Hi I am going to be building a 302 to run exclusivley on E85 for a ranger I am building.

Its out of a explorer so its a roller block with GT-40 Heads.

I want somewhere around 13:1 CR to take full advantage of the 105 octane rating of E85.

I was just curious what pistons, cam, rocker arms, ect would be best suited for this engine.

It will be a DD as here in Minnesota you cant not find E85 stations.

And there are no emissions inspections here so that is not a problem either.

Also what kind of HP/TQ numbers can I expect form a 13:1 302 with a good cam setup??

Thanks

 

It's going to take some effort to generate 13:1 static compression with a 302. I built a new Explorer 5.0L to put in my Falcon last spring and was surprised to find that it was a bit of a challenge to even get 9.5:1 out of it with flat top pistons and Eddy Performer RPM heads with 60cc combustion chambers. I had to use a .039" thick head gasket, mill the deck for 0 deck clearance, and search for pistons with the smallest valve reliefs I could find. The GT40 heads have bigger 64cc combustion chambers than what I was working with. You're looking at milling the heads to reduce combustion chamber size and domed or pop-up pistons at a minimum to get your compression up there. I ran a few quick scenarios through a compression calculator and it looks like you can get 13:1 by running zero deck clearance, a .030 overbore, milling the heads to 58cc, .039 head gaskets with a 4.100 gasket bore, and pistons with a 14cc dome. It certainly sounds like an interesting project and it can be done, but it's going to require some expense and a lot of homework. If you are building it from the ground up anyway, you might consider a stroker kit. The extra displacement will help generate compression and the cost is not going to be much more if any than rebuilding with a stock bottom end. As far as the cam goes, forget about any off-the-shelf cam. For that level of compression and E85, it will almost be mandatory to invest in a custom-ground camshaft.

 

221 heads. They have 45 cc chambers. Of course they have pretty tiny valves, but that can be fixed.

260 heads are a bit bigger chamber, but have bigger valves and ports.

 

"cant not"? Are you going to use it as a DD since you cannot find any E85-pumps around?

Anyway, a stroker-kit will lift compression to a accaptable level for E85.
To get real power you would need some better heads, like 58cc AFR 185.

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