302 BOSS?

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Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
862
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Location
San Diego, CA
My Car
1971 Mustang Grande
She is named Victoria and sports a 302 with a C4.
I got a 71 with a 302 in it. Anyone running 351C heads on top of a 302? I know the weight added by those heads doesnt seem practical, and for the cost of finding a pair that are usable and doing all the machining and porting and new valves, spring, seats, rockers, etc doesn't make much sense. Nonetheless, anyone running a setup like this one? If not, what heads would you run on a 302 stroked to 331 looking for 450 hp? Stroker kit would be all forged internals except for crank, and run a dual plane intake manifold with a 600cfm 4 barrel carb...hopefully. Thanks!:cool:


Oh and not sure what cam I would run either, but would like something more mild possibly stay under a half inch lift. And would you run short tube, or long tube headers?

 
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The problem with running 4V Cleveland heads on a 302 is that you won't have any port velocity until you're high in the RPM range. The Boss 302 wasn't the best street engine at low RPM, and wasn't designed to be. With Cleveland heads on a 302, you also limit your options for induction systems to just a few manifolds. EFI, superchargers and the like will be non-existant or expensive. I think you'd be a lot better off running a good set of alum. heads, but that's just an opinion.

Steve

 
Good input RVRTRASH! A set of 351W heads sounds interesting. I was playing around with a program online and am looking at trick flow twisted wedge 170 alum heads, 2.02 on the intake and 1.6 on the exhaust with a 61cc chamber. The program said with that head, carb and intake mainfold I want to run, and the cam I am looking at, that I can achieve 474hp! Hope it works out the way. Internals will be forged with the exception of the crank.

 
The AFR 185 heads have worked well for me on a 330 CID SBF. 502 HP, 423 TQ, 10:1CR, solid roller cam, single plane intake. Chuck

 
302 to make 450HP!!! WoWZA!!! you asking a lot from a small block. Might as well drop a 351 in it. I just had my 302 rebuilt....didn't go the 331 or 347 stroker route...just didn't make sense and dollars for a small block. just my Opinion.

 
302 to make 450HP!!! WoWZA!!! you asking a lot from a small block. Might as well drop a 351 in it. I just had my 302 rebuilt....didn't go the 331 or 347 stroker route...just didn't make sense and dollars for a small block. just my Opinion.
I was thinking the same thing. You would be $$$ ahead with a big block since you are going to need to swap/rebuild a tranny to handle that kind of power. Go with a big block. You can get that kind of HP, you will get more torque down low.

 
1) What are your intentions with the car.

2) How much are you ready to spend on it?

 
My intentions with the car are a full Restomod that can keep up with the best of the new Mustangs, GT500 set aside. I am prepared to spend about 7 grand on the motor, and hopefully keep paint and body work to about 5 grand, I will be doing most of the bodywork myself, and if I had the room, I would build a paint booth in my garage and paint it myself. Anyway, back to the 450hp. I know that just starting over with a big block makes sense, but I am just looking at all of my options. I have never opened up my motor so I am not sure how the cylinder walls look, crank housing and all the other interior parts of the block look, so not even sure if it is reusable. If I am going to replace the block, then I will go with a built big shortblock.

 
My intentions with the car are a full Restomod that can keep up with the best of the new Mustangs, GT500 set aside. I am prepared to spend about 7 grand on the motor, and hopefully keep paint and body work to about 5 grand, I will be doing most of the bodywork myself, and if I had the room, I would build a paint booth in my garage and paint it myself. Anyway, back to the 450hp. I know that just starting over with a big block makes sense, but I am just looking at all of my options. I have never opened up my motor so I am not sure how the cylinder walls look, crank housing and all the other interior parts of the block look, so not even sure if it is reusable. If I am going to replace the block, then I will go with a built big shortblock.
Good luck:D Keep us posted,thats a lot of hope

 
Rip it apart first. The original 302 block that came with my car had terrible pitting in the cylinder walls to the point where I had to replace it with a later foxbody block. The engine is stroked to 331cid and is wearing edelbrock rpm heads, an rpm air-gap intake and a 700cfm holley carb. I'm shooting for around 400hp but if it made more I wouldn't be surprised. A stout small block is a great start to these cars, if you want more down the line you can always make it happen with a number of methods.

 
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