If you're really thirsty for the 10.5 bolt pattern converter, here's what you do. Get a mid to late 60's C4 Bellhousing, shield and flexplate all off the same car/application. The mid-60's bell housing is tight enough that it will fit against the firewall just fine. You won't be able to run the stock brace that runs between the two front end strut rod mounts. I'm sure a custom one can be fabbed. Your automatic starter should work fine. Be careful with the converter selection!! there was two different splines offered witht he C4 in teh same 60's time period. A 24 spline and a 26 spline. Our trannies I believe are 26 spline (this is the removable mainshaft that goes into the middle of the converter) Just check yours to be sure. Either spline came in the 10.5 bolt circle, so it's not a huge deal just as long as you get the one that matches YOUR tranny's spline. And that's it. Rumor has it the Headman Headers, with some massaging, will fit around this bellhousing. I've put a couple set of Headmans on and from the looks of them installed on a II bellhousing, I'd bet there is room for the larger bell if done carefully. Yeah if your block is truely a '78 block, it would be 8.206 just as Cobraman stated. The biggest drawback with alot of these aftermarket pistons not making the advertised C/R is the fact that I wonder if "they" actually account for the huge flycuts, alot of times 4 of them, as they can add upwards of 8cc right back to your chamber volume. Speed-Pro is BAD about that. The other thing is compression height or rather where the wristpin is loccated in the pistion in realtion to the top of the piston. I notice that some outfits actually shorten this distance pulling the piston further from the deck!?! I use Badger cast pistons in alot of my street only sutff. They are one of the VERY few manufacturers that has a piston with decent compression height. On the average they sit approx. .023 -.026 down into the bore on an un-decked 8.206 block. to me that perfect. You never want a zero deck and at least .020 is minium in my opinion just for precautious reasons. Cobramans is also right about the head CCs. I've got a pile of 54cc (as they list them) early 289 heads. I've individually cc'd them and found that the 54cc head actually ranges from 53.5 to 55 and this pretty much stands true for the other Ford casted heads too. If your heads are '78 heads they need to go bye-bye as they are the cruddy 69 cc heads. The 69cc heads actually came out in '77 aswell. This led to a compression ratio of just barely 8:1. Sad. I think the '78 engine was 8.2 or 8.5:1 wasn't it? Reconsider boring your engine .060. In alot of blocks the casting is just nt quite thick enought to withstand the extra heat and it makes for a hard time keeping cool. Add to that the IIs already hard-to-keep-cool nature and you're asking for trouble. Hopefully your .030 overbore is still virgin enough to hone. If not I'd go .040 before rolling the dice on a .060 ovebore. Personally I've only had 2 .060 engines and neither were really 'built' performers, but I had heat problems with just 1 of the 2. I thought I posted a pic on where to find the head casting codes!?!
-Gasket diameter is usually 4.100 -Fel-Pro's gasket (when compressed) measures around .038 I haven't seen a .021 gasket for the SBF other then a freakin copper shim! (pretty squished if not a shim!) -You also must account for the valve reliefs on the top of the piston. The Speed-Pros with their 4 valve reliefs are about 8cc IIRC. (could be more) Just add the 8cc to the head CC figures. -I doubt your deck IS .016 now, or will be unless you get 'er decked down. Most pistons put it .030 into the hole if not further. Like I said earlier, there are a few that put it closer to .020 into the bore.
Dont use a high volume oil pump. It just costs power to run. If you want some extra ponys port your exhaust, you can grind the exhaust bump out in later smog heads.
This thread reminds me of something; My previous "grenade motor" that I ran years ago was out of a 1980 something van, that I'd found laying in the mud behind my ex-employer's garage. The engine had 90k on it, and had a slight wrist pin knock, so the guy had just bought a crate motor to replace it. Anyway, there was no cylinder ridges whatsoever, and since money was tight, I figured I'd throw some new pistons in it, rings and bearings and run it with my 351W heads and solid cam. The pistons were super cheap pathetic Badger units that I ordered through my employer's supplier(I think it was called Carolinas?) for 6 dollars each. (Yes, that's SIX dollars.) After checking the eyebrows, with the .525" lift, I needed more piston to valve clearance on the exhaust side, so I took an old intake valve, cut it down to 1.60", machined a groove into it, and brazed in a piece of tool-steel crosswise. The tool-steel stuck out slightly, so the cut relief would end up at 1.65" diameter (A homemade valve-relief cutting tool, heh) I slid the valve/tool into the #1 cylinder exhaust guide of an old 289 head, turned the crankshaft so that cylinder #1 was TDC, bolted the head down with 4 bolts, used an electric drill to spin the homemade cutting tool down into the piston relief, unbolted the head, moved the valve/tool to the next exhaust guide, turned the crankshaft again, and repeated for all 8 pistons. The cuts actually came out fairly decent, all things considered. What I ended up with was a stock crankshaft(screw turning it down, I just had it polished for cheap) stock untouched rods, the cheap-o Badger pistons and rings, honed stock cylinder bores, new bearings, '69 351W ported heads, Victor Jr. intake, 650 double pumper that I borrowed from a friend, and a Wolverine Blue Racer 238i/248e @/050" solid lifter camshaft. My friends and I referred to it as the Grenade Motor, and I expected it to last at least the summer, until I saved up some cash to replace it with a better motor. Anyway, with little to no fear of losing the motor, I would wind the living hell out of that poor 302, frequently coming up near 8000 with it. (Even though it stopped pulling good past 6500) (The solid lifters and CC valve springs just wouldnt seem to float the valves) One night some chevy guys at a local hang out were talking s*** about how chevy small blocks were much more durable at high RPM than Ford small blocks, so I sat in the car and held the tach at 7000 in neutral for 2 minutes. For those of you who don't know this, revving a motor in neutral is a lot more stressful and dangerous than revving it with a load on it. (Not a single person would come near the car the whole time, haha) Anyway, the chevy guys wussed out and refused to do the same with their 350s, and got laughed at. Typical. Damn I love Fords. Anyway, the 289/302 rod is seriously tough. In fact, other than the stock oil-pump driveshaft, the whole motor is seriously tough. The 289 rod has better "ribbed" caps on it, and is slightly longer, too. The BOSS 302 rod is the same length as the 289 rod, but has the big 3/8" bolts, and is bushed on the small end for free-floating wrist pins. You would do well with a set of magged, shot-peened and resized 289 rods with 5/16" ARP bolts, especially if you run some nice lightweight forged slugs, as the lighter pistons will put a lot less strain on the rods. The longer 289 rods will also improve the 302's rod to stroke ratio, which puts less stress on the piston skirts, among other things.
If the heads are drilled for smog, then you need to press in a steel rod that is the same length as the head to fill the large hole. And yeah, a stock early 302 has 55-60psi, which is enough oil for 6000rpm. You should have 10psi for every 1000 rpm you plan on revving it.
I don't think you want a High Pressure pump. At best I agree with Blue Thunder a stock pump in a fresh block does wonders. The few Hi-press pumps I have used seem to push oil pressure into the 80-90 range, and correct me if i'm wrong, but that can't be good for the engine either and i bet it puts just as much stress on the Oil Pump drive rod and cam gear as the HV pump does. I run HV pumps on all my rigs, never any problems. Of course, I run 10W-30 rather than 10W-40 which eases the excess pressure and stress (thinner oil) that is also created from running a HV pump. I have yet to suck a FORD pan dry and it's nice seeing it idle with 40-50 psi in the dead heat of summer. I don't recall seeing any HV pump go over 75 psi. Bottom line- get a GOOD Oil Pump Drive Rod. I use ARP's chrome-moly drive rods.
The higher pressure pumps also increase oil volume. If you run one, you should enlarge and smooth the oil returns in the block. Especially the big ugly broken-looking one just behind the distributor. If you pump more oil up top, you need to get that oil back down, or bad things might happen.(starvation, squeek, boom.)
