Rebuliding the lo-po

[Pesty351]

I'm about to rebuild the lo-po out of my 84 for the Maverick. I'm thinking about taking it to a machine shop and letting them put the long block together since its been so long since I've done it I would probably fuck it up. I have e7 heads for it and a offenhauser 4bbl intake. I want to find a good piston/ring/bearing kit to take to the machine shop so they don't overcharge me for parts. I all so need a good dd cam that will wake it up but not kill my wife or her purse.


Some picts of the thing how it looks now after 114k miles.

[grandpaslincoln]

Cylinders look good, for 114K if you can still see the swirls.

[gadget73]

You don't have one of those wierdo Offy split-port intakes do you?

Also interesting that motor has valve reliefs. Wonder if those are cast pistons, or a forged unit.

Anyway, I've used speedpro and Napa engine kits before. I had no complaints with either, other than the gasket sets that come standard are nothing remarkable. Speedpro comes with FelPro gaskets, the Napa kits come with Victor Reinz, which is a Dana product. Very comparable, both had the cork vc and 4 piece oil pan gaskets, but I think they did come with the rubber china wall gaskets for the ends of the intake. I've had decent luck with 4 piece pan gaskets on engine stand installs, but the one piece ones are very nice. Its worth spending a few extra bucks on the one piece pan gasket and the better valve cover gaskets if you can afford it. I'd at least go for better vc gaskets, never had much luck with cork jobbers.

Just a bit of advice though, buy the kit after you get the motor back from the machine shop. they'll tell you what bearings and pistons you need. If you buy standard size, and it needs a crank cut or a bore job, you now have a box of useless parts that may or may not be returnable.

[RunUoveR]

maverick

[Pesty351]

You don't have one of those wierdo Offy split-port intakes do you?

Its one of these.


Wouldn't be my first pick but I found it in the junkyard and paid $25 for it. Yeah I was wondering if I should take it to the shop first. I'm just worried about them try to rip me off. I guess I could price a few things and see what they try to charge me.

[Pesty351]

Hmmm. the pict didnt work lets try this again.

[gadget73]

You don't have to order the engine kit through the shop. I have in the past out of convenience, and really sometimes their prices are reasonable. You can always get one cheaper somewhere else, but I figure the machine shop dude has to eat too, so I'm willing to pay a little more to get the right stuff.

[RunUoveR]

your pobably saving some headache by letting them order what they need and assemble it too

atleast both sides will know whos at fault when it doesnt come together right

[88grandmarq]

I'm about to rebuild the lo-po out of my 84 for the Maverick. I'm thinking about taking it to a machine shop and letting them put the long block together since its been so long since I've done it I would probably fuck it up. I have e7 heads for it and a offenhauser 4bbl intake. I want to find a good piston/ring/bearing kit to take to the machine shop so they don't overcharge me for parts. I all so need a good dd cam that will wake it up but not kill my wife or her purse.


Some picts of the thing how it looks now after 114k miles.

second picture... is that a hole in the cylinder wall? or just dirt?

[grandpaslincoln]

It's a notch in the piston, if you look at the overhead pic of the cylinders, you can see the others have a notch too. Reflection off the cylinder wall.

[Pesty351]

Yup.

[gadget73]

thats a pretty good size notch. Was that thing burning a lot of oil? Pistons are pretty slimy looking.

[Pesty351]

It wasn't burning any oil I just covered it in oil and wd-40 to keep it from flash rusting.

[88grandmarq]

I have rebuilt several late model 302 blocks.
Unless the motor has been severly abused (run with no oil or overheated) they usually dont require any machining.

what I have done in the past is stripp the motor down to bare block. use a bead or Flex hone and hone the cylinders, get them as smooth as possible.
then take the block to the local machine shop, then them clean it, install new cam bearings and freeze plugs. then I bring the block home for the assembly.
new bearings, piston rings, oil pump and gaskets.
this method has worked well for the past 4 rebuilds.

I only had one block bored .030", installed new pistons, had the rods re-sized and installed ARP rod bolts.

[Pesty351]

Umm.. Might be a dumb ? but were 84's roller blocks or not? I thought they weren't but if that is the case whats with the xxx? BTW the machine shop wants ~650 to refresh the shortblock.