88 Roller 302 Refresh ????'s

[marquis_82_withneons]

i completely agree. but with my financial status i can only afford to do my big investments on the final engine. this one as i said was meant to be temporary. i originally bought the 88 for the engine only and ended up putting 20k on it. and now i just want to do a few junkyard tweaks and run it. Seeing how it drove phenomenally well for burning coolant and oil for who knows how long, i figured cleaning up the internals, new gaskets, and better breathing would get me down the road another year or 2 till the 351 is built. i can take my time and put effort into making that one right.

i do greatly appreciate your input gadget. more often than not youre one of the first to help me. and with good technical info that i want!

[gadget73]

If budget doesn't allow, reseal it and run. I wouldn't replace anything that isn't damaged. New valve seals would be the extent of the head work, and unless the valvetrain parts are obviously damaged they'd go right back in.

I have a really bad case of "while I'm in here" so going from a re-gasket to a full rebuild with the block being bored and the crank turned is not unusual for me. "Project creep" is another term for the same thing.

[marquis_82_withneons]

im gonna plan for a cam and lifters, and if its still legit ill run it. i already shitcanned the pushrods so ill need those. also need new valve keepers, and then definitely valve seals. speaking of which, what would be a reputable brand for valve seals? other than that i can probably just clean up the other stuff.

i just hope some portion of this fixes the binding i was experiencing. during free rotation with a breaker bar it would stop dead in its tracks in the same spot. so i suspect some area of the valvetrain to be stuck.

[gadget73]

pushrods don't go bad unless they bend. I wouldn't replace the cam unless it has wear you can feel with your fingernail. They rarely have problems unless something really bad happened. I wiped a cam out after several years of running with cracked lifters that were not rolling, and that happened because the cam gear fell off and the cam slid backwards, smashing the lifters when it went. if the cam is damaged, it needs lifter though.

Fel Pro gaskets and valve seals are fine. I like the Explorer valve seals, they fit the old heads but seal better than the 80s style.

[marquis_82_withneons]

Part of me Hope's the cam Is bad so I can put something else in hahaha. But yea, that makes sense... hmm. Should be fair easy then. Gonna do oil pump, water pump and timing set while I'm here, but the rest should be easy then.