Cleaning up a 302 from a mid-80s Ford LTD. Had some kind of air pump lines going into the back of the heads. I just cut them off about three inches from the heads, bent them over and hammered 'em flat. This engine is for a no-frills lad-n-dad rat rod project, so I don't want to spend the money for better heads. Just curious if anyone else had any experience with these. I'm planning on adding an aluminum 4-barrel intake and carb, headers, and not much more.
What you describe are called thermactor "bumps" in the exhaust ports where the smog pump pumped air into the exhaust. A lot of guys ground them down and block the rear ports. There were several changes through the 80's but none of them were really worth messing with until you got into the E6 and E7 heads. E7 heads used in Mustangs are a dime a dozen and usually easy to come by cheap, but they are the best head from that time. Since a lot of Mustang guys swap for some hotter heads, there are a lot of these stockers out there. Pay a little more and find some GT40 or GT40P heads from Ford Explorers/Mercury Mountaneers. Same heads as on the 93 Cobra I believe. Can't remember for sure.
The lines on the back of the head are exhaust ports for the emissions. The holes threaded if you take the lines off. Some are 9/16 coarse thread and some are 5/8 coarse. A 1" long bolt will thread all the way in and block them nicely. Or you can just leave them like you have flattened them. It will not hurt any thing. The GT40P heads are the most plentiful- best factory head for SBF. The problem is they are Angle plug, this makes the exhaust a pain. There are headers for them but are rarely cheap.
GT-40P also have slightly raised exhaust ports if I recall correctly - might make exhaust challenging if you've got space/clearance issues... EDIT - don't think port is too different, angle of plugs makes most mass-produced headers problematic though
As mentioned before, the holes are threaded. I know you said no frills, but it would probably seal better if you went ahead and got the plugs for the holes. Rob
The mill came from an 86 or 87 LTD. A smog pump was located low, on the left side of the motor (looking from the front). A pipe went around to the back, and then split off to the back of each head. It was like a miniature exaust manifold, with a single bolt holding it in place. However, the exhaust (or air) hole wasn't threaded. That's why I cut the Y-tube, rolled and flattened the ends of the pipe at each head, and bolted the "mini-manifolds" back in place. Thanks for the tips about the angle plug heads, but I'll probably skip those -- this is one of those low-dough projects (we pulled the valve covers to inspect the rockers--looked good-- and my son's immediately started talking roller rockers, to which I said, "You want roller rockers, well, let's get this thing on the road first, and then YOU can buy 'em.). So anyway, just a cheap set of headers: This 302 is going in a Model A, no hood or fenders, so we've got room to work. Oh, Another question: Any suggestions for the distributor/coil setup? I'm guessing this engine probably had some kind of electronic ignition. The old distributor is still in the engine. Can I use that one, or should I get some kind of Pertronix setup? Rick
Get a points distributor and either teach/learn the fine art of points care and adjustment or fill it with a Pertronix ignition and be done with it. Since its a budget build, not a thing wrong with using points. Even in a daily driver, I seldom had to fiddle with them. There are ways to use the old distributor, but it would look really out of place with those huge caps they used and they require some wiring a bit more complicated to make it work. It can be done, but personally I wouldn't bother.
I used the old dura spark dizzy in my 302 and use a 4-pin HEI module mounted under the dash. Works great and cheep.
Stock it should have the Dura-Spark II ignition system - a very good/reliable system. Run it. You need the box that goes with it - easy to find - Wiring instructions easily found on the internet... If you want something different, troll eBay - loads of different types of distributors there...
I'm sure the Dura-Spark would work fine, but it just wouldn't look right on a hoodless, fenderless rod. At least not to me. I'm not going by some kind of "period correct" rulebook, but seeing that big diz would would bug me too much while driving. As for the points, I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age -- I've put a Pertronix unit in a couple of rides, and never had a problem. First one I used was in a 57 Chevy -- kept my old points & condensor in the glove box because I didn't trust the Pertronix. But I probably put 30,000 miles on that car before I sold it a few years later, and the old points were still in a ziplock baggie in the glove box. After that, I was sold -- especially on Chevies: Crawling over the top of the engine to set or check the points was always a big time PITA. ON THE OTHER HAND, nothing like working with points to appreciate the electronic stuff. It's like with firearms: My son went through several levels of NRA training. One Saturday, though, we spent an afternoon with a cap-n-ball pistol. After you go through all the measuring the powder, packing the wadding, ramming the ball, greasing it and putting on a percussion cap, wow: You really appreciate every factory-made brass cartridge after that. Rick
early points type,small dist caps ,fit on the duraspark, as well as large caps fit on the points dist , just use the cap and matching rotor.
The duraspark dizzy in my 302 was a small cap. Ya can go to the 2-piece large cap and have male type terminals on it.
fyi- Factory Ford cams are, for lack of a better term, ....lame.....except for the 302 HO cams. They are pretty decent actually. Consider a cam swap when funds allow.
If you are just sprucing up the thing, rather than rebuilding it, you should consider putting in a new oil pump drive shaft. Also if you go with a used distributor make sure it dosen't have a lot of slop in the bushings. The older points type used to wear the bushings and you could grab the shaft and feel it wabble. Other than that they are a very good little engine.
Thanks for the suggestion about the oil pump drive shaft. Yeah, mostly just sprucing up at this point. Once we get the car on the road, and put a few thousand "shake down" miles on it, then we'll start looking into more serious hop up mods. We just about have all the parts (and will likely have plenty of extras left over when it's done) to assemble it. Lots of work still ahead.
If they are from an 86 / 87 full-size LTD (Crown Vic), then those are some of the worst SB Ford heads you can use. Look for an E6SE casting number. These have a quench style chamber, were used on the passenger car non-HO engines from 86 - 93, and for 86 only on the HO 5.0L ... they went back to the earlier version on the 87-up HO. FWIW ... cheers Ed N.
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