Well, I checked the piston to valve clearance I was worried about on the 351w I had built and there are absolutely no worries. It's a '69 block with .040" over four valve relief flat tops, .01" negative deck, x303 heads with 1.7 rockers, .06" head gaskets, and a Comp XE262 cam. I was going to run an XE250 but the compression is tight enough (~10:1) that I decided to go with some advice I got long ago and switch for a cam with more overlap. Lift is at .533 on the exhaust side, but the valve barely nicked the Plah-Doh in the valve reliefs. So now I'm ready to button everything up and finally get her into the pickup.

I need a new timing cover, no worries just getting one for an '82 model? My truck doesn't have a timing pointer, where/which side do you normally check the timing on a truck? I'm sure I'd figure it out once I drag my *** to the yard. Are all timing covers created equally as far as the timing pointer? I'm really looking forward to actually being able to tell exactly where and how much timing advances...

I'm assuming I need to snag all the accessory brackets off a 351 at the yard because the one on the 302 in the truck now won't work, right?

The truck has an auxiliary tranny cooler that bypasses the one in the radiator completely. Any advantage to grabbing a radiator from a manual tranny truck? What are the best vehicles to poach for an electric cooling fan?

Donkey shine.

 

Don't remember about the 351W, but there are at least 2 differences in timing covers for the 289/302 that I know of:

1. Where the timing pointer is. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's related to when Ford switched over from 28 ounce to 50 ounce inbalance. The earlier models have the timing pointer on the driver's side, while the later model has it on the passenger side. I have a 69 351W that I haven't looked at in 20 years, so I can't remember which side it's on. I can check tomorrow.

2. The dip stick on the older models were in the front, on the passenger side. On the later model, the dip stick went into the block on the driver's side. But I guess it's easy enough to drill a hole in the later covers for this.

There is at least a bracket to relocate the power steering pump, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. Best to take a picture of the 302 assembly with you to the scrap yard.

 

Seems like I've heard you don't need thread sealer on the bottom head bolts for the 351w since the holes don't penetrate the water jacket, correct?

 

You did the P-V clearance check with solid lifters or test springs right?

Installing a timing pointer isn't that hard, all you have to do is put #1 piston at TDC on the compession stroke and then mount anything from a piece of wire to an actual pointer to indicate 0 on the balancer. FWIW I don't think the pointer location on the 351 ever changed much like the 28oz primary imbalance.

The 302 accessory brackets may fit, I know the EFI versions do work on both motors.. there's simply 2 different holes where it attaches to the timing cover.

 

I used a pushrod tool to take all the lash out of the lifter, basically the same as using a solid lifter. Since I'm ordering the timing cover from Summit anyway I'm going to get two solid lifters and recheck it just to be double sure.

 

you don't need to check the pv on your setup, theres a mile of room. The .050 duration has more do with it then .500 ish valve lift.

Remember the heads are higher and wider than on a 302 and that moves the brackets.