Ok guys I thought I would through this one out to you guys too. I have never been one to spend alot of time on a computer until I found this site and I can look around here for hours. You guys are kinda like a 2nd family, heck I spend about as much time on here as I do talking to my real family. So I thought I would include yall on this too. (mostly so I can blame someone besides myself when I mess up haha) I have an 82 f100 with a 302 auto tranny and 9" rear. I checked the oil the other day and the dipstick was milky so I had a water leak somewhere and decided to start tearing it down and replace some gaskets. The engine never overheated or ran bad so I'm thinking the motor is ok. As I started tearing the motor down I quickly realized that who ever put this motor together sucked. I unscrewed all of the valve cover bolts by hand and 2 of them wasn't even screwed all the way in. After taking off the valve covers and seeing all the sludge in the heads I decided to just rebuild the entire motor. I have worked on my own cars and trucks my whole life and have worked on most all external parts and even done several engine swaps but never anything with the internals. I am not wanting a high performance race motor just something with decent power and will be dependable. I do have a salvage yard about 5 mins from my house and I'm trying to get by the cheapest way out but I dont have a set budget or anything. Can you guys help me out on this. Just wanting to know stuff like what needs to be done at a machine shop and kind of like a step by step of what I need to do. Any advice you all can give me will be greatly appreciated.

 

first off i would buy the book (how to build small block fords) read it, and decide if you want to tackle this.these books are loaded with info on what you need to do and what to look for.nothing better than saying i did it myself.with the help of us ofcourse.

 

Yea I love having the satisfation of working on my vehicle myself and I think think this project will give me the knowledge to do about anything I need to do to this truck for as long as I have it. (never plan on getting rid of it anyways)

 

Most people in your postition are better off having a good machine shop build the long block. There's just alot of small things a good machinist does. But if you want to do it yourself you can save some money and earn some satisfaction. Still though step one is finding a GOOD machinist, a no nonsence guy that's been at it awhile.

Next you need to decide how good of a motor do you want, how much do you love this truck, how long do you want it to last? There's many places where spending more money will get you a little more durability, but is it really worth it to you?

How far along are you now?

 

I have a good machine shop picked out already, its one that I know does a good job and I trust the guys there to do it right. I plan on driving this truck forever and want the motor to last for as long as it can. I have the motor out of the truck and the heads, intake and all the external parts removed. Now I'm trying to figure out what I can do myself and what I need to have the shop do. Also what is the best way to clean all the sludge off, I know the machine will hot dip the heads and block but I'm gonna clean the valve covers and intake and stuff myself. Is there a good cleaning solution or process I should use?

 

var-sol,brake kleen,oven cleaner,or engine degreaser.and lots of rags.put var-sol in container and let part soak,or spray brake kleen on part and wipe of with rag,for parts that can' be immersed in var-sol..oven cleaner works but you have to hose it off, will destroy some finishes.engine degreaser works best when engine warm. sure other guy's will have other ideas

 

thanks bigred im not really worried about the paint or anything cause im gonna strip and repaint the whole motor. I was thinking about getting a gallon of purple power and a 5 gal bucket to let them soak for a while do you think that would be ok?

 

Cleaning, I just grab a couple towels, lots, of brakleen and head to one of those do it yourself car washes and use there pressure washer and degreaser. Works great, keeps your place clean, and it's fast.

Don't forgett the WD-40 for any steel or iron.

Or for any steel parts like the pan, rockers, pushrods, let the machie shop hot tank it with the block.

 

sorry never heard of purple power.i usually clean the parts ,with a clean rag spray brake kleen wipe off anything that is left,the brake kleen leaves no residue so i just paint.works really well.

 

Its a degreaser everyone around here uses alot. Opossum that is a great idea I hadn't thought about that now if only I can get all the parts up there without ruining the carpet in my wifes car...I would never hear the end of that..haha.

 

Do you want to take the short block apart? Or leave that for the machine shop?

It's not hard for either of you to do, just taking it apart. The hard part is the other little stuff, number stamping, soft plugs, oil gally plugs, etc.

 

That is the part I'm worried about how hard is this to do?

 

It's pretty easy once you get it figured out.

Number stamps, first you need the stamps. Then both the main caps, and the rods, (both parts) need to be numbered so they can go back in place. If you don't want to buy a stamp set you can do it with a center punch, two dots for two, three for three, etc.

You don't have to remove the soft plugs and oil galley plugs except to save the machine shop time and hassle which could save you money. With that in mind, your better off not messing things up, so if a plug doesn't want to come don't force it and damage it you'll be making more work for the machinists.

Soft plugs come out easy with a rounded dull chisel, tap them in one corner of the dish to turn them in the hole like turning a coin in your fingers, this is why dull you DO NOT want to punch through. If the plug starts to tear apart STOP!. Then when they are in the whole sideways, pry them out with a 'L' shaped pry bar or just the upper jaw of some channel lock pliers works well. Just stick the jaw in the cup and pry against the block. There's a flat plug in the back of the cam, this one is best left to the guy who takes out the cam bearings. This requires a tool you probably don't want to buy, and is really easy for the shop with the tool.

Oil galley plugs are just pipe plugs, but they get pretty stuck. Take it easy, I have found it helps break them loose to give them a good rap, lay a ball-pean hammer on them and hit it with another hammer this tends to "knock" them loose a bit. Don't round out the fittings, again that will make more work, they will have to drill them out. That said I often found it easier to just drill them, and use a easy-out.

FWIW, I used to do this for a living I have probably disassembled 1000 engines.

 

Frankly... Anymore it is tough to rebuild your own motor for the price of a rebuilt short block. I decided to go the crate motor route and spent 2200 including a set of headers. This was a 350 hp roller long block from central coast with GT40P heads, upgraded pistons, and all new!

While buying this motor, I had to rebuild another just to get it running to sell in my F250. Pistons (installed on rods by shop), rings, cam bearings (installed by shop), cam, ground crank, hot dip, and a gasket kit cost me about a tad less than a thousand, and that did not include head work. this was a standard block and not a roller engine. I didn't need any stamps as my 1989 factory 302 was already stamped by the factory.

When I was looking, I believe I found a few places that offered a non roller short block 302 for about 1100.00. You can buy GT40P heads right now from summit for $625.00. It would probably cost about 200-300 to have your heads ground, and new guides installed.

The cheapest way would be to reuse the parts that are not warn. Pistons, rods, crank etc can all be reused if not damaged. I've seen a perfectly good looking piston end up being trashed due to warpage! They can turn egg shaped!

The economy is bad, and people are selling really good motors on craigslist... something to think about!

 

Good points, but there's alot of garbage too, a shopper has to be real carefull.

Pistons NEVER NEVER reuse pistons in the same motor unless you have a VERY good reason. The piston to bore clearence is very important and 99% percent of the time, and for sure here, the bore is worn to large to reuse the pistons. A VERY carefull shopper can buy used pistons to fit his block and bore to match but that's alot of carefull figuring and risk to save a few bucks.

Egg shaped, ALL engine pistons are egg shaped or more precise oval. The width or diameter of the piston is smaller in parallel with the wrist pin. This is for two reasons, first the clearance at the skirt is most important so it's a bit larger. Second and most of all, There is much more material that goes the full width of the piston at the wrist pin, this material expands when it gets hot, so when the piston is hot, it is round. The biggest part of the piston is always the skirt, and the smallest always the face at the wrist pin.

And I should have mentioned long ago to consider going with a 351. There's no replacement for displacement.