Had open heart surgery on my baby! (302 that is)
Well my hat is off to Ford for how reliable the old 302s really are. My car has been something of question between me and my friends as to weather the engine in it is stock, because it has so many miles but still runs so strong. The odometer stopped just after 230k, and that was before i got the car in late '03, and i've put every bit of 50K+ on it in the 3+ years i've owned it. Well, my luck it would seem has finally run out
What i thought was a couple wore out lifters ended up being a blown head gasket between the #5 and #6 pistons! We initially set out to just drop new lifters in, but then a buddy of mine gave me his old E7s that have a really light port job (more like just a gasket match) but he picked up 11hp at the wheels through an AOD on'em so we figured it wouldn't hurt to put them on, plus they're off of a low miles engine anyways and have new valve seats and guides. In the end it's a damn good thing we decided to swap heads because thinking it was the lifters, we would've done all that work for nothing.
Anyways, the car pulls a LOT harder now, harder than it ever has since i've owned it. It makes me wonder how long it could've been on its way out. Now i've gotta start working on my other short block and get my real heads on it and my new cam.
I'll post pics later.
Well my hat is off to Ford for how reliable the old 302s really are. My car has been something of question between me and my friends as to weather the engine in it is stock, because it has so many miles but still runs so strong. The odometer stopped just after 230k, and that was before i got the car in late '03, and i've put every bit of 50K+ on it in the 3+ years i've owned it. Well, my luck it would seem has finally run out
What i thought was a couple wore out lifters ended up being a blown head gasket between the #5 and #6 pistons! We initially set out to just drop new lifters in, but then a buddy of mine gave me his old E7s that have a really light port job (more like just a gasket match) but he picked up 11hp at the wheels through an AOD on'em so we figured it wouldn't hurt to put them on, plus they're off of a low miles engine anyways and have new valve seats and guides. In the end it's a damn good thing we decided to swap heads because thinking it was the lifters, we would've done all that work for nothing.
Anyways, the car pulls a LOT harder now, harder than it ever has since i've owned it. It makes me wonder how long it could've been on its way out. Now i've gotta start working on my other short block and get my real heads on it and my new cam.
I'll post pics later.
