Early production 302s

reddevils86

Member
Apr 1, 2011
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Oh herro does anybody know if the early 70s back 302 block will need altercations to the front drive pulleys and stuff I talked to a guy today who said the older 302 blocks are much stronger any truth to that or is it a myth
 
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Afaik, all you need is all the external stuff off an HO engine to make it work (oil pan, water pump, brackets, pulleys, etc). I think if you stick an HO pattern cam in it (flat tappet of course) or a 351 cam in it, it will even work with the EFI.
 
Oh herro does anybody know if the early 70s back 302 block will need altercations to the front drive pulleys and stuff I talked to a guy today who said the older 302 blocks are much stronger any truth to that or is it a myth

For those of that you that remember Emily Latilla, The senile guest commentator on the original SNL


"What's all this stuff I hear about early 70's 302's having altercations with their front drive pulleys? What did the pulleys ever do to the 302's to cause the conflict in the first place?"

(Emily....Emily...it's alterations, The guy wants to know about alterations, NOT altercations)

"ooooooohhhh. that's quite different then.................................... nevermind!"

Now that I got that out of my system,

To my knowledge, There is no strength differential between 302's early or late w/ the exception of the later 5.0 blocks have a higher resistance to cylinder wall wear because of the use of ductile iron in later production years.

As for the pulleys, as long as the w/p is correct for the pulley setup, i.e. forward rotation or reverse rotation, there will be no alterations required:)
 
:lol: Got me.Well here's what I've gathered so far the older 302 blocks were made with more material and therefore should hold a slight bit more. Not sure but that is the consensus Ive heard. One of the hot rod forums compared it to a mexican block although talking to some of the shops around here they don't really care too much about the mexican block but did say the early 302s should be compatible top end wise with newer 302 parts except cam I think and that early 302s were 28oz on the flywheel and balancer. Now Im thinking slight bit more means like 550 600sh which is more than enough. I'm going to look into this further b/c I can get one of these from a friend for free.
 
I have a 68 302 block in the 82. Some notes: They have shorter lifter bosses and need a retrofit roller lifter setup, use a two pc rear seal, and do not have a dipstick hole. I am using a 1978 302 crank with 28 oz balance, 94 heads, etc, and it works fine. I know you can machine early cranks for the later blocks, but not sure about the other way around.

You need to just make sure the rear seal setup matches your crank, and that your damper and flexplate match the crank balance. I use 80 four bolt pulleys. You can bolt the later 5.0 pulleys onto these dampers.
 
You'll only be wasting your time buying an older 302 block. The strength thing is just urban legend, I have yet to see any real proof that they're noticeably stronger. Just like any year 302, reliability comes into question once you surpass 450-500rwhp, and the only way you're going to make it survive is with the proper tune. I'd be more confident in a Mexican block, and even then a lot of people argue that Mexican blocks aren't stronger.

That, and your options on cams suck- you either go flat tappet, reduced base circle roller cam, or retro fit link bar lifters. Fat tappet = obsolete. Reduced base circle = flimsy junk. Retrofit link bar = expensive.