^^^^^^^^Your just a shining ray of sunshine this morning I will help................. 2000 I would get a set of aluminum heads, and a 5.0 roller short block. Its within your price range and might have enough coin left over for a cam. Sell the block and heads u got for some extra money.
I went GT40 hunting a couple weekends ago in phoenix................................. Its not as easy as it sounds to just run to yard and grab some. You have to be pretty lucky, most of the time someone got there before you did. Found some P heads for the mustang though so not a wasted trip.
That's kinda what I'm hoping for. The guy that I got the block from just picked up a 9" tract lock for 25 bucks. Twenty five bucks! Yes indeed that was a piece of great luck. It was somewhere in aj.
I found mine on a 96 Explorer. There are some on early 97 (first 1/4 year) Explorers and also on some Lightning F150s from what the machine shop told me. Three bars on the end of the heads and the spark plugs come out at an angle. The GT40P have 4 bars and the plugs come closer to straight out and have funky metal covers on them.
The first thing you need to do is make damned sure you buy 302 flat topped pistons with as close to a 1.619 pin (compression height) as you can find. I would also recommend buying a set of ARP rod bolts and have the rods reconned with the new bolts. Edelbrock didn't make a '289 RPM" intake. You've likely got a Performer 289 there. I would swap it out with a true RPM intake. This will give it a little extra "ooph" in the upper rpm ranges without sacrificing the bottom end. Next is a better set of heads, you can find good used aluminum aftermaket heads for around $500-700. After you've done all that, then make a cam choice.
Why no 347? Get yourself a rebuildable roller motor. A stroker kit can be had for a grand or so depending on what you get ... I would build the bottom end to what I want the final build to be and save up for the top end pieces to add on as you go. Your going to be putting money into this 302 that will kind of be wasted in the end (IMO).
Yes, you are right, its a performer. On the pistons do have any recomdations on a brand that won't kill my wallet? Heads, is that for the set and what brand for that amount. Sorry guys, but I really don't know all this stuff YET but I will get it all ironed out. Thanks for all the advice and keep it coming:Handshake
Maybe I missed it but what are your overall goals for the car and engine? realistically how much power do you want/need? Street car, strip car, weekend cruiser, weekend road trips?????????? If you ever want to do a saturday morning junkyard search just shoot me a pm, I'm always running around the local PHX yards looking for something.
Pistons ? Do your homework and look for a set that's in your price range and has the correct pin height. This is half the fun of doing your own engine, the more legwork you do, the more you'll learn. Start with Summit Racing's site. As for heads, look around and see what's out there in used heads. I bought a used set of Ford GT40Y's a couple years ago for $600. As I was completing that deal, I ran across a set of Edelbrock RPM's for the same amount. With the current economic situation, even better deals should be out there.
Just noticed this, a short block or some heads within your price range. http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/pts/1943727541.html
stock rods and factory flat tops will do fine for what you want to do buy those gt40 heads for 300.00 .. they need stronger springs and then a big cam 600 carb headers and you will do just fine . my 302 is putting out 350 hp the cheaper way to go is put bigger bolts in the stock rods them to buy after market
By bigger bolts do you mean 3/8. And what is the advantage to doing this? My block is in the shop getting bored and ready for assembly this week or next week. (waiting on the pistons now so we can do the bore) I hope it puts out 350 or more before juice
You do NOT want to install bigger bolts in the rods. What you should do is install replacement ARP bolts of the same size.
