Just Curious

Just bought a 72 302... it supposedly has an aftermarket cam, holley carb(not sure on specs) 2 1/2 pipes with flowmasters and 9in rear end. I'd like to add some headers, what brand is preferred from the classic crowd? What kind of gains can I expect? Will I be able to make 300+ HP @ the wheel with a 302? Point me in the rt direction, thanks in advance.

You need to do a lot of work to hit 300hp rwhp. Heads, cam, exhaust, intake. Might be cheaper to buy a crate motor or a used one if you don't car about matching numbers. Also, I found that it's the torque you feel. I have a 351c with just added intake/carb/headers(maybe low 200hp/300 torque) but with a 4r70w trans and 350 gears it will pull plenty.

As far a headers are concerned I preferred Headman on my car they just fit better. Increases in hp are small if at all and I took them off because I hated the tinny sound and the constant retightening of bolts at the heads and at the collector also I had clearance issues and seemed to be always scraping the flange on the collector when ever I went over some random rise in the pavement. I like the stock manifolds better.

Changing to headers from stock manifolds should provide a performance improvement, how much depends on what power level the engine is at...

What is the rest of your drivetrain setup? As mentioned above, 300rwhp would require a pretty stout 302, if you are going to mod the motor more, what about a 302-based stroker? The displacement increase would help make more torque which is what is needed on the street more so than hp.

What rear end gear ratio do you have? if it's numerically low, changing to a higher ratio makes a big improvement...

I had a set of hooker ceramics on my 79 F100 302. I loved em. No retightening of bolts EVER. The ceramic coating never decayed and it seemed to keep temps down under the hood a bit. The only small issue I had was during installation the bolts would touch the tubes when bolting them up so on a few of them a small indentation had to be made to fit allen head bolts in there.

I was just wondering if they make a tri-Y header for that 302?

The first thing I would suggest would be to assess the condition of the engine before any significant changes are made.

To get to 300 RWHP you need to make nearly 400 at the flywheel. Normally aspirated, this would be pretty tough to do with stock heads and a stock short block. Headers aren't going to get you there alone. You would need an appropriate camshaft at a minimum IF the rest of the engine is in good enough shape to accept a cam change and not start toasting bearings etc. Big long duration camshafts tend to have low vacuum and rough idle-this can be a problem on a street driven car. Can you get there-yes-all it takes is cubic dollars

Aftermarket heads are available, as are stroker kits and higher compression pistons etc. You can spend a fortune trying to reach a HP number that really means nothing.

I would add headers (I prefer the Hooker brand) and if my cam wasn't performing to my needs, I'd call and get a cam recommendation from Lunati or Comp Cams or any other major manufacturer with your needs and stop with that. If those changes aren't enough, you probably need to look at a full rebuild with a stroker kit or a different engine.

The rear gear ratio will also be something that can make a huge difference

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hookers are ok, they make a cheap one and a pricey one . . hedman "elite" headers are very nice. . . if you build a 302 ci to 300 rear wheel hp, you will need 1 5/8" tubes and a BIG boat load of money and it will need to spin to around 7000 rpm.

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Appreciate all the replies... just trying to figure out what's feasible with this car/engine. Sounds like I should look to swap to a 351 or better huh?

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well, the quickest, easiest, cheapest thing, is to build a 347 stroker from your 302.

the next option which is a bit more drama is to find a 351 windsor engine of any typer but a late model from a wrecking yard would be cheapest then build a 410 . . you can get around 525 hp from one fairly easily but nothings cheap.