302 performance

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Oct 29, 2008 | 10:14 PM

mattr83

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302 performance

i was wondering what i should do. i have a 1983 f150 with a 302. so far it has an edlebrock 289 performer intake with a 4-barrel carter afb carb k&n filter and a 351w cam regrind and its bored .020 over . im not looking to spend much but what would be the best cam/head/piston set-up i should use. thanks

Oct 30, 2008 | 07:07 AM

MBDiagMan

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From: NE Texas

Are you saying that it's rebuild time?

To answer these questions best, we need to know a lot about the truck itself and it's use:

What rear gear ratio?
What transmissin?
What size truck? Crew cab? Extended cab? Short bed?
What is it used for? Towing? No hauling? Heavy hauling?
What are you seeking from the truck? Fuel mileage? Performance? Towing power?

Oct 30, 2008 | 09:06 PM

mattr83

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deffinatly rebuild time..
3.55 gears with 36" tires. im thinkin 4.10s at least
single cab long bed
not much hauling at all
fuel milage is not an issue, max performance with torque and upper rpm hp

Oct 31, 2008 | 06:19 AM

MBDiagMan

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From: NE Texas

36" Tires!?!?!? WOW!!!

You need LOTS of torque for this truck. I really think that you would be dollars ahead if you were to look for a rebuildable 351W. The core value out of the junk yard is only about $150. Rebuild that and it will bolt right in place where the 302 was.

Then when rebuilding, use a short cam, small runner intake and small tube full length headers.

Building a high revving engine will not serve you well at all with these big tires unless you go to some REALLY low gears and I mean a lot lower than 4.11's.

Oct 31, 2008 | 08:12 AM

Conanski

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From: Ottawa, Ontario

Yep.. you need 4.56 gears just to get back to the stock final drive ratio, 5.36 would be equavelent to 4.10 gears on stock size tires and that's what all the 302 trucks should have been factory equipped with IMO. I second he 351 recommendation, it's a much better truck motor and the minimum required to get decent low rpm TQ in a 5000lb vehicle. The best low budget heads available for either motor are the GT40 explorer heads, and if you go with the 351 have these fully ported. Put a max 260 duration cam in the 5.0 and max 270 duration cam in the 5.8, both with a maximum of about 0.500" lift unless you install pistons with eyebrows, then you can go higher.

Oct 31, 2008 | 08:27 AM

MBDiagMan

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Joined: Dec 2004

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From: NE Texas

There is not only the ratio issue in order to get back to the equivalent stock ratio, but there is the WEIGHT of the tires. Those tires are HUGE!!!!! It is like having four HUGE flywheels, one at each corner of the truck. They are like a black hole, sucking up EVERY BIT of torque and horsepower that you can make.