302 - SVO re-build

Julian West · 10-20-04, 01:24 PM

I have a low mileage 302 SVO with ally heads. I'll soon be stripping the engine for dynamic balancing following a flywheel change.

My queries are, Can someone reccomend a good book that describes the strip/rebuild process?

Can anyone reccomend any minor/cheap upgrades while I have the engine apart?

What are the best gasket sets to use??

Thanks in advance!
regards,

Simon · 10-20-04, 01:33 PM

Julian,
I have two sbf rebuild books, you are welcome to borrow them if you want.

Simon

Paul W · 10-20-04, 02:12 PM

I found that out of the 4 I bought by far the best was :-
How to rebuild your Small-Block Ford by Tom Monroe.
Its on HP Books from1978 ISBN 0-912656-89-1
I think I found it on Amazon.com.

Howard Jones · 10-20-04, 02:43 PM

Here are a couple of areas to think about, Hopefully others will comment also.

1. Valve springs. FMS springs are good up to about 6200RPMS it seams to me. Given a larger buget I would do some study on valve spring makers, comp cams, crain are two, and replace them.

2. This also might be the time to change over to a stud type rocker and install rollers. I really like the looks of Comp cams magnums, They are made of steel and seam to be of very high quality.

3. Head port work, These heads look like they could use a little pocket porting around the valve bore and valve guide boss. No big port shape change just a nice clean up in the valve pocket.

4. I do not know which cam u have. Mine has a B303 and I think a little more lift might really work well. The heads I have, GT40X type, flow much better than stock iron heads but many other heads, AFR, eldebrock, victor junior, and others have higher flow numbers. I think that a about .5 total lift might make these heads work better. They are about .45 now. You will have to check for clearance to the pistons but you will have the motor apart anyway.
This is a good time to think about replacing the 1.6 rockers with 1.7 ratio rocker arms as these would put you right in the .5 lift ballpart with a B cam.

I am not much of a engine guy but this is what I would change first with a SVO 302 with X heads and a B303 cam. I really think you can expect about 370Hp with my ideas. I would still limmit engine speed to 6500-6700. The FMS lifters will not like more than that.

Lastly if you are using GTD headers you MUST check exaust port match. These heads have a much larger exaust port than the iron heads that were used to mock up the orginal GTD exaust headers. I'm talking about the twin 4 into 1 type not any crossover,Crossflow type.

Depending on your buget.....well I am sure you can spend as much as you like building 302 fords. For a nice street motor at about 370hp or so the SVO lower end will be fine along with the alum X heads. The GT40X alum head motor just needs a few hundred more RPMS as it seams to run out of steam at about 6000RPMS. This can be done with a little port work and quality valve gear.

Oh I am using a RPM preformer and a 750 holley and I like this setup for a induction system. And make sure you are getting to full advance,34-36 degrees, at about 2500 RPMS.

Brett James-McCall · 10-21-04, 06:07 AM

The Haynes Book isn't bad either.

Brett

Lynn · 10-21-04, 10:33 AM

Howard, spot on brother!

Lynn

Howard Jones · 10-22-04, 12:14 AM

I'm home now so I can look at my FMS catalog.

The B cam I mentioned above has a little more lift than I remembered. It is listed as .48 so the increased lift going to 1.7 rockers from 1.6 is .48 X 1.1 = .528

I WILL SAY AGAIN CHECK FOR VALVE TO PISTON CLEARANCE. It should be ok with the 1.94 intake valve head. I'm not sure about the 202's.

Changing over to 1.7 roller rockers is sort of a 2fer. You pay for much better rockers and kind of get a free cam change in the process. Looks good on the comtrollers buget report also.

As a point of reference the next cam in FMS's catalog going towards hotter is the X cam and it has a lift of .542 along with a slightly longer duration on both intake and exaust so you can see that you would be going in the right direction without getting too exotic with cam selection.

I plan to do this to my motor at some future date. New springs and rockers and change the chip in the rev limmiter and keep the rest of the motor intact. My guess is it should be good for 40hp or so. Or about 10 ro 11 bucks per hp. Thats not too bad. Anyway thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

killroy · 10-22-04, 01:14 AM

I did this calculation a while ago.

It's actually:

.480"/1.6=.300" lobe lift .300"*1.7=.510" valve lift with 1.7-1 rockers.

But, yes, the B cam is a good place to start if you don't have emissions tests. If you need to pass smog, the E303 might be better and the extra lift with 1.7's will give you almost the same power as the B cam.

Either way, check your clearances like Howard said, it's always better safe than sorry.

Howard Jones · 10-22-04, 02:11 PM

Ya your right, I forgot not to factor in the orginal 1.6 rocker and use cam lift only. I still think you can gain about 10% more power from the orginal 345hp SVO motor by running it up another 600 RPMs or so with new springs, reducing the friction losses in the stock rockers with rollers, and increasing lift a little, 30 thousands or so, without flycutting the pistons.