cost of building up a 302?

well i want to surprise my dad for his b-day coming in november with a brand new re-built 302. We have a '71 302 sitting in our shop that needs to be re-built. he wants to put it in his '78 international scout II.

so what would be the average cost of re-building a 302? Ive got some money and the place to do it, plus im taking a class on classic car stuff and am learning how to build up engines and all that. So it would be a learn as you go project for me.

and if i could bore and stroke it to a 347 would that cost a lot of money?

any ideas on what i should do?

 

First off...get a junkyard 5.0 for CHEAP and have a decent motor without any work, or minimal work.

You can snag running 5.0s for around $300-400.

Rebuilding will be much more expensive, and a 347 will run way into the thousands.

 

its all about money....

you dont need a 347 or a stroker for the that matter

ive seen 302(306) .030 over engine in a comet go mid 11s n/a
so thats plenty of power

cant really give you a good guess on price i would think at least 1500 for a good rebuild all depends on what you put on and who does the machine work

 

here's a 347 build in progress now...

347 stroker = how much hp?

...Frank...:Handshake

 

is it?

 

Since you're wanting to do it yourself, i'd stick with the 302 base, and bore it .30 over and mildly build it up. This way, you dont have to notch the cylinders for clearance on a 347.


You could have a nicely built stout 302 for minimal money compared to buying an all new (balanced stroker assembly) and costing you much more.

 

id say budget yourself about 1500-3000 depending on how fast you want to go

 

ahhh ok thanks. All this gives me good ideas, so ill just have to think about it.

 

and if your willing to go with swap meets and get parts that are "slightly used" rather then fresh out the box from summit or jegs that will save you ALOT.

theres guys out there with fresh brand new, rebuilt, low mile motors just sitting in their garage waiting for a new home. the motor in my black car had about 5k miles on it when i got it for $800 but the cost of the original owner to have it fully rebuilt could have easily been 3x that if not more

 

The motor in my car is a 5.0 bored .040, had less than 10 miles on it, I got it for $200. I know that is a rare find, but it goes to show that there are deals out there if you just keep your eyes open.

Some guy just bought the remanufactured long block for a pickup, put it in, wired it with the old 302 wiring order, gave up after he couldn't get rid of the miss, and then sold me the motor. I quickly figured out that he had it wired wrong because of the two clean pistons (never fired on), and put all my stuff on it, then converted it to roller cam and dropped it in. I think the entire job cost me less than $600.

 

well like most of you have been saying that i should go out and find a junkyard 302 or something like that. well im not going to when i have a nice 302 sitting in my barn that i got for free.

on the other hand, maybe just building up a 302 is good enough.

 

Don't get me wrong ... I love my Fords.

I just wanted to suggest that some Internationals came from the factory with AMC V8s (larger ones, not sure about Scouts). Using one might save you from having to fabricate a lot of stuff like mounts and who knows what else.

My best buddy is Mr. AMC freak ...

360 AMC motors are not that hard to find.(Forget about 401s though ...) One area to look at is the timing chain surround. It is aluminum and prone to getting rotted out by coolant gone bad. The idea would be to find a complete motor, because small stuff on an AMC would nickel and dime you to death. There is pretty good aftermarket support for them too (Edelbrock has new head for them). Not as inexpensive as doing a small block Ford, but probably not too bad if keeping it fairly close to stock.

Just wanted to throw this out as an idea ...

 

the last 302 i built was 40 over with a stock windsor cam i got cheap, put it together in my wifes laundry room, ran fantastic for 900 bucks. I just bought a 84 wagon for 100 bucks drove it home yanked motor andd tranny out then sold body for my hundred back! The deals are out there.

 

so i was talking to my dad last night and hinting at what he wanted to do with the 302. All he said was "i want more power!"

we go out to the barn to get the 302 ready for me to take it to my autobody class and i ask "wouldnt you rather keep the 304 in the scout? he stands their for a couple seconds and says "i would love to keep it in it, and try to keep it as original as possible."

In short, my dad gave me the option of which engine i wanted to get rebuilt. i chose the 304 cause theirs NOTHING wrong with it, just needs to be cleaned up and rebuilt. Now if it ends up being to much money spent in the long run, ill be thinking about the 302 and what i could do to it.

my dad still doesnt know what im going to do with it though, its still a surprize that im going to try and get the whole thing done by the time he gets back from africa. He just thinks im going to tinker with it and try and rebuild it minimaly as a project.

 

Ok ... what I was saying about AMC motors in Internationals ... that was some six cylinders and 401s in the larger trucks.

That 304 is all IH. I doubt there is much in the way of improved parts for it. Bolt pattern on the trans is unique too ...