What is the first step? should i find a complete 302 or start with a bare block? i think i found a good deal on 302 hipo roller block. Bored and honed with head plate Decked Align honed Hot tanked New cam bearings 030 bore for $450 any and all input fully appreciated as always. searched but i couldnt find a comprehensive thread on this undertaking. figured i start it for all the information to gather.
if all is good... I just got a price of...$435...to do the same work on a roller block. I bought my motor complete for...$75... does he have any of the roller stuff he might throw in (dog bones/spider)?
The only problem with this is it's already bored. Boring should be done after the pistons you're going to use are "in hand" so that the machinst can tailor the bores to the pistons. Of course you could always bore it another .010, but the cylinder walls may be too thin already. Core shiuft in the block is another factor here, not all roller blocks should be overbored due to core shift. The pistons you go with may or may not be the right fit to those bores. Oh, and don't let that "hi-po" fool you, all the roller 302 blocks are the same. There were no Hi-po roller blocks
That's an excellent point. One would think that the seller may possibly have the original pistons available too.. or at least know which ones the block was machined for so the OP could order up a similar set. Or.. maybe the machine shop had used some stocked pistons with intention to sell that customer a set and the projects budget fell short.. which stopped short of the piston purchase? Seen it happen like that more than a few times before. If the info isn't readily available.. then at the very least it would be good to get all the bores gauged/measured to see what was intended to be used with the build and go from there. Hypereutectics can be run pretty tight(which would be good in this case as the current bore would allow opening up to a forged unit) .. whereas other various forgings will need different spec's dependant on the type of material used(differing expansion rates). I would guess the general rule is that most 347 builds would be spec'd for forged units though.
I hear this a lot...size the bore to the piston... so it's really not bored .030... I thought...bore .030 and hone to the piston. not an engine builder but did stay in a Holiday Inn express once...
First step: A good stash of cash. Building a 347 is not necessarily something you can do on a budget. Plus....how much of the work can you do yourself? I knew I couldn't (or didn't want to) do the work myself...but I can sing like a songbird. So I go out sing, get paid....then write the check to have the 347 built, I install it in my car.
Machine shop will also need to notch the bottoms of the cylinder bores to clear the additional stroke as well...make sure that's included in your cost/budget. It's not much...but it takes time, and I'm sure they'll charge you something for it lol.
The first step should be finding a machine shop, that knows what they are going, and get them to give you an idea of what it'll all cost, before you go and buy a few pieces you might not be able to use.
yes it is first bored to the .030 spec.. and then honed to the piston as you said. FINAL HONING is more to get final finish spec than antyhing else. You can however rough hone in the fixture and then final hone with hand tools(which is more of a plateau hone/knockdown to achieve final finish spec. It's just not quite as precise and removes very little material so you need to be damned close to the final bore for the pistons being used in the build. baddad.. and I.. were only pointing out the need to have the final hone specific to the piston used because he mentions "bored AND honed using torque plate" in his original post. So, the main point was that you can't just "universal hone to all piston sizes". Just something else for him to consider into that "good deal price", is all. And Maxx is right about the required notching on the inside bottom of the bores. Using I beams with smaller 3/8 screw in bolts will need less clearancing than bigger H beams with 7/16 bolts. Plus H beams are pricier and there's not much need swing all that extra weight around unless you intend to rpm it well beyond 6,500, IMHO.
Check out http://www.fordstrokers.com/ Give them a call and describe your goals and they'll lay out the options for you. If I were doing it again I'd either get a 347 short or long block from Woody (Jim). There are a LOT of things to consider when choosing a matched set of components for a performance engine.
Initially you look at the price of $2500 and think you could build it for a bunch less. Hell Summit has kits for $1200 and I can take it to the local machine shop for machine work. Never fails though, you take that route and you either save money by getting sub-par machine work or you end up spending more than it would have cost to buy it ready to go. I know where I am it's the machine work that would be an issue, there just isn't a shop in town I would trust to do the work.
Ok so step 1 Find a machine shop, andHave the pistons in hand before any machining is done So this block may have a decent price but I don't know which pistons it was bored and honed to. Seems like there are many too variables to consider to just go snag it. Where do you guys get your 302 engines? All the dudes in my area want crazy cash them. My buddy has a 289 block out of a 65 mustang in his back yard. If I can buy it from him, would that be a good start? Besides for the machining, I will be doing as much as I can.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/pts/3699052779.html this is the ad i saw. i was thinking about picking up a kit from scat or eagle. i know this sounds dumb, but longevity is not an issue. i just want to do this just because
So not enough time/cash to do it right....but you have plenty of both to do it over? Listen to these guys....they won't steer you wrong.
