Project: Baja or Bust Build Thread

[DelaRanger95']

I dropped the block and heads off at ACA today to be hot dipped and decked. Also gave him my rods and pistons to be seperated. He said he's going to do some measurements on my cylinders to see how they look. They have a nice ridge on them but I took care of that myself on a few of them. Trying to not have to pay 3x the cost of the block just on machine work!

 

[DelaRanger95']

Still waiting for a call from the machine shop to pick my engine and heads up. Got some more dirty work done today. Cleaned up the oil pan (took forever). Primed it for now. Should be picking up some high heat black this week and that'll be done.

 

[DelaRanger95']

Since I forgot to give the machinist my main caps my machine work is a bit behind schedule. He said it should be hot tanked on monday and then he's going to measure up my cylinder walls to see if they need honing. The heads and the block are getting decked too. I did however go hunt down some purple power for soaking all the little parts in. Really cleaned it up nicely. I am still upgrading the rocker arms and getting new springs/lifters but everything came out nice and is in decent shape.

I've decided to do a Delaware Flag color combo. Ford Racing Blue Block, intake, valve covers, spark wire separators, and distributor with Daytona Yellow oil pan, heads, spark plug wires, timing chain cover, and cold air intake.

Half of the valves and the rest of the small pieces after soaking in Purple Power.

 

[DelaRanger95']

Been a while since I've had an update. I picked up the block and heads today from ACA Performance. The pistons/rods are hanging out in their shop until the new pistons come in from summit.
Anyway here's the list of things i had them do.

Cook the block and heads.
Deck the block.
Install new freeze plugs and cam bearings.
Deglaze the cylinders (measured up like new after 26 years!)
Resurfaced the heads.

Snapped a few pics when I got back to my garage, getting it on my new jegs stand by myself took a little work/luck. It's on there solid with 4" Grade 5 7/16 bolts and rotates 360 degrees.

motorcycle jack and some ice-melt to eye it up.

on the stand with the heads.

threw the oil pan on for a laugh

nice 68 at ACA

Also I had some clatter coming from the rear for the past week so I took the diff cover off and found the problem. The cross shaft for the differential broke right after it's hold bolt and is riding the ring gear. Already got a new one from R&D and fresh gasket and fluid. I'll probably fix that on friday.

 

[-Nathan-]

That notched cross pin is your problem. If you grind one tiny spot on the ring gear you can slide a stock cross pin, which is much stronger. If you need pics of where/what to grind let me know. Nice build, love seeing 302 builds. Ive got a spare EFI motor kicking around, if you need little pieces let me know.

 

[dangerranger83]

I wish I could have done all of that to my 302 but was tight on money but plan on doing the same things to another.

Looking great.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DelaRanger95']

What's up guys.
The UPS man brought some presents today.
Oil pan pickup/driveshaft/bolts/pan bolts/magnetic pan plug.
Full gasket set. And 1 piece Ford Racing oil pan gasket.
Speed-Pro Hypereutectic pistons and ring set.
Timing chain and gear set.
Trick Flow head bolt kit.
Rod and Main bearings.
4.000" aluminum piston compressor ring.
9'x3' Summit Racing Equipment banner.

I also ran over to pep boys and grabbed the rest of my essentials.
Caulk gun style bottle of RTV Ultra Black.
Assembly lube/moly paste.
1qt standard 10w-30 for piston install.
Brake parts cleaner.
Blue Threadlocker.

The rest of my shipment will arrive tomorrow.
Oil pump.
Timing cover and bolt kit.

I took the pistons over to ACA Performance to be installed on my rods. I told the owner I couldn't find a ring expander yet and he offered to install the rings for FREE!

And a little truck pron.

 

[DelaRanger95']

Im now at the final stage of pre-assembly. Everything I need is in the garage. Now I'm just waiting to pick up the pistons and rods at the speed shop and get cracking on this thing.

My biggest worry has also been taken care of as well. The pan that came with my motor was identified by the previous owner as some old fox body pan. After a few people on different forums kept saying otherwise I looked it up and it turned out to be from a bronco 90-96 model. The main issue I had was that summit racing had several different oil pan pickup screens for that truck and several pan styles. I was unable to find a picture or anything to guide me to the correct screen so I ordered the one that I thought best matched in their brief description.
Turns out it is in fact the right pickup. It has a very sharp angle to it and that is what worried me.

Today I hung up my new banner, primed the motor and painted the timing cover, tested the oil pan for clearance and checked a few other parts I had ordered for fitment.

Oil system mocked up. I moved the hold down bolt for the pickup to where it belongs after this shot.

Perfect fit.

Banner's up

Primer

 

[dangerranger83]

Your doing exactly what I want to do someday to a 302.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DelaRanger95']

The block is painted along with the timing cover and heads!
The trick is to coat everything you don't want painted in wd40 and then just wipe it afterwards. Came out awesome!
The shop was closed for memorial day so I should be starting the build tomorrow.

Also I got the old timing sprocket off of the crankshaft using an impact wrench. It was a snap. The new one is on and finger tight so that I can torque it to specs later.

Old vs New

 

[dangerranger83]

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DelaRanger95']

Today was a HUGE day. My best bud and I powered through this engine in 7 hours. We got istalled everything but one head. (We snapped a rocker arm bolt :/ I'll be finding a replacement tomorrow)
We installed the:
Pistons/Rods/Rings
OIl System
Oil Pan
Timing chain/Sprockets/Cover
Lifters and valley guide
Pushrods
One finished head

Installing the Camshaft

Main Bearings

Crank and Timing Chain/Gears in place

Pistons going in

Timing cover going on

OIl System

LIfters, Dogbones, and Guide

Lapping valves

Valve Springs and Rockers on/ Head Installed/ Pushrods going in

Put the distributor in to see how it looks. That's all for today!

 

[92ranger18]

Some quick questions for you but first this is a nice build thread good job on the build. My first question is what all original parts did you put back into it? Are the cam and crank the original to the motor? And what is your estimated comp. ratio after decking the block and heads and how much was taken from them? Thanks and once again nice build.

 

[dangerranger83]

Heck as much as you have done to the engine, I would have got her some pedestal roller rocker arms.

Sent from my rooted SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DelaRanger95']

What type of ratio should I be looking at to just go with rollers? I'd like to keep the stock cam. Latemodelrestoration has full roller kits for a good price and free shipping that I'm looking at. 1.7's are $179 for the full kit. Btw thanks for the advice everyone!

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com...Mount-Roller-Rocker-Arms-For-Small-Block-Ford