Art & Inspiration 302 Ford small block, really small.

Gents,
I worked for the Ford Motor Co. for 38 years as a metal patternmaker. During that time I built my own shop at home to build miniature engines. I started with steam and progressed to I.C. engines, eventually designing and building my first multi cylinder engine. In the mid 80's there was talk of dropping the 302 from production so with dimensioned drawings available I started scaling down the 302 with the idea of building one before they no longer existed.
I settled on 1/3 scale for the size mainly because of the size of the machinery I had available to machine it.
The only variance I made was to reduce the bore to 1.00 so I could get more water jacket around the sleeves. The stroke is .900.
The block is cut from solid aluminum and as I mentioned has iron sleeves pressed in. The heads are iron with stainless valves and springs. The crank and cam are steel. I started out with 2 ring pistons but had some smoking while running so I made new pistons with 3 rings, 2 compression and 1 oil control.
It has full pressure oil system which runs through a working filter. The water flow through the block, into the heads and intake and back to the radiator.
The ignition is electronic, (Hall trigger) with home made 1/4-28 spark plugs.
gbritnell

 

The intake manifold was made from brass so that all the runners and water crossovers could be machined and then silver soldered together. Without castings this is the only way it could be fabricated.
The exhaust manifolds were made from stainless steel The bends and flanges were machined from one piece and then silver soldered to the collector tube.
gbritnell

 

well done!

 

It took a lot of tinkering to get the fuel system to work properly. I ended up using a model airplane type carb and when I got the venturi and jetting worked out I recreated the specs into a replica Motorcraft carb.
gbritnell

 

I saw your other builds and was quite impressed with those, but as a 302/5.0 fan, this really does it for me. Awesome work, sir.

 

Holy cow! Awesome machine and casting skills!

 

You should have put all of these in one thread so they are all together...you're very skilled...nice work.

 

This is what the finished engine looks like.

 

Here's a link to a nice video someone shot at a local old engine show. I have several that I took myself but aren't as good as this one.
http://youtu.be/fRVYYtdhG_8
gbritnell

 

The distributor that's shown in the photos has been upgraded for the new electronic ignition system. This is the only picture I have with the new distributor.

 

Wow...your metalworking skills are way beyond incredible! Beautiful job.

Wayne

 

That is magnificent. The windsor is a beautiful little engine.
You are atrue craftsman.
Thankyou for showing us your work!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Absolutely incredible.

Now you need to build a 1/3 scale hot rod to put it in.

 

Amazing craftsmanship , you must have a lot patience and skill to build this tiny engine , now let's get it on a dyno and see how much it makes ! Lol ! Thanks for sharing

 

Wow. I really admire your commitment to really making it look like a 302. That tiny little autolite 2bbl is just too cool!

 

now you just have to build a '32 to put it in.

 

I am beyond amazed and very jealous of people such as yourself that have the skills, vision, equipment and patience to do these wonderful miniature engines. Thank you for sharing this with us!

 

Absolutely stunning!

As a former Ford automotive engineer in the Engine Performance development Group (Dearborn) I am especially impressed that you were able to incorporate many subtle design features of the prototypes into your models.

Boy, I know some young pedal car drivers that would enjoy having one of your models powering their pedal cars. Ever think about making a scale 9" rear end?

Do you own any full sized rods? I can't see where you'd have the build time for them.

 

I thougth it was cool . then I see the tranny , over the top!

 

Crazy cool!!

 

Absolutely fantastic! As a life long fan of fords small blocks you nailed the look as well as the sound of a 302 in a scaled down version. Job well done!

 

WOW! Very nice work.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Hi FrenchTown Flyer,
Last winter's project was to build a Ford 9" differential. My buddy had one sitting in the back corner of his shop so I took the center section home and pulled it all apart and cleaned it. I then went about reverse engineering it and took all the dimensions from it to make accurate drawing. Once that was done the first thing I had to do was to see how I could make the ring and pinion because if I couldn't accomplish that there was no sense going any further.
I'm going to do threads on the Borg-Warner T-5 and the 9" in the future so keep tuned.
I don't have any 'rods', just a pristine 90 LX 5.0 Mustang (16,000 mi.)
I'm 69 and grew up with rods and gassers, my buddy and I raced D gas for many years so now it's just engines.
gbritnell

 

WOW! truly amazing.

 

That's just unbelievable work! I really enjoyed seeing the pictures and appreciated the links to the Youtube vids showing the little engines running.

 

at the Goodguys Pleasanton show they have the miniature motor club out there every year. saw some small block Chevys but nobody has built a Ford.

 

Beautiful!! Any idea the horsepower these little engines put out? My son use to race RC nitro and some of the companys claims were 1 to 1.5 HP from A .12 AT 45,000 RPM.(single cylinder 2 stroke 20% nitro) what fuel do you use? Pete

 

Unreal man.

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Wow!

 

Very impressive. Well done!