About to begin a winter project. I have an old 302 that has been sitting in my shop for about a year. I pulled it out of a '74 pickup. It was smoking pretty bad when I pulled it. My plans are to rebuild it and then find something to put it in later on. I don't necessarily want it to be a powerhouse. Just something that will run nicely and that I can put it in something (old pickup etc...) to drive around with. I have done plenty of engine swaps, but I've never rebuilt an engine before, so I'm going to be totally new to it. I have a video that shows the rebuild of a 351W from the block up and i have been watching it. Any words of wisdom or advice that would be good to know before I start? Books or tools i should invest in? I know these may sound like dumb questions, but remember, I am admittedly dumb on the topic (i prefer the term ignorant though, Haha) Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

well you can first start by tearing the motor down to the bare block and taking that to a machine shop to see what work it needs. This will determine what parts are ordered and installed. take the crank and heads also to have them checked. once this is done and figured out all that is left is assembly. talk to a few of the local offroad shops on who is a good machine shop, trust me its worth the hassle.

 

Grab a copy of this book and read it cover to cover at least once...

How To Rebuild Small Block Ford Engines: Amazon.ca: Tom Monroe: Books

 

I just rebuilt an FE 390. The last time I did anything to an engine was 26 years ago on a 302. My two cents are these: 1) Get a good book, 2) triple check everything in every step, and 2) Clean, Clean, Clean. Make sure every surface and part is as clean as possible. Inspect for metal shavings.

1970 Ford F100 FE 390 Rebuild (2nd run) - YouTube

 

Don't waste money on "go fast parts". Build the engine larger first. Take your cylinder heads to a good machinist, and have him cut the valve seats for larger valves. You might consider asking him to move the valve guides out for even larger valves. I bought Chevy valves for my Ford. I sized the valve stems by length, and diameter to match my cylinder heads. Next I put ten hours with a die grinder into my combustion chambers. Valve shrouding is a major issue to begin with not to mention now that the valves are so large. I not just eliminated valve shrouding, but I also made the surface of the combustion chamber smoother than stock so I can rum lots of compression, and spark advance. You don't want to oversize ports as that is like keeping the valves open too long, it bleeds off low end torque. Every small Block Ford cylinder head I have ever had had 126.5 cc intake ports stock. I focused on widening out the tight bends in the head making them much more gradual and gentle for the air to flow. My ports are very smooth too, but I am not sure that is optimum for the intake ports. My exhaust are like silk, and have very gradual bends. I had to eliminate the horrible smog bumps. Small Block Fords suffer from tiny exhaust ports in relation to their intake ports. They are both too small to begin with. 350 Chevys have Vortec 165cc intake ports which is great on a 350/351 cubic inche V8. Don't go too large here.

As for the camshaft, longer valve open duration bleeds off low end torque. The stock camshaft was fine. You would do well to have a more aggressive lobe but you would need zinc in your oil. I have a Schneider 208/214 duration hydraulic flat tappet camshaft. I was instructed by the Shcneider that a 108 or 110 lobe seperation angle would be optimum. More overlap confuses EFI but torque-wise you want less duration and less/tighter LSA. Schneider told me that my camshaft was not compatable with stock calibrated EFI. They gave me the widest torque curve they could.

I think that a richer 12.5:1 air fuel ration will tolerate more compression, and spark advance. I am going this route, and will be keeping my EFI in open loop with Moates Quarterhorse, and datalogging with a wide band o2 sensor.