300hp 302

[baddad457]

find a cheap low comp. crown vic 302...throw some bearings and rings in it....some decent heads ,good high flow intake 750 holley with a 300hp shot of the funny stuff...run it till it pukes.
put your money in the heads you can reuse them after you trash a block.....(if you break a rod)....and a really hot ing. setup

Ain't that simple, the 86-91 Crown Vic 5.0's lack one necessary ingredient-----valve reliefs in the piston tops. Do any thing with other than the heads these came with and you'll end up with the pistons kissing the valves. There's a reason these motors don't have reliefs in the pistons. He's better off starting with a Pickup or van 5.0----------- better heads and pistons with reliefs. Actually the only things different as opposed to the Mustang 5.0's is the cam and piston construction.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

there you go..........an even better idea.......from a man who knows his stuff......(baddad hooked me up with the balencer and flex plate for my project,he was a lot of help!)

 

[skippy]

the key phrase the op used was "on a low/junkyard budget.he didn't elaborate on intended use.i know that if you have the wallet you can get all the horsepower you want.i've priced 302 offerings from summit,rhs,ford racing and others,it's definately out there.everyone has their own methods and reasons for motor builds,thats good for our hobby and economy.i wish the op good luck on his v8 project and many hours of enjoyment with it.

 

[bottledgt]

5.0's are not that high. find a 87-91 mustang one . i have put 2 stock bottom end ones in the 6's in the 1/8th mile .no use buying the crap ones unless your replacing pistons and heads anyway

 

[ri06667]

Wow! Thanks for all the replys.. To clear up a few things, whatever motor I get, I will be rebuilding it as much from the ground up as possible. I will have experienced help as well as some books for reference for this.
How do i intend to use it? Well I drive a 4 cyl right now, so anything is going to be a huge step up. However, I'll be happy to get 150,000 miles out of it, and while track times dont mean much to me, I would love it to be "surprisingly fast". My budget is roughly $3500 for the entire engine / rebuild / transmission, and other than whatever machine shop work needs to be done, the work will be done by myself or my family. I was hoping to go with an aod transmission, as i do quite alot of highway driving.

 

[supermonkey]

Good power requires an investment in the induction and longevity requires an investment in the bottom end.I spent the bucks on a nice holley,airgap,B303,and edelbrock heads.My basic rebuild forged piston '85 roller shortblock proved plenty durable shifting at 6800 and would have lasted forever without the abuse.Not even an 8K over rev could kill it.I think you could do a roller 302 with some patriot heads within your budget.

 

[pud]

you could pull 300hp-ish at the flywheel with an HO cam, explorer (GT40x) heads, 650 carb and a good intake to match. Just have to bump the compression, run 92octane and lots of ignition advance then spin it up to 6500rpm. Some advance on the cam timing would help