I am planning on finishing my truck then doing some major engine work. Right now I have a mild cam and flat pistons in an early 302 mexico block. I wanted to know if you guys can think of any way to get that block up to 400 hp. I dont really want to make it a stroker if it can be done but if not then thats what I will have to do. I dont have any smog related parts or even power brakes to take vacum. I just want this engine to kick some honda butt. How can I do it? The only requirements are to keep the block and heads. The heads are 289 54cc that will be ported. Thanks

 

Port the crap out of those heads and throw in a big cam that matches the flow characteristics of the heads, would really pay to know what they actually flow, won't be easy without a flow machine, then again it wouldn't be easy if you had one. For a naturally aspirated 302 to make that kinda hp you need high rpms and a set of heads that'll flow enough air to support the hp you want, you'll need a high stall converter and low gears. Is this an efi motor? If so then expect to upgrade the fuel delivery and having it dyno tuned would be the best thing you could do. Good luck

 

Try Ford Power Parts in Norwalk, Ca. ( L.A. area) They have a lot of good stuff, all sorts of kits and parts. They have a website, but it's really just a page with an email link to get any info. It's www.fordpowerparts.com I built a 302 for my 1/4 mile oval Late Model Stocker with a lot of their parts several years ago. We wern't allowed by our rules to run a stroker, so I built a long rod motor. Stock crank, 289 rods, forged TRW pistons turned in a lathe to reduce the piston crown so it doesn't stick up through the block and hit the head. It still has a deck height of +.010, so you have to check it with your heads and use a gasket with a compressed thickness of around .040-.050. It makes a real nice package, doesn't change the stroke or displacement, but the longer rods allow the pistons to dwell at TDC a little longer and build a little more power. I ran this combo for three years at 7200 rpm with no problems, with stock (although reworked) rods. However, I would advise aftermarket rods with 3/8" bolts. A little extra insurance. You've got a good block, I like those Mexican blocks with the beefy main caps and the high nickle content. With the small chamber heads that you have, you're going to be looking at some serious compression. I know we're talking some bucks here, but maybe you should look at some of the aftermarket heads. You can still get iron heads and save some money over the aluminum, and you'll get bigger and better ports, well designed combustion chamers and a more reasonable compression ratio that will work better with our crappy California gas. And the price difference will be offset by what you'll save by not having to pay a professional to port those 289 heads, something that I don't recommend doing yourself unless you have a lot of experience, or some junk heads to practice on. It's too easy to port right into a water jacket. I don't recommend 12:1 and 7200 rpm on the street for a daily driver, so the 400 hp figure may be a little optimistic on a naturally aspirated engine running pump gas, but you do have a lot of options, and I mean a lot! I've detuned my motor a little from race trim and am prepping it to go in my Tiger. I've put in a milder cam, and will run Twisted Wedge aluminun heads. I also will run a 4bbl carb, until I swap over to F.I. We were only allowed to run a Holley 500cfm 2 bbl. at our track, so what I lose in compression and rpm I should more than make up for with better flowing heads and more carburation. Good luck to you, and be sure to do a lot of research before you go plunk down a lot of money on something that may not be exactly what you want in a truck. -TD

 

Those were the words of advice that I was looking for. Thanks. I will however have the time do to the research because with college taking money and redoing the body taking more money and everything else I will definately look at all the options that I can find.

 

Dan, any idea what the numbers were on your race engine? How much less output from the detuned version? I've heard of people mention a long rod engine, but I didn't have a clue. I'm always interested in how to build a better small block.

 

Steve, Wish I had the numbers to give you, but there are no dynos in our area, and we were kind of a low-budget operation anyway. The best guesstimate that we had was 350-375 hp, coming in between 6000-7000 rpm. As for the de-tuned version, it hasn't hit the street yet because I'm still waiting on the heads (actually, the money for the heads!) But I'm not sure that de-tuned is really the right term for it, because I can do some things to a street motor that we wern't allowed to do by our track rules. It's still a fairly healthy cam, it'll just bring the peak power on a bit lower in the rpm range, and as I said before, we were very restricted on our carburation. We were also not allowed to do any porting, and had to run stock heads. Not to say that we didn't fudge a little bit! I expect that the Twisted Wedge heads, straight out of the box, will be a significant improvement over the stock(?) heads we were running, and I'm still hoping to be in the same total hp range. The project is temporarily on hold as I do not currently have a space to work, and the car is in storage 45 miles away. As for the details on a long-rod motor, get the Ford Power Parts catalog, they explain it all much better than I can. -TD

 

1low50, I had another thought on low-buck heads for power gain. You might want to consider building a fake Boss 302. The original Boss engine was basically a 4-bolt main block with 351c 4v heads. You can achieve a similar result by swapping in a set of 351c 2v/351m/400 heads, or, if you can find them, Australian heads. I know this violates your original condition of using the heads you already have, but hey, you wanna make some power, right? The heads or almost a bolt-on swap, but there are some water jacket differences. I believe there is a water passage on the heads that must be plugged, and a new one drilled. I haven't done this, but I've read about it. I have an article on it somewhere, I'll look for it if you are interested. You will have to get a special intake manifold, an original Boss 302 manifold is too rare and expensive, but there are aftermarket manifolds made for this swap. In case you're not familier with the different heads on the 351c, I'll go into it briefly. The 4v heads have larger intake and exhaust ports, and smaller combustion chambers than the 2v version, referred to as "quench" chambers. These chambers were around 64.6-67.6 cc's depending on year, verses the 2v "open" chambers that came in at around 73.9-76.9cc's. So you would want to consider pop-up pistons to keep your compression up, esp. with the 2v heads. These have to be special pistons, because the valves on a 289-302 are parallel with the center line of the block and the 351c heads have what are known as "canted" valves, which are off on a diagonal to the center line of the block, so the pop-up on the pistons is what is known as a "poly-angle" Confused yet? I know I am! Anyhow, the ports are so huge on 4v heads that on a small block they don't really flow smoothly till you hit about 8000 rpm. Too much turbulance, as I recall. The 2v heads have smaller ports that flow better at lower rpm, but you're stuck with the big, open chambers. The Austrailian heads are supposed to be the perfect solution, because they offer the smaller quench chambers with the larger exhaust ports, but use the smaller intake ports. There are also things called "port plates" that bolt between the manifolds and the head with tongues that extend into the ports to reduce the volume of the port and make it flow better at low rpm on the 4v heads. As 4v heads are fairly rare and expensive (I have pair that I'm going to sell as I want to put 2v or Australian heads on my 351c) you probably will want to leave them alone. So there you have it, some other options. -TD

 

Well before I had the 302 I did have a 351c. There are a few stories to tell but both clevelands that I had destructed. The first one lost an oil pump for 10 miles and the second just smashed the 5 and 6 pistons into the cylinder walls. Anyhow I do know of the difference in the heads and have recently seen the clevor heads on ebay for pretty cheap. The price makes me think that they may be a cheaper version. Anyhow that is another option for me, but I dont really understand how those would help me? Is it just an easier or cheaper way to get to the better flowing heads without the porting and 1000 price tag. The manifold is usually the harder part to find though.

 

Yes, that's what I was thinking, those are heads with a major flow improvement already built in. I have been interested in trying it out myself, I just don't have anything that I could run it in. The engine compartment on the Tiger is too tight for those bulky heads, and I don't want to add the weight either. Same for the race car. I have the room, but don't want any more weight on the front end. Just a thought, though. -TD

 

Plus, there's the inherent coolness factor of having a Boss 302...no one but an expert would know that it's not a real Boss.