Not being nosey but I would o-ring the block. I do all of my sbf blocks, you can get the tool for about 300 and it is WELL worth it especially on turbo or N2O motors.Fords are bad about head gasket failure due to only 10 bolts holding it on I use copper gasket.
Never seen a blown head gasket on a Ford. We've run them up to 300 degrees, make a full pass at the strip, drive it back...still no failures. Oh, and when the turbo motor let go, it cracked the cylinder wall from so much pressure, still no gasket failure. A flat head and block will do wonders for gasket retention, as well as studs (they're on their way). Good suggestion, but I think it might be overkill for such a mild engine. Oh, I forgot to mention, the block I'm using has 1/2" bolts, which will realy help. Funny you should mention that, a buddy of ours blew another head gasket on his '56 ford/440 mopar engine. This is the 2nd in 3 races, and that block has 17 bolts in each side!
Brasilian Mav turbo(twin turbo) Just to tell.. At about ten-eleven years ago, when i was looking to another Maverick V8 (my first was acquired in 1988), i was faced to a guy seeling his special prepared 302. When i ask to see the engine, i was more than suprised to see a twin turbo v8 all fitted in engine bay without any mod. I´m sorry if i can´t help more, but at that time i was too young to undestand the greatness of that thing. I was more impressed with the huge power that the "thing" could do. The only things i can remember from that encounter, was that it used 2 small garret turbos, a sealed box that enclosures a holey carb (i asked what carb , but he doesn´t known) and the rest of normal things popular here in Brasil, like Mallory distribuitor, accel spark cables and coil. Ah , the car was running Alcool, not gas, since it is a fuel more powerfull and cheap in our country. The rest the owner told me (don´t have checked) 0-100 km/h (yours 0-60) in 4.7 seconds max speed of 220 km/h milesge: 2.5 km per liter of alcool (the alcool was cheaper, but the cars used to spend 20% more of it than its conterparts of gasoline)
Progress was made today, I got tired of waiting and drilled out the boltholes in an old set of 302 heads I had laying in the shed. The new 302 has been drilled to accept 1/2" head studs, so we started on a set of 351w heads about 3 months ago. Well, he got tied up with the sprint cars, and is on his way back as we speak. The 351w heads are done, but he wont be back out to the shop to resurface them until friday. Anyway, I got the new engine built, with the old 302 heads and the same rpm intake that's served us so well. I'm waiting on a set of custom-length pushrods for the hyd. roller lifters, and I should be set to fire it up by the weekend, if all goes well. The engine's back in the car, everything's hooked up (went surprisingly well), so I'll just have to drop in the pushrods, prime the motor, set the valves, and get ready to rumble. It's got 8.4 compression JE lightweight pistons, turbo-specific camshaft by Erson, and studs in the bottom end and on the heads. I'm getting anxcious....Oh, and yes, I did add a fuel pressure guage, an O2 sensor to monitor A/F ratio, and a boost guage to monitor things. I just hope this cam will spool the turbo like the other cam did....it was quite impressive how quickly the "big" turbo spooled, especially considering that everyone said it was too big.
