This new motor I am doing is making my head hurt

[dodgestang]

I am using a new ford racing 302 roller block.
I am replacing the 289 from my 1967 mustang.

What's making me head hurt is not getting clear information about what works and what doesn't.

My 'plan' was to take the front of the motor from the 289 and bolt it to the 302.
Timing cover, water pump, pulleys, brackets, fuel pump, dizzy.

But then I heard I have to worry about 3 bolt or 4 bolts in the balancer and then I heard something about the brackets from the old motor won't bolt up.....so what's the straight skinny on this.....I thought it was a simple deal as long as you pulled and used all the old stuff from the front of your 289?

 

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

balancers are available with both 3 & 4 bolt patterns. are your internals gonna be 28oz or 50oz balance?

heres a 50 version with a removeable weight for 0 balance with both patterns:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-163302/

i just looked & my 69 302 has the same bolt holes as my 07 gt-40p explorer motor sitting on the stand.i would think the brackets would work depending on what bolt holes your heads have...

 

[Anonymous]

I have 6 Eagle H beam rods and SRP pistons that would be OK for a street engine.

 

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

I have 6 Eagle H beam rods and SRP pistons that would be OK for a street engine.

maybe you can warm over a 3.8???

 

[Ponyman66]

I heard something about the brackets from the old motor won't bolt up.....so what's the straight skinny on this.....I thought it was a simple deal as long as you pulled and used all the old stuff from the front of your 289?

If you are using '66 style engine mounts, they bolt right up with no problems. I'm sure that the the '65 (early '66), style with the cast mount at the shock tower would work also, but the '66 stamped steel style is a better mount IMHO.

 

[nymustang]

Are you going serpentine with the new motor? If you go V belt I believe the 70 302 crank pulley is what you want. Its a 4 bolt IIRC and fits just fine on the 5.0 balancer. I put the front end of an earlier 302 on my mid 80s 5.0 a few years back and had no issue other than getting the pullies to match up. I ended up buyin a march set to make my life easier. From what I remember I needed a new oil pickup, front sump pan, timing cover, cam eccentric because I went with mechanical pump (maybe timing gear set also?), oil dipstick, dizzy with proper gear. Let me see if I can remember anything else.

 

[dm289]

My 'plan' was to take the front of the motor from the 289 and bolt it to the 302.
Timing cover, water pump, pulleys, brackets, fuel pump, dizzy.

As said above make sure that you have a balancer/flywheel that matches the balance of whatever crank you use. However you must be careful with your distributor, I beleive that roller cams use a softer drive which the older 289's didn't. You will need to use the distributor drive off of a later 302 if running a later model roller cam.. in addition watch your firing order... they changed it in 1982 to match the 351W's... most 5.0 cams use this firing order... not a big deal, but if you install the wires to the old 289 firing order you will make some nice flames out of your carburetor...

 

[1497]

Info given by others is correct. There is an aftermarket 50 oz balancer that look like stock 289 with the timing marks positioned for the pointer on the driver's side. I used this and everything from the 289 lined up perfectly. You need to change the distributor gear to something compatible with the roller cam.

 

[Starfury]

Make sure you match your fuel pump eccentric to the timing cover. Your early timing cover will require a one-piece eccentric. A two-piece will rub on the timing cover.

Also, the distributor gear needs to be replaced with a harder steel gear (not bronze).

 

[GrabberOrange69]

Make sure you match your fuel pump eccentric to the timing cover. Your early timing cover will require a one-piece eccentric. A two-piece will rub on the timing cover.

Also, the distributor gear needs to be replaced with a harder steel gear (not bronze).

+1, or use an electric fuel pump.

You also need to use the steel cam retaining plate - since the roller cam is steel vs cast.

 

[dm289]

+1, or use an electric fuel pump.

You also need to use the steel cam retaining plate - since the roller cam is steel vs cast.

GrabberOrange69 made me think of something else... if you are going to use the early one piece fuel pump ecentric, make sure that you install the longer dowel pin in the camshaft, not the shorter one that later model cams use. On the older motors the dowel goes thru the timing gear and orients the one piece ecenetric, on two piece ecentrics the dowel goes part way thru the timing gear and a tab on the ecentric goes into the remaining bore of the timing gear to orient it... I don't know about roller cams, but most flat tappet cams I bought have come with both dowels uninstalled. Put the required one in the freezer over night, leave camshaft room temperature, take dowel out of freezer and install immediately into end of camshaft... once the temperatures of both parts equalize, you'll never get the dowel out...