late model 302 like say 76 or so, they were detuned and had emissions on them..... Is this ture? How do I go about removing the system? Does the emissions system reduce my horse power? Thinking of redoing the exhaust system… any suggestions?
Yep, your 76 302 has lots of emissions stuff on it. Check with your local laws to see what year cars have to be smogged. If you take all your emissions stuff off and it needs to be smogged, it won't pass, and you'll have to replace all the stuff you took off. 76 302s weren't very powerful engines to begin with, so taking off the smog stuff won't make that much of a difference in HP. I would go with dual exhaust. -Corbin
“76 302s weren't very powerful engines to begin with” So what makes them less powerful than a 72 or 75 maverick 302? And duals out from the back was kind of what I had in mind… but I need to find more photos to see what it would look like… what exhaust system would give me a deep rumble?
Starting in 1973 the compression was only 8:1. Combined with low flow heads, thermactor smog pump, EGR, and catalytic converter on your 76 this kept power considerably less than it could have been. I have Flowmasters(not sure which series) with an H pipe and it sounds very good(people at work tell me a Maverick shouldn't sound that good).
MKmaverick72 is right on the money for the major reasons the mid-late 70s 302 were not very impressive. I also have Flowmasters, two chamber 40 series. They are loud, but personally I love the sound.
If you want to make decent power with a 76 302, you pretty much need to keep the short block and ditch everything else.
Dont ditch it! Dont ditch the heads. With a little head work the 76 can be made to breath. With a mild build of the motor it will yield about a 9.1:1 comp. ratio and this is great for todays pump gas. You have to remove the smog bumps in the exhaust side and do some gasket matching but these heads can flow as well as any other 302 head. Valve size is about the only thing that will hold you back but for a street/daily driver this should be no problem at all. Top it all off with a good intake, carb, headers and I am sure you will be happy with the results. Do ditch all the smog stuff if you can, but hold onto it. Someone somewhere will need it. just my $.05 (inflation) JP
I had my 76 heads done up. They flow well. That was done in 1992, now I am going to go with Aluminum heads and save a few lbs. If you decide to sell the smog stuff I would be a buyer. I tossed all my smog stuff the day I took it off back in 1976. Dan
dan, I have a set of 77 heads with 50k original, if you need em. Yes, the cam was retarded, and even if it wasn't, the grind was weak. I would highly recomend a cam. I found a set of 1970 truck 302 heads at a swap meet with screw in studs and roller rockers complete for $75. While that is a better deal than normal, I would lean towards the smaller chambers of the older heads over the larger chambers of the 76 heads. You can get decent 302 heads with smaller chambers for really cheap these days.