289 heads Yeah I know the grind on the cam is wrong but when I was putting this car together I was using parts I had lying around to try and get the car running before the super fine Dodge Neon she was driving quit running.I would swap cams if the thing didn't use so much oil and I forgot to mention the strange vibration in the bottom end.And the top end rattles for about the first 5 seconds when you fire it up.The short block is just tired.At least it has run since last June and made it about 20,000 miles.Not bad for only having about $1200 in the car including the $600 purchase price.
With the detonation, the rattling is likely broken pistons as is the oil consumption. If I were you, I'd look into a good roller 302 to replace it with.
Yup i agree on the possible broken piston or a ring at the very least.I actually do have a roller 302 that has an E303 cam ported E7's and roller rockers that I pulled out of a Mustang I totaled a few years back so I really don't care about the engine in the car anymore.As I stated in an earlier post this engine along with a fresh C4 and 2500 converter and some 3.50 gears will go in sometime this summer as well as the rebuild kit for the frontend that I have been putting off.
