper and the performance is the same or better. i'm also getting a comp cam unless you know of a better one? that's all i'm keeping. I have a points dist. but I want to upgrade to an electronic one, i've seen them on ebay for about 60 bucks with shipping.

i've never done a rebuild kit and would like to know of a good performance rebuild kit. summit has rebuild kits for about 440.00 and ebay has them from 275-400.00 If i'm planning on keeping my above items can i get a basic kit with all the parts and be fine using those with the upgraded parts i'm keeping? i'm not looking to get loads of power out of my engine. it's just a weekend driver for now and will be adaily driver under 5 miles per day once its all done.

any ideas please send them this way!

 

High vol. oil pump/7 qt. pan /high flow waterpump/hei dist/8mm wires/ mike the crank so you get the correct bearing size. closer the better oil pressure you will receive. I'm not MOTORHEAD but these are the basics

 

Before you buy a rebuild kit, first make a decision on which block you are going to use. Have the block vatted and and inspected. Does your block need to be bored? Does the crank need to be turned? You will need to know all this to buy the correct pistons, rings and bearings. I would: replace all lifters, replace timing chain and gear (this is a weak point for the older 302 engines), replace the cam bearings, replace oil pump, water pump and fuel pump. It makes no sense to put worn out parts on a newly rebuilt engine block. Replace all freeze plugs. Have the heads refurbished with new valve guides, valve grind and check the valve springs for proper tension, replace if necessary. Check the push rods for wear. If you do not replace the push rods, make sure they are clean and the inside rodded out to insure proper oil flow. Make sure you get a good quality gasket set. In the past some of the valve guide seals have had a problem with getting brittle and breaking off, getting into the oil and jamming the oil pump. Just some thoughts of what I would do if I were to be doing the job. Hope this helps.

Gil

 

Remanufactured Engines by City Motor Supply - Domestic and Import

I bought my shortblock and gasket kit through these guys. They'll even top your motor with GT40 heads(make sure you tell them GT-40 and not Gt-40p, and then check them before you accept the motor-don't ask.). The guy to talk to is John Deer(I'm not making it up). I bought my Fiero short block from them about 5 years ago and I bought my 302 short block (with hyper pistons) from them about 18 months ago. The Fiero engine runs great, and I hope to have the 302 fired up in a few weeks. I went with the GT-40 heads, but I bought them on Ebay they were NOS.

 

From the sound of things, you need to find a good machine shop.....disassemble your engine and take the parts in to get everything measured. Your machinist will measure the crankshaft bearing surfaces to see if they're worn (that's want Arrowhead Fred means by mike the crank). If it's worn you have options, but the general thing is to have the crankshaft ground to a slightly smaller diameter, and use bearings that are slightly thicker to compensate for the smaller size (that's called an undersized bearing). Your machinist will also measure your cylinders. If they aren't worn too much he'll hone them to clean off the varnish from years of oil cooking on the surface. If they're worn, he'll recommend boring the cylinders. A good machinist will go to the minimum overbore size required to clean up the cylinders (say .010 or .020 oversize). Some guys try to get extra cubic inches by boring as big as they can go (like .060 oversize), but I think that will contribute to overheating later because of thin cylinder walls. After you get these measurements, you can figure out bearings, pistons, and rings to order. Your machinist will also evaluate your connecting rods to make sure that the big end is still round.

Next...the heads....you said that you're looking for GT40 heads....so see what you can find. If you go with your existing heads, your machinist will check the wear on the valve guides and probably grind the valves and seats to recondition the sealing surfaces. The valves beat themselves into the valve seat every time they close, not to mention the damage done by hot exhaust gasses flowing past the exhaust valve...so a valve job is mandatory when you overhaul the engine.

Summit has good pricing on engine kits, but sometimes your local machine shop can match the price & they'll make sure that you get the right parts.

gdgerland is spot on with regard to cam bearings, lifters and timing chain replacement.

Here's another thought....I have an OT general purpose 3/4 1995 pickup that I use for towing the boat & hauling stuff....the engine is flat worn out, so I priced all of my options. I picked up a rebuilt exchange engine at O'Reilly for $1300. I plan to swap it in later this week. I couldn't beat the price & I didn't want to take away time from my 52 project truck so I went for the pre-done engine. I also know that my truck has so many miles on it that it'd require a crankshaft turning, and cylinder bore job....the dollars can add up fast for a good overhaul.

Dan

 

Jeez...yall sure do like to spend money...or maybe your machine shop is bending you over!

First, what made you decide it is time to rebuild? Is it weak? Why is it weak? Are you getting excessive blowby, low compression, low pressure...these things will tell you exactly what is wrong. Become good friends with your machine shop. If they are any good they can become a very valuable asset in your near future.

Depending on what you expect to get, you can go overboard with a rebuild. Depending on the miles you may not have to do much at all. Get a micrometer, some plastigauge and a book that specs all your bores and clearances to see if you even need to oversize anything. Take a good look at your crank and main bearings for ANY signs of uneven wear, measure your crank to see if it needs turned or replaced. Chances are...its fine. Same with your cyl bores...measure in numerous places to see if they are egg shaped. Measure down the hole, not where the carbon ring is at the top. All measuring can and should be done for free, this way you know exactly what needs fixed rather than spending a fair sum of cash to have everything done anyways.

FoMoCo heads are a hot button topic, and there are countless threads about them. Per the masses, if you want to upgrade go aluminum. I went a different route...6 of one half a dozen of the other...I rather like my early castings.

I would not exactly dictate a high volume oil pump unless one is needed. You can wash out bearings that way. If it is mostly a stock bottom half, the high volume can be used, but it is not demanded. Also, when replacing a cam, a timing set is in order anyways but it is in no way the weak link in a SBF. The only weak link is the oil driveshaft, and you can eliminate that by getting the 351 setup for the beefier driveshaft.

Cam brands...thats on you my friend. I wouldn't so much care about the brand as the specs and that it fits in where you want to be. If you find a high winding cam and you barely crack 3000RPM...you are wasting your money. Get a good cam for how you drive that matches the RPM range offered by your intake. If you just want to re-work your heads you could probably save some money but depending on the cam you pick you could be leaving HP on the table if you don't seriously upgrade the heads. Heads are the #1 HP adder on a SBF, so don't neglect em.

Bottom line, see what is worn (and how bad it is) and go from there. You may just be looking at bearings (rod, main, and cam), rings, gasket set, and renting a hone to put a nice cross hatch on your walls for the bottom half. The rest (the top half) honestly depends on what you want out of it, how you drive, and how much you want to spend. Bottom line, start reading cam charts and charicteristics to get an idea of what does what and how it acts. You will be surprised how much or little cam you may actually need.

 

Unless you are using this experience to build a skill set in engine building, you may want to consider a service such as carnut suggested or a trusted builder in your area. I use a machine shop here in San Diego where the same machinist does all the work on my engines from tear-down to machining to reassembly/paint. I couldn't buy the parts and pay for each step of the machine work for less than what he charges me for a complete engine. If you are interested in buying a complete engine I have a new 302 and a C4 from a 70 Mustang ready to install...left over from a project that I didn't use.

 

I'm going to have to second a lot of what has been posted. I've got a lot of experience building motors for daily drivers, race cars, pulling, etc., and it all boils down to what you want out of it, and what you have to work with. Personally, I prefer the later 5.0 block if going small Ford. It's a hydraulic roller cam block, and they are plentiful, and cheap to find. Then, if you are wanting excellent power gains, and torque curves, the AFR heads are currently the best available for the money. Camshafts play a major roll in how it will huff, and puff. Good rockers help reduce the top end friction. A good rotating assembly is worth the money. A great combo to build, is a 331 stroker using a 5.0 roller block, and AFR heads. Stuff a moderate bump stick in it, and some good intake, and headers, and you'll have small block engine with big block power. 302 engines have a short stroke rotating mass, and suffer a lack of torque production without good mods. The sky is the limit on what you can do, but it all comes down to WHY you want a rebuild, WHAT you want out of it, and HOW you want it perform, and most importantly, HOW MUCH MONEY you want to spend. Daily driver, a nice little lightly modified 302 is plenty. A nice street strip type attitude, shoot for 400+ HP, and comparable lb-ft of torque. Tons of info on here, and many years of combined experience. Make your plan, come up with an intended goal, and shop, and compare from there. ASK TONS OF QUESTIONS, and thoroughly investigate your machine shop of choice.

 

Sorry, Fordman, but that's a hard sell after being left setting on the side of the road in the middle of the night 100 miles from home when that fiber timing gear that Ford originally installed in the 302 engine let go. After I replaced it with a metal gear, no more problems. Happened to me on two different engines (1968 & 1980). You are right about the oil pump drive shaft, lost one of those also.

Gil

 

I have never seen a fiber timing gear in a SBF. I never dealt with later models, mainly early stuff, but even still they were all steel gears with chains. Thats not to say they were never used...it just means I never tied into them. They were all replaced with a stock style Melling or Cloyes timing set save for my most recent 289, I went with a Cloyes gear to gear.

Yeah, the fiber crap sucks...always has. If that is what they were using then ditch it and go with a Melling timing set. I am not saying Ford never used the fiber gear, just saying I never ran into one.

 

Hey guys,

thanks for all the replies this is amazing!! I'm headed out right now to finish some work then i'll be back to go through each on of these and explain ever answer to hopefully narrow down some idea's.

 

I'd like to keep my current block if able to. I'm sure it needs to be hot tanked, cleaned etc so I expect that. As for the problem, this weekend it was running, but the idle sounds like its chugging real hard, not smooth at all. so we decide to play with the advance timing and it was working good to a point. once it was set to a smooth idle with no problems like back firing it would just go to a slow die no matter if you gae it gas or not.

throughout trial and error once we had it running smooth it would back fire ( only did this three times during our advancing) then it would die. Once we put it back to it's orignal spot we started her again, running rough but it ran. so we replaced the dist. cap and rotor with a new one since i recently replaced the spark plugs. Started back up once then died and to this moment has not started back up.

Side note: filled her up with 5 gallons of fresh gas on top of the gallon or two she had, replaced the oil with fresh oil and one quart trans fliud, and of course used an engine cleaner for about 5 mins as directed and it worked to clean some of the engine out not all i'm sure.

there was a small fuel dribble on the line but we sealed it up good. that's about it for the problems and brings it to current.

When we did get the motor running it would leak white smoke from the valve covers, which we replaced with fresh gaskets and sealer, no more white smoke from there but it would pour out white smoke from the breather cap, even more once the engine was shut off.

my PVC valve is not hooked up but i will look at doing it this next time i'm down probably this weekend.

 

Without being there, and seeing what it's doing, all we can do is guess, and maybe offer ideas as to what could be causing what. Check all the cylinders for fire, one at a time, and do a compression check. I would also highly recommend a cylinder leak down. These few tests will determine the condition of the engine. Do a coolant pressure test as well. Beyond that, Fords are known to slack in the cam gear if it's the kind with the fiber teeth, and they're also known for distributor gear issues, like maybe it stripped the roll pin, and the timing is off on the distributor shaft.

 

From what you have posted I would suggest that you have more serious problems than those that can be resolved through changes in timing and valve cover gaskets. There are basically two types of visible airborne particulates that can come out of an engine; smoke and steam. In most cases smoke will be black or white...black is usually attrubuted to a rich fuel condition and white is burning oil. Steam is for the most part white. You are saying that you are seeing white "smoke"...is it really smoke or is it steam? Steam will dissipate quickly, smoke will not. Assuming that you have correctly identified the white emissions coming from your engine as smoke, I would offer that you are burning oil somewhere internal to the engine. There are many causes for this including broken rings, restricted oil returns, head gasket failure, etc. wmjoe1953 offers some good advice...maybe your base hobby shop has a leak down tester that you could use to see if any single cylinder is having compression/sealing issues. If this is a high-mileage engine you may as well cut to the chase and tear it down for a rebuild...

 

Whatever you decide, I assume you'll run it with an air-filter?