Greetings Ford folks, Winter is upon us and my rusted out 73 Cadillac doesn't do much in the snow, It is time to awaken the Ogre (She has been parked for a while due to clutch issues) I am about to replace the Clutch with a heavy duty one as well as a new flywheel. I dont look at this truck as a tool or a mere machine, its like family its been there when nothing else was and with that said I will likely never part with it. But there is a problem, Her old 302 aint putting down that much power, no surprise for a low compression 80 302 with a ton of miles. But I need more out of her, Not fricken hot rod power but a little get up and go, and I need this on a budget. I have an 85 Project F150 that has a 351 modified (dont know how the previous owner got it in there) that has a 500 CFM holley 2 barrel that I am thinking about stealing for the Ogre and I have a set of headers I pulled off my brother in laws shop truck before he scrapped it and I think I can conoider some pipe around the T case for an okay exhaust system. what else can I do to get power? I cant afford a full on rebuild on this engine, at least not til next year. at the moment I could afford a mild cam I found on summit but I need to know if you guys think she can handle it without being rebuilt. constructive advice is greatly appreciated, My apologies for typos or grammatical errors I got off work and am tired as hell, Thanks

 

My .02 I would only do bolt on's, that will bemoved to the rebuilt motor.
I would not open the motor for a cam, don't think I would even do an intake swap.


The 500 Holley I would as it is a bolt on with no intake change.
If the exh is in good shape I don't know if I would go thru the trouble of headers and bending/welding pipe if the motor is that bad?
I just cant see spending money on a bad motor as what will the parts help? I can't see them adding much power if any at all before the motor is rebuilt.
Dave ----

 

You need to wait till you get more money so you can do something without wasting effort and time. Right now I would just keep it running.

The 351m is a poor choice. It never had very good power when it was new, and hop-up parts are few and far between.

In my experience cams do very little for a stock engine. Big waste of time and money.

To help the engine you have already, we need to know what year truck you have, and is it the original engine?

P.S. I think I saw in the post it's a 1980?

 

I hear you, it runs great but its gutless past first gear. the exhaust thats on it is garbage so I have no qualms about changing it. Likely going to swap the carb out very soon

 

its a 1980 with the original 302

 

I have a complete 302 that already has a 4 barrel set up on it that may drop in and is probably in better shape, may just have to go for a swap while im doing the clutch

 

The 351M's are truly gutless with the stock cam timing. The cam itself isn't too bad, but its timing is badly retarded. I'm not sure how much of it is in the cam or the timing chain - or both. But, a friend of mine recently put a 4bbl carb and a straight-up timing set on an otherwise-stock 400 and claimed it doubled the power. So, if I didn't have any money for a rebuild I'd put a straight-up timing set in it and a 4bbl on it and see what happens.

Now, when it comes time for the rebuild don't bother to rebuild it as a 351. There aren't decent pistons available for the 351M, but there are pistons for the 400, and the only difference is pistons and crank. See my web page on it here: 351M and 400 - ???Gary's Garagemahal.

As a teaser on what you can do with a 400 using Tim's pistons, cam, etc, I saw mine register 500 ft-lbs of torque on the dyno recently.

 

I hadnt planned on using the whole 351 out of the other truck just the sweet Holley 2 barrel carb thats on it

 

That may be a better way of going but the "probably" would a stopper in my book.


Do a leak down on both motors. This will tell you a lot and they don't need to run or crank over like needed for a compression test. The only thing would be oil PSI but you cant check that on any motor with out it running that I know of.


If the leak down shows it as being better then a motor swap with a new clutch may be the ticket.
Being a 4x4 it would be easier to pull motor for a clutch than transfer case & trany.
Dave ----

 

The other 302 with the 4 barrel set up was a good runner before it was pulled, but its been sitting for a few years so im going to go through and do a check up on it, thats what those headers I was talking about came off of

 

I would wait and do it right. Limit improvements to those that will bolt on wahtever engine you build. Maybe headers if you intend to stick with a small block. I'd recommend going to a 460 if you're doing a rebuild and want more power, but a mild 351w build will be way better than a stock smogger 302. So yeah, get headers and find a 351w that's a good core to build next year when a build is in the budget.

 

Hows it going folks? I got an update for anyone interested, I had a new clutch kit, and flywheel put in, New brake booster, a bunch of vacuum leaks fixed, Power is up, still slow but better then it was by far. went and got new tires today, I dont know what they did but my idle sucks now, may Have a new vacuum leak or the carb may need rebuilt but I will worry about that another day. other then that all is well

 

If that carb that you have on it now is the stock Motorcraft one I would rebuild the Holley 500 and bolt that on seeing you have to rebuild "A" carb anyway.


I did a Holley v2 500 swap on a AMC 304 motor in place of the Motorcraft carb. It was the best thing I ever did to the motor, it was a totally different beast.


What did you do for the exh.? Headers or just fit something to the stock manifolds?
Dave ----

 

its the stock manifolds and the cobbled together remains of the original exhaust, I am going to have the front suspension rebuilt and after that I will have a shop run true duals. I will probably be putting the holley 500 on after a bit

 

I see you live in New Mexico. Are they not very strict with their emissions laws? I thought Arizona was terribly strict? You may have to scrap the dual exhaust idea if it won't pass emissions.