So I went and pulled the 302 out of the comet. Question is,... should I leave it mostly stock, or stroke and bore it out to a 347. It'll take some time , but it can be done either way. What do you all think?
I went 347 stroker Im still not done paying for it (almost a year now) so be ready to pay out depending on what you intend to do with your motor. the rotating assembly was $1000 alone then I went forged and it cost me even more so far I think Im around $5k on my motor and its right about half paid for but then again Im going for 1000 hp with all of the best parts internally and paying a couple of hundred bucks here and there
what do you plan on doing with the motor? if it's just for the street i'd keep a 302 with awesome heads/intake/cam rather then dropping the extra into a stroker kit.
indeed if youre looking for a fun street car that wont break your bank and will still be loads of fun build you a semi stock 302. put in a good cam and add headers and youll think youve got a race car lol we took my sons comet for a ride today for the first time since the I6 swap and the 302 is stock with headers and its loads of fun especially with the sound of the headers combined with some cherry bomb glasspacks
just putting a stroker kit into a motor wont make any more significant power. it will lower the power band. it should make more torque. power is made by air flow. get the air in and out as fast as possible and you make power. spend your money on nice heads, a cam matched to the heads, and the rest of the top end components and you should easily have a mid 300s hp motor that has great street manors.
I wanted to get AFR heads, but their $! Changing topic a little to the bottom end. Are those main cap girdlers that tie everything together really worth it? I would really like to see 350 to 400hp + someday. Long term I'd like to put a roots blower on it (a mild one). That's really why I thought stroker kit.This isn't a summer job, it will take years to do, but I want it to scare the **** out of me when its done
Are those hp figures you want at the wheels or crank? A girdle is a waste of money on a stock block, the only thing it'll do is if you split the block it'll keep the rotating assembly in a slightly neater pile. And a 347 with anything over 6psi with good heads is capable of cracking the block. 350hp (crank) is a h/c/i swap away on a 302, then put a blower on it.
Me personally,I would never put a blower,nos or turbo a street car,all they do is cause problems and shorten the life of your mtr.Find a set of 65 289 hds. and do screw in studs and guide plates,new valves and springs and hardened retainers.Or if you are patient,you might get a good deal on a set of used canfields,afrs,tfx what have you.Try a Ford B303 cam with matching valve springs,it is a proven winner.If you don`t have a 302 Mexican blk,get the girdle for ins.and use a windage tray.it is 25 free HP.Look on the net and find a decent rotating ass.,and get it balanced w/ the har. bal. and flexplate or flywheel,use at least flat top hpertech pistons.If you use an automatic,3000 stahl and shift kit,4spd use a good clutch and shifter.Rear end,9 in. w/ true trak locker,3.89 gears,31 spline axles,good shocks and either cal tracs or lakewood slapper bars.Good carb. around 700 cfm and a decent ING SYS to get the fire to the mtr.Don`t go over (use AFR as example) 165s or 185s on your hds because you`ll never flow enough to take advantage of them.I like to see people have fun with their cars and not throw away money foolishly,it`s expensive.I `ve been around cars and racing since 1972 and know what works.It would take you some time and money to build this combo,but,you could live w/ this on the street.A set of bolted or welded in sub frame connectors and some 9 in. slicks,this is a 12 sec. car.I don`t know if you have ever ridden in a car that fast or not,but it`s plenty fast in a car like ours to scare the crap out of you,especially on the street it could kill you.P.S. w/ guide plates you`ll need hardened push rods,you`re going to have to buy them anyway.
There's more than one way to split a block.. and there's more than just high thrust loading from max horsepower alone to be concerned with for avoiding it. Too thin a block to start with due to core shift/casting variations(usually older is better than newer). Increasing stroke puts more side loading stress on the block. Increasing rpm increases side loading and also causes harmonics to be added to the situation. Issues with smoothness or sudden buildup of the max power produced(IE; big turbo/s, big nitrous hits, and/or detonation, and/or high end breakup(ignition/fueling problems). I've even heard some say that taller gears/ heavy vehicles can cause additional stress on really high powered builds. While that makes a bit of sense.. I'm not sure that I completely believe that theory.. but it comes from some guys that have MANY years of 5.0 building experience combined and I wouldn't completely dismiss it. Using/doing any combination of the above.. like really spinning a stroker motor up past 7,000 and then hitting it with a 200 shot.. leaves you much more susceptible to cracking one. And from what I've seen and learned.. from an engineering standpoint and the very reason for which they were designed in the first place.. girdles help reduce cap walk/crank failures and can extend crank and bearing life as result. Any "side effect" increases in block rigidity would be extremely minimal, IMHO. I run around with several 5.0 guys every summer in St. Paul that FAR exceed the generally accepted "500 horsepower" mark and they'll laugh at you when you tell them they're all living on borrowed time. I know this because I screw with them about it all the time. I say things like.. "I'm in the market for a nice set of heads if you don't whack them too badly when it finally lets go". Or.. "Hey Pony Boy.. is that still the same motor from last year?.. I can't believe it's still holding together!" They just laugh and ask me if I wanna race em' with my "little truck". I usually say.. "Hell no!.. you'll just cheat at the end and push the little red button when you realize that I'm gonna beat ya!". Personally.. I've always wanted to do a very long rod 302(using 5.7 inch 350 rods) just to see how long 500 horses would last on my old truck block. I've got most of the parts to do it already.. but I'll probably just stuff them into an aftermarket block and be done with it for good rather then screwing around with experiments like that. Although, I do love me an old fashioned "ringer".. and 8,000 rpm on a stock blocked "street motor" sure does raise a few eyebrows when you run across them on the rare occasion.
if you are on a budget I would do a 302 .030 or so with forged flat tops, stock crank and rods and afr 165 heads and a moderate cam and converter. Like Bryant said a stroker with factory heads is nothing but a waste of money because factory ford heads suck. case in point my maverick has a 351w with ported 69 302 heads and its slower than a lot of aluminum headed 302's. You can read posts on here by killercomet and mavman and see that they picked up a second by changing heads
I am very happy with my 302 bored to a 306. It really is a screamer, but I wish I had put more $$ on heads. I spent around 700$ used after a valve job and milling. I really wish I would have saved and spent my money to get the AFR's. Also wish I had used forged 11-1+ pistons instead of the cast speed pro 10.5-1's. I have seen turd motors become monsters with a cam and good set of heads. With a garbage 180k mile 302 bottom end. It is amazing what heads do!
