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Hey all. My little project of replacing my throwout bearing has snowballed. I have a new throwout bearing, but then I needed a new pilot bearing. But then I notice oil all over the back of the engine and saw that I needed a new rear main seal. I got the cap off to see that my main bearings are worn. From this point I had to decide whether to continue with this engine, and refresh it and spend lots of money just to basically rebuild it, or to buy and build a bigger, more powerful engine. Since bigger is better, well, you know where I'm going with this. Ive decided that its time to put a plan in place to replace the engine. But also will need a new transmission, bell housing and driveshaft (most likely). I want to build around 500 hp cheaply. I'm a new father who is working and going to school, so money is super tight. But once school is done, I'll be hopefully working in my new field, which is welding. My wife is working full time so thank goodness for that. But anyways, I wanted to get some honest opinions about how many cubic inches is best for street/strip and a good manual transmission. I have the original 302 and the NP435 transmission. Like I said, somewhere around 500 hp and a 5 speed manual. What are some good options for someone who is still learning about cubic inches and power per cube and all that. Rear main cap and bearing
Put rod and main bearings in the engine and drive it. You are talking about a project that will eat up time and money quickly, of which I assume you don't at this time have a lot of sitting around, considering you are a new dad and going to school. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry, and go for what you want.
Wants and needs are very different things with a new family, and a new president most likely coming in that may or may not wreck the economy.
I know I'm sticking my nose into your business, but please don't spend on a truck the time and money that your family needs.
500 HP is no small order . a 460 would be the cheapest way to get there but define cheap. and when I say 500 HP isn't cheap I'm talking about a real 500 HP . not the claimed 500 horse you always hear about by some guy who put a carb spacer , chrome valve covers and headers on his 7.5 -1 then turned the air cleaner lid over on his small block so he's sure it's between 500 -600 now. .
By the time you build an engine, , the cooling and exhaust system the transmission , driveshaft , bell housing and a clutch to hold it. along with all the other stuff you never thought about I'm just going to take a conservative guess you're going to be at least $7500 and that's doing all the work yourself and buying a lot of questionable quality parts. to do it right add thousands more.
Money can do most anything the question is how bad do you want it.
Believe me, im not spending money that my family needs. This is a long term project truck. Ive been driving it until last week when either the throwout bearing or pilot bearing started screaming in agony. As I saw the throwout bearing was bad, I looked to see the condition of the pilot bearing. It went bad as well. The all the oil was on the back of the engine so I knew it was a rear main seal, so now I've got the rear main cap off and can't get the top half of the seal out of the block. Then I saw how worn the main bearings were and thats when I really thought about it. Should I keep the 302 and just put it back together and drive it carefully, or should I find a bigger engine to build up and have fun with it? This is a play truck so it doesn't matter if it runs right now.
Only you can answer that question, but if it were me and I knew it would be years before I got the bigger engine built ( and plans change believe me ) I'd pull the 302 and do a budget rebuild on it and have the use of the pickup for now and the future.
I’d start with the engine half of your project. Build a nice 351w (or Cleveland if you want or maybe even a clevor!) and worry about the transmission later. That way you aren’t changing so much all at once. Striker kits for 351s aren’t that expensive and you could even start with a late 90’s MAF fuel injected one if you think efi would be nice.
After your new engine is in and running then you could swap in a 5 speed after that.
You may also want to shoot for a 400hp NA motor for now and add a blower or turbo later to get it up to 500hp
My first question would be, what is your honest opinion of what you are going to do with this truck when it's done. Is it a fun weekend driver? Is it going to be your daily driver? Is it ever going to a track,(other than to watch)? What the TRUCK is going to be is your most important question right now.
I would throw some bearings and seals in and enjoy. Build your dream engine while you can still drive the truck. 500 hp is about th limit for a stock 302 block they tend to split. I built 302 10yrs ago started with a 60s ford mexican was stroked to 347 with forged internals, custom cam by Jay Allen, Canfield aluminum heads big valves ported polished and chambers done also by jay, elderbrock air gap rpm intake and a holley dp. With a set of long tubes msd, dizzy and ignition box it made 471 hp on the dyno but it was over 10k for parts and machine work to do 10 years ago
If you're starting from scratch there's no reason to stay with a small block. there's no replacement for displacement, a 500 hp big block would be much more street friendly .
The biggest question is why ? a big heavy pickup that handles like a pig doesn't warrant the effort or expense if you look at it logically.
