Mustang LX

I have all day today to work on the car so I'll get some updated pics tonight, anyways

Heres what I've done so far (on a poor ass budget!)

Bare bones. Cylinder walls look great, no scoring. Pistons are good, just a little carbon build up (stock forged in this year).



There was good deal of weight savings with the new aluminuim heads.
The heads are assembled patriot performance freedom series. They are less expensive but I couldn't find anything but good reveiws on them. They look nicely built out of the box.




Big valves! 2.02 intake.



I had to hog out the headers a bit so they match better. BBK builds up these huge bugger welds where the flange meets the primaries, gone now!

[FoxTuner]

Heres where I'm at now. I got some proform full roller rockers and some hardened push rods. I don't think of buying the rods at first but you need them with guildplates. To ajust them I kept turning the motor over and when one valve was completly open, I would ajust the other. I kept the stock cam and roller setup for now

[jollywrencher]

Looking nice, keep up the good work. Just a tip though, when the exhaust begins to open adjust the intake.. and when the intake is just about closed adjust the exhaust. Thats what I've always went by.

[Buzz_Kill]

and then take that pos 302 out and drop in an ls1... you have all day nate... that could eaaaaaaaaaasily be done...

[Pool Boy]

I havent seen to many people run those heads would be interesting to see how they work. IMO the heads are a little large for a stock bottom end 302, especially with stock cam and what intake are you using? But atleast they'll be big enough if you make changes down the road. My old set-up 5.0 with GT-40 alum heads,1.7 rockers, trickflow intake, 24lb injectors, stock cam made 243rwhp and 271tq through a stock aod just to give you an idea. If you have a 5spd your hp levels might be higher.

+1 on what Jollywrencher stated

[FoxTuner]

Looking nice, keep up the good work. Just a tip though, when the exhaust begins to open adjust the intake.. and when the intake is just about closed adjust the exhaust. Thats what I've always went by.

Thanks man.
I'll do that next time. I have a stock cam with very little overlap so I should be ok ajusting at wide open wouldn't you think? Should I do anything special since I'm using hydrolic lifters?

Today I got vavle covers, headers, and plugs installed. I tried to add my oil catch can but couldn't find a good place (I'm using one because I ground out the oil baffels in the valve covers to fit the rockers).

I'm going to buy a bigger intake ASAP.

Pool Boy, your right. They are big for the car. We'll see how they work.

[jollywrencher]

Thanks man.
I'll do that next time. I have a stock cam with very little overlap so I should be ok ajusting at wide open wouldn't you think? Should I do anything special since I'm using hydrolic lifters?

Today I got vavle covers, headers, and plugs installed. I tried to add my oil catch can but couldn't find a good place (I'm using one because I ground out the oil baffels in the valve covers to fit the rockers).

I'm going to buy a bigger intake ASAP.

Pool Boy, your right. They are big for the car. We'll see how they work.

Thats a good question that will get you lots of different answers, so lets hear what all of TCO thinks on it. What kind of rpm's are you looking to run? If not radical then adjust like stock I'd say. But if lifter pump up could be an issue then some adjust until they just touch the plunger. Then others adjust deep into the lifter to just about bottoming out so that if they collapse they don't lose much.

[Pool Boy]

Eventhough you have stock cam you should properly set the valve lash, like jollywrencher stated above, thats the way many, many people have preached. And no nothing special for hyd lifters (if there new some like to soak them in oil for a bit) When and if you do a cam swap is a great time to get new lifters

[FoxTuner]

I'm still wrenching away.

[ReRod]

Progress is lookin' good Nate

[FoxTuner]

its together, runs great, whoo-hoo!

[Pool Boy]

Good job, looks great!

[ReRod]

Good job, looks great!

Looks great Nate!

[Old School]

Looks damn nice!

[FoxTuner]

Thanks guys, its awsome driving it after a month of down time.

The mid and top end seem much better. I think a cam would really help it out.