Ford 302 Small Block Becomes A 400+ HP Street Fighter - Horsepower S14, E1

today on horsepower we're using the original block from this old mustang for a unique engine project for you it's a way to build a low-cost beefed-up 306 version aboard its famous small block to 302. [Music] yeah it was the dawn of america's muscle car era even before the momentous mustang came along ford had production cars that needed a new performance small block the 289 was the answer for cars like the comet cyclone horsepower rating well only about 210 but that quickly could be jacked up to 271 with a now rare k-code hypo version it was really more like 350. later in 68 shorter connecting rides increased the stroke and bumped up the displacement to 302 ford's longest running small block tradition was off and roaring throughout the 80s and half the 90s 302s were popular affordable hot rod platforms that were most amenable to performance buildups horsepower scarlet stallion project car was a prime example we discovered the ultimate build-up of a 302 and we stroked one to 347 cubic inches we squeezed 518 horsepower out of this little monster [Music] we got the idea for today's project after we pulled our 92 mustangs 302 out to the make way for a twin turbo of course nobody says a budget-built engine has to be ugly so after a thorough cleaning our buddy tommy down in muscle car masked off the bear block round away all the imperfections then went over it with a sanding roll stepping up to a carbide bit for rougher areas the next three coats of primer to seal the bare metal sanding with 320 grit paper to smooth out the texture and finally a couple coats of single stage ford blue the only prep work besides paint and the oiling system upgrade was having the block washed new cam bearings installed and the cylinders overboard 30 thousands now since there were so many of these ford 302s made they're still super easy to find and very inexpensive now this motor made 225 horsepower in its day but today we're shooting for about 400 horsepower with a parts list of 3 grand turning our 302 into a potent 306 for a beefy budget minded bottom end summit racing offers this rotating assembly value pack now what you get is a brand new castile crank summit racing forged i-beam rods keith black hyper eutectic flat top pistons rings bearings oil pump and all the gaskets you need to complete the job when removing the old caps make sure to keep them in order now ford did a good job by including the number of the cap in the casting itself now while these parts are budget-minded they're not cheap clevite bearings for example have been used in nascar engines since 1948. now the crank comes from summit with a three inch stroke and it's externally balanced the main caps can go back on now with a few hammer taps from a brass hammer to seat them and make sure the arrows face towards the front of the motor add a couple of dabs of silicone to ensure oil doesn't seat past the rear main seal with oil on the bolt threads our torque specs are 70 foot-pounds now it's standard procedure to wash your new rods and solvent and this is why the protective coating they put on the rods for storage and shipping can actually interfere with your tolerances and you don't want this stuff in your engine to begin with these are i-beam rods that measure the stock length which is 5-0-90 inches we sent them out to the machine shop to have them press fit with a rod heater to our kb hyper eutectic pistons with a flat top design and dual valve reliefs now due to the expansion rate of these hyper eutectics the top ring of your ring set is going to be a little larger than normal so always refer to your manufacturer specs for the right size okay don't be stingy with the motor oil on the rings and pistons and don't forget the piston skirts she gets some boots too and they're not the kind for walking they're made to protect the cranks journals from getting nicks from the rod bolts when the piston gets put into place and as far as the chamfer goes make sure that's towards the cranks journal for the cam the real brain of the small block a comp hydraulic roller it's a single pattern design which means intake and exhaust duration and lift are the same in this case 230 and 598 respectively next with a new double roller set in place we're bolting up a basic stock timing cover from o'reilly parts store we're using a high volume oil pump because more flow is always ideal if you're using a large capacity oil pan and you've done modifications to the block like we did now some of you may be asking what about a high volume pump in a stock pan well that's where some problems could arise see the high volume pump will pump more oil to the top of the motor before it can return to the sump and that's where those problems will begin we're finishing up the oiling system with a one piece pan gasket and a seven quart pan from moroso after the break we're gonna see what three thousand dollars will give us at six thousand rpm i know i'll see you back here in a few minutes [Music] how long those been soaking oh at least three hours oh they're good hey we're back with more tricks for our 306 here and in case you're late we just spent half of our 3 000 budget on the bottom end the rest on that top end and that includes a set of well-soaked lifters all the valve train components came from comp cams including these hydraulic roller lifters and the lifter guides or dog bones as mike calls them the spider's next and you might notice we removed the tubing from the top end of our oiling modifications after the spider's installed the tubes can go back over it again with budget friendly performance as our goal we're going with cast iron aluminum heads from rhs cheaper than aluminum but they do have high flowing 200cc intake runners valves that spec out at 2020 intake 1 600 exhaust and combustion chambers that spec out at 58 cc's that's going to mean a compression ratio of about 10.2 to 1. now we're coating these arp bolts with loctite sealant because the holes are tapped into the water jackets next we can drop on the guide plates and rocker studs and torque them to 45 foot pounds followed by hardened push rods that measure six and a half inches now the 3 8 stud mounted rockers they're full rollers with a ratio of 1.6 our intake is a wind accelerator single plane with a power band from 15 to 7 grand for valve covers i'm repurposing this set that we used on a previous engine build and they came from summit now here's a little tip i want to share to you guys that tend to rip valve cover gaskets or have a hard time lining them back up whether you're working in your driveway or at the track making valve adjustments or camshaft changes now it's a little tip that i like to use it saves time and money and gaskets in the long run the first step is to dab silicone around the rail of the valve cover then drop the gasket into place and smear a little oil around the gasket itself that way it doesn't stick to the cylinder head on off on off on the hedman inch and 5 8 long tubes with 3 inch collectors go on next now we're filling it up with 6 quarts of o'reilly motor oil and we're running an msd pro billet drop in distributor a set of their eight and a half millimeter wires and to feed our 306 we're using a holley 600 cfm carb and pumping it with 89 octane the reason i like this build so much is because it's so simple if you've got an old 302 that's starting to knock or smoke go ahead pull it out bore it 30 over and keep the same stroke that'll keep your machine costs down then you can throw in a nice rotating assembly raise the compression and you'll have a nice little 306 thumper like this one now as far as power goes i'm not making any guesstimates i'll leave that to you but let's find out good all right water pumps on circulating oh that started nice sounds good already with the base timing set a break in session and the motor up to temp we're good to make a pull [Music] [Applause] not too bad wow 383 horsepower 375 foot-pounds of torque uh power came in at 5 500 so it's still climbing look at the power curve it's just straight climbing all the way up and the torque picks up and i mean fast look at the gain there you want to zing it to six yes sir let's do that everything looks good take it to six let's go all the way here just pick up right right at that rpm [Applause] 393 horsepower at 5900 370 foot-pounds of 52. that's 158 more then nice all right man i almost don't want to do anything but i know we can improve on it two more degrees of time 402 horsepower 380 foot-pounds of torque at 5 000 rpm up on everything speaking man this is a high rpm little screamer that'll be nice 100 167 horsepower over the old baseline stuff baseline on a stock 302 high output in a mustang yeah that's sad enough for us look at the horsepower and torque lines the horsepower looks like one continuous line but it's actually three laying over each other now the one on the torque that looks like it's a little off scale that's what that timing change we made that's a consistent motor and consistent with our 400 horse prediction plus we were right on target with our parts budget of three grand well no time to celebrate we got more horsepower coming up [Music] build on a budget horsepower projects that save you time and money this may look like a strange assortment of items on the table and i promise i'm not going to cook anything but how many times you've been working in the garage or in the house you've got a lot of small nuts and bolts or nails and screws you get up on top of a ladder move around a little bit and they fall off or you've got all your stuff on the inner flange of the fender and they just roll off onto the floor well here's something that's going to take care of that you can involve your kids it'll be a little fun and the best part you can even raid your wife's cabinet for a little cooking pan like this the other things you're going to need are super glue a magnet which i pulled off of a stereo speaker and some felt start out by putting glue on one side of the magnet then lay the piece of felt over it this will protect the magnet from damaging a painted surface now cut the felt to the shape of the magnet and glue the other side of it to stick to the pan now after we let the glue dry we've got a nice little magnetic tray to hold all your loose bolts nuts and fasteners now the best part it only costs about 450 to 5 to make and when it's not in use you can stick it on the side of your tool box on the side of the lift or on the side of a metal cabinet making gaskets can be an easy task if you've got the right tools like this nice gasket punch set but let's say you don't have one of these you're working a late night in your garage or you're out on the road in your hot rod and you just don't have the room for this well some of you guys might be saying what about a razor blade and a set of scissors well that could work out but you're going to have a nasty looking gasket and probably a bunch of frustration so here's the next best thing it's super compact it won't cost you a thing and if you're into firearms it'll be even easier for you if you're not pick up your phone book and find your local gun range or gun shop you'll be able to pick these things up for nothing now the ones we were looking for are common gasket hole sizes like a 9 millimeter which is 5 16 a 38 which is 3 8 a 45 which is 7 16 and a 50 cal which is a half inch i traced this gasket and marked the location in the holes out for this master so let's see how our new bullet casing gasket punch really works now you got a nice clean looking gasket that you know is going to make the seal now here's a few things you need to pay attention to the first one on the back of the casing make sure that the primer has a mark in it from the hammer that way you know it's been fired and if you've got young kids at home don't let them play with the casings if they ever get a hold of a live round they may not know the difference now here's the real kicker if you've got a pregnant wife at home or a really young child make sure you wash the casings and your hands before you handle either one of them because of the lead content now some of you may be wondering how am i going to keep track of all these little small pieces well the answer is simple just drop them into the 50 cal casing you've got a nice little tool you can store just about anywhere i used to get a call from my wife on a regular basis saying she either locked her keys in her car or she simply can't find them so i thought an easy fix was going to be one of these magnetic key holders that go underneath the car well the answer was wrong because these things will fly off if you hit a pothole hard enough so the solution is over here now this little chore won't take you long at all what you're going to need to find is a conspicuous area underneath the car where you're not going to drill into the floorboard or any gas or brake lines now what you're going to need are a drill a short bolt a wing nut a lock washer and the spare key first drill your hole then put your bolt through the key tuck it up out of the way and secure it with a lock washer and a wing nut now that only took about five minutes and it was a lot cheaper than going out and buying a key holder plus you know that spare key is always gonna be there and you're gonna get the last laugh because when your wife comes home with a dirty shoulder you'll know exactly what she's been doing hopefully we'll be right back you're watching horsepower for a dvd copy of this episode just go to powerblocktv.com and order your copy for just 5.95 plus shipping and handling start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door from the power block [Music] now it's time for a few hot parts and here's the first one it's stable fog and oil and it's made to protect your engine when you store it and also lubes up the cylinders for a nice easy startup now when we get done with an engine on the dyno and start a new project we throw them on an engine stand put a bag over them and store them in our warehouse now just because they're inside doesn't mean they're not prone to humidity and moisture and that can rust up the cylinders and the rings so if you've got an engine you're getting ready to store or a weekend road warrior you're going to put up for the winter you might want to pay attention to this here's how it works with the engine running start spraying it down the carburetor until the motor chokes out and dies then pull out all the plugs spray some in each cylinder put the plugs back in and you're ready to store your engine or start it whenever you want swapping plugs in your daily driver is a no-brainer as most of you know you want to do the work when the engine's cold you want to get them tight but not too tight and if you're screwing them into an aluminum block be sure to put some anti-seize on the threads of the plug oh finally here's another performance upgrade idea if you step up to a performance plug like these silver tips from excel you'll get more performance for your pennies why silver well it's the best thermal electrical conductor of all metals and well if you add to that better insulation and a faster burn rate you're going to have a plug upgrade that you can feel when you mash the pedal here's an upgrade you'll like when you feel and see it it's a set of hookers new dark side ceramic coated headers now they're made from 16 gauge steel with a 5 16 inch flange now this set here is for big block chevrolet it's got two inch primaries that blow down into a three and a half inch collector now the people at hooker tell us they have an improved thermal resistance up to 1700 degrees that means less heat migration through the headers and lower under hood temps the price 450 bucks well it's time for us to turn off the lights and get on out here we'll see you next time

Channel: POWERNATION 2

Views: 610,939

Keywords: powernation, powerblock, powernation tv, powerblock tv, how to, cars, trucks, do it yourself, horsepower, engine build, small block, Ford 302 Small Block, ford, ford engine

Id: dKr5WMVLu4w

Length: 18min 3sec (1083 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021