(OT) My broken 14yr old 302 (Pic heavy) UPDATE Feb16

[fbomb100]

thunderfoot ..that one hurt me as well... I hate when that happens
well time for a bigger badder sbf stroker motor

[Thunderfoot]

That's really weird, honestly doesn't make a lot of sense that a set of Ford iron heads would make enough power NA to do what you have. The 5.0 blocks are HP limited to around 450 crank before bad things happen, but it take boost or juice and R's to split them. Just having the mains crack is strange. Where did you find the cam, in the pan? I can't visualize the cam seperating enough to turn sideways in the back cam bearing and falling through the rotating assy. Seems even if it pushed the soft plug out the back that it would still have trouble turning sideways vs. just binding from the valvetrain pressure.

I'm coming up on 80k miles on my 5.0 build that's around 425 at the crank (390rwhp) and it's still holding up nice in spite of the Autozone crank that was bent when I put it in...

Jamie

The cam pieces were still all in it, it did knock the plug out the back about 300' from my pit spot. I was surprised that it was broke in 2 places though... when I removed the flex plate and mid plate I pulled the end piece out, then after pulling the cam I found the second to last journal and 2 lobes still left in there . I cleaned up the cam today and looked it over and still don't see any place on it that looks like something hit it...
I thought the early blocks were supposed to be better too, it is a 68 block, and I do turn it 7,000 and I'm sure it has over 500+ passes on it. This motor has spent 99.9% of its life on the track, I bet I only have 200 miles of street miles on it. The heads are 68 302 heads that are ported some but have the small valves in them still.
I too am still surprised that the main caps were broke but still find no signs of anything getting wedged between the crank and block to do any damage. I'm sure some lighter pistons from these Hyper ones would help things... I never really intended to race it this much or this long as I was working on a chassis car but thing happened and plans changed and it hasn't gotten done yet.

I've got another block here, I think it's a 77 if I remember right, so I'm going to mag these rods/crank and get some new slugs and same cam and put it together again same combo as it was, think I'll add a main girdle though. I'd like to do a small stroker but don't have the $$$ right now to do it, and I know this combo works.

[Mancar1]

Patience my friend, you will have that great looking Stang up and going again.

[Thunderfoot]

Glad you guys like the story and my ride, it is my "baby" I'm still funds limited so fixing it with the parts I have/can use again for now. I'll update this as I find out more and it goes back together.

[crazyhorse]

Mr Thunderfoot, Thanks for posting this. I also like mustangs.
That is a good looking mustang. Just proves you can drag race a car & take care of it too.
Keep us posted on your progress/results.

[Brokenarrow]

Sometime in the near future I'm planning on building a motor for my mustang. '66 289 block w/ a 302 crank and '68 302 heads. Any chance you'd give me the specs on the cam you've been running in yours ?? A PM is fine

[Whateverman]

that is impressive - sad- but impressive. Its amazing the amount of abuse that 302's will put up with before they pop,if that was a chev sb that crank woulda been sunk into the pavement for sure

[Brokenarrow]

A little testament to the toughness of the sbf ; A friend and I were coming home from work one night when his little 289 started rattling, popped a couple of times, then leveled out. It lost all oil pressure and was missing but we drove it 10 more miles home. When we tore it down #4 & #8 rods were laying in the oilpan doubled, the pistons were shattered. No holes in the block or pan, no unusal oil-leaks whatsoever and the thing still ran pretty smooth, just missed on a couple and the lifters rattled a little Like Tfoot's 302, this little 289 had been rode hard and put up wet for several years so it too had a right to give it up.

[Thunderfoot]

Update: My buddy got my crank and rods wet mag'd and no cracks so they'll be reused going to get some new rod bolts and get them reconditioned.

Been working on my heads and decided to put some more time into the exhaust ports, as all I did to them before was quickly remove the emissions bump in the corner of them, I spent all my time before on the intake ports and they're good to go.

Here is the before pic with the gasket on the head to mark it before porting on it.


Lots of material removed, should flow a ton better!



Ground all the valves today as well, and they are all going to work just fine, no major bent heads. will start grinding the seats tomorrow.


My spare block is a 74 block and was .020 over, it will work out just great honed out with some new .030 pistons.


After I get the seats done in the heads I can figure out some new valve springs, and then should be ready to order up all the parts to get this thing back together.

[71highboy]

looking good.

[Ranchero50]

Ports look good but a suggestion, push a valley up each side of the valve stem, helps the back side of the valve flow a lot better. I also tend to open the chamber up around the valve. Seemed to make a difference.

Jamie