I own a 1989 F150 4X4, 302 EFI and manual trans. I have owned the truck since new and now requires an engine rebuild. The block will be bored .030 over- heads rebuilt with some porting work(especially on the exhaust side)-Comp Cams cam with In. .462, Ex .474 Gross lift and 250,260 duration respectively at .006 lift. I plan on installing Silvolite Hyperutectic piston #H3101 (this piston will raise the compression ratio some as is a true flattop without the .030 slight dish on top) Also am installing complete Bassani exhaust which includes shorty headers and high flow cat. Am doing the porting and assembly myself. I need opinions on my mods to see if I will run into any problems as far as drivability. I have read alot of back and forth on the speed density vs. air mass issue and now I'm spooked. I don't plan on converting to air mass and would prefer not to chip it. I use the truck everyday on the road. Looking for mileage and stock driveability but with increase in power overall. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

Kinda in the same mode. I am getting ready to rebuild my 89' 302 5-speed 4x4. I was thinking about 351 upgrade using a 95-96 f150 which is mass air. I have talked to several junk yards and i can get the 351 complete with computer, exhaust manafold w/y-pipe, wiring harness and the needed *** brackets but this would cost me about $900.00. All of the yards i have called only have 351's with automatics so i would have to get a 351 flywheel and harmonic balancer as the 302's wont work. this would add another 200-300 dollars. at this point 1,200 dollars into the project i would be ready to freshen up or rebuild the 351. with parts and labor i would be looking at about $2,200. I don't have anyway to justify that other then it would be nice to do.
So i kinda scrapped the idea. ad decidied to rebuilt my 302 knowing just about any change to the motor will confuse the speed density system. here is my plan so far i am about 3 or 4 weeks from starting so it might change.

I am going to port the intake and exhaust runners to match the intake and headers and work on the bowls some never did any head work before but after reading on it i am willing to try. i will then send the heads and block out for a 3-angle valve job and resurface if needed,
bore block .030 over replace cam bearing, frezze plugs, hot tank block
and heads total macine work about $290-350.

Summit racing has a deluxe rebuild kit for the 302 which includes all gaskets, bearing, and hypereutectic pistons, timing chain and gears, stock cam and lifters. $387.00 for the kit

new stock cluth assembly $160.00 ( thinking about the centerforce stage 1 kit $240.00)

performancecombos.com JbA nickel-crome headers 370.00
asp puwer pulleys $70.00

I replaced the exhaust last year removed the cat's and installed a 3" in/out hi-flow cat back to a 3" in/out dynamax muffler I think the single 3" exhaust is better then duals.

Well this is where i am at today. I haven't ran out of power on the 302 yet either off-roading or towing.

 

Fourtrax- Sounds like your in the same boat as I am. Converting to mass air is pricey and I prefer to spend the money on other mods if I can get by with it. I've been reading other posts here and am finding a mixed bag on this issue. Seems there are guys out there turning out huge horsepower and yet running the speed density system. They seem to be adamant that mass air is not needed on minor mods that we are talking about. Larger mods seem to require digital computer tweaking with devices that are available for this. Not familiar with this area and would like to stay away from that too.
I am interested in your mods and have a couple questions. Do you have a part number for that engine rebuild kit from Summit? Can't seem to find it online. Sounds like a decent price for the set. Also is the pulley system you speak of an underdrive set? Just learning of the underdrive thing now. As I understand it slows the air pump, AC compressor, water pump and fan but speeds up the alternator. Does this cause problems with engine cooling and reduction of AC cooling? Just wondering. Seems like there's power to be had by doing this mod but I don't want to run into other problems too. As far as porting the heads, I also plan on doing this myself. Never done it either but going to give it a try. The thermactor bump is definately going to be history. Do you plan on taking out the valve guide protrusion and blending into the roof? The heads are now sitting on my workbench and am starting to get the idea for what needs to be done.
The stage of the game I'm at now is. Engine is pulled and tore down and block is delivered to machinist. Am making final decision on pistons so he can hone accordingly. The hypers can be fit tighter than the cast so he's waiting on me. Just received the Bassani system the other day so I can begin to match porting to them. The Bassani looks nice. All stainless except for the shorties which are ceramic coated. 3" system- single outlet. Am told also that the single 3" flows better than dual outlet. Am shopping for clutch set too. Will consider the Centerforce set as you suggested. Will deliver heads to shop after porting for planing and valve job. Crank is at shop for grinding as journals looked tough. Rod and main bearings wer all copper which caused the OH to start with. Don,t know what happened there. Bores looked excellent with almost no discernable groove. Strange- upper end looks great after 130K but lower end shot!
Am interested in your progress. Thanks for the reply

 

I didn't get a prt number from summit i called PAWenginparts they had deluxe rebuilt kit for 458.00 i called summit and was asking some questions and the rep mentioned they had a kit (federal-mogal gaskets and bearing) for 378.00 i could not find it online either.
The only problem i have heard about with the pulleys is low alternater power at idle. I don't think this will be a problem but i found several aftermarket alternator's that have a 120amp+ max output and at idle put out more then the stock one does running full tilt. ( $170.00 for the 120 amp one). Since i plan on adding a winch and some daylighters in the future i have planned for this.
As for the heads, i am not sure how much i will take off till i take a look at them. I am not planning on messing with the guides much but you never know till i get there. If i mess up the heads then i will look closer at what i saw at www.powerheads.com for $695.00 you can get a nice set of 5.0 heads.
Other then the oil leaks and a little bit of blow back the truck runs good. so i plan an getting the kit with pistons .030 and bearing stndard if i have to have the crank ground then i will just get another set of bearing. I want to minimize down time so i will order the parts in a couple weeks once i get everything in i will park the truck and pull the engine. I planning for about 3-4 weeks of down allowing for some bad weather.

 

The cam your putting in,is it the speed density cam?Comp makes two almost identical cams,the one for SD has a 114Deg. lobe seperation.This limits the overlap and keeps the vacuum from dropping too much.If you use the other cam you could have problems with the MAP sensor reading low vacuum.

Billy

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-Mar-02 AT 09:46 AM (EST)]One more thing,do yourself a favor and either send your injectors out for testing and cleaning or buy a new set.I did'nt and now I'm having to go back and change them out.I found a set of new take outs for about 150 bucks on the net.I've been having a real rich fuel condition and think I've got one or more injectors leaking.I put in the comp cam,same specs as you listed for speed density computer.I also cut the heads a few thousandths and went with flat top pistons.Susprisingly,the low end torque did not pick up that much.It seems to pull harder now at higher rpms.Are you going to re-use the stock springs and valves.that's the only other regret I have.I went with a low budget valve train rebuild.If I had it to do again I'd change springs and put in the roller rocker conversion.At the least I'd look at the rockers real close.I re-used mine and I've got some valve train noise,not sure if it's a sticky lifter or just slack from re-using the rockers and pushrods.Also,if you get a gasket kit,throw away those rubber end gaskets for the lower intake.Just put a good bead of silicone(black).

Billy

 

thanks for the insight on the injectors and info on the rockers i dind't think about that. I was waiting valve job for the springs, in case i messed up the heads when i ventured in to the porting exercise. The summit tech said the cam was at oem specs. I will get more details next time i call. Thanks again

 

I set up a homemade injector test bench and flow checked cleaned and then flow checked again. Initially injectors were within 5% flow best to worst. After cleaning with over the counter fuel injector cleaner cut 50% with gasoline the injectors all flowed 3% higher and the differential came down to 3%. I suppose if I sent these off they might tweak the injectors to get closer to 1% differential but 3% is within acceptable tolerance and I saved money doing it this way. Patterns looked good and no leak-down at 43 PSI.

Billy, I checked the cam card for that CompCam cam part number 31-255-5. It has 114 deg. lobe separation as you described. This was a recomended cam by CompCam for our application. Hope it turns out OK. Was wondering if the over-rich condition that you experience is due to the speed-density system revolting to the mods. I was wondering what actually is seen if we over-modify our engines. Run rich-run lean- bad idle or what???

I plan on installing CompCams valve springs #942 (about 59 bucks).
Not an agressive cam but Comp recomended them and figure it wouldn't hurt. Hadn't thought too much about rockers and pushrods. What roller set-up would you run. Any part number recomendations are appreciated.

I might be spending too much time on piston selection but that is the part of the fun of the rebuild. I ran across a 5.0 build project in Ford Muscle and some of it applies to what I'm doing. Found out that not all flat-top pistons are created equal. They used the Silvite line in their project. They had a local shop do a customary reman. on a 1989 5.0 block. He stocked Silvite 1177 pistons for all their 289-302 rebuilds. Turns out that this is a destroked flat-top and would decrease compression by a half point. They ended up opting for the Silvite H3101 which is a Hyper flat-top that is not destroked. Appears that the Slivite 1195 would be the OE spec replacement. This piston (the 1195) has the 2.5 inch diameter by .030 deep dish cut in the top. I ran compression ratio calculations on all three for my build and came up with the following. 1177 at 8.726 CR. 1195 at 8.84 CR. H3101 at 9.146 CR. Not sure how valuable this info is but interesting. Ford Muscle said that the TRW-Federal Mogul pistons that they considered were non-destroked flat-tops but had larger valve notches cut in hence a 7cc piston volume vs. 3cc for the H3101 Silvite. CR for these fell closer to the OE 1195's. If you used the TRW-Fed Mogul flat-tops it is possible you wouldn't see much difference above the stock configuration. Actually the head planing process might have done more to increase CR than the pistons if this were the situation.

 

That is the same cam I'm using.I've been told if you use to much cam duration it sucks down the engine vacuum.The speed density set up uses the MAP sensor(manifold vacuum),if it sees the vacuum drop it richens the mixture.I'm running about 18.5" at idle.I'm not sure what it ran before the cam swap.If you look at some of the mustang sites,alot of guys there with pre-1989 stangs run modified engines.You just have to be careful with the cam.I think you'll be ok.I'm hoping it's an injector problem causing my rich condition.If not I'm not sure,I've checked everything else,All sensors working.The only other thing would be the pcm not getting out of open loop control.Speaking of sensors,I would consider replacing them when you put it back together.Especially the coolant temp. sensor,air charge sensor and 02 sensor as they are important in the fuel controls.If you're gonna be porting the heads,look on some of the mustang sites.They have some tech articles on head porting.

Billy