Guest Anonymous Posted September 14, 2001 Share Posted September 14, 2001 About 20 yrs ago I built my own engine. It was really fast got tired in about a year. That was without overdrive and I guess I beat it pretty hard daily. I also bought a new 90 mustang gt and loved that car! Put 90k on it and ran like a top till I sold it. So, I'm thinking about a crate engine for the reliability and all that (and I have no confidence in my engine building skill!). One that caught my eye was the GT40 from Summit, but it's kinda expensive. I searched around and found many suppliers but who knows of the quality? Anyone know of an engine supplier that they trust? I found this place http://www.enginefactory.com/ford345hp.htm still expensive but it comes with aluminum heads and bigger valves. I've also found some cheaper ones, but this one seems to have better stuff. Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with 3rd party engine suppliers? Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 14, 2001 Share Posted September 14, 2001 http://www.keithcraft.com/ Those guys built my SBC. They build MANY Ford motors and is the engine builder my friend's shop uses for anything that's NOT modular. Modular stuff gets built locally - Hyland is nutz. IMO consider a 351W or a stroked 302. I'm not sure that anyone has done the 351W yet but the added cubes can't hurt and many parts interchange with the 302. Both are good engines with the 302 being narrower and revving fasterhigher... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 14, 2001 Share Posted September 14, 2001 Hmmm, a 347 does sound good (snap out of it Jon you'll kill yourself!) Thanks for the link. I'm gonna call 'em. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 They offer 331 motors too. Make sure that if you get a 347 that the ring package isn't pushed down into the pin. When this is done they have to use a goofy spacer to support the rings and this leads to greater leakage past the rings and burning of oil. There ARE some setups that get you around this problem not to worry. Rod ratio is a little high on a 347 supposedly so bear that in mind. You've got lot's of options and even junkyard 302HOs can be darned strong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 BLKMGK, you are talking way over my head buddy. I come from a day when all you needed to build was compression (10-5.1 with iron rings!), a little cam (280 duration/480ish lift), Single plane manifold with an 1" phelum riser (my idea) a 650 holley and some 380 rear gears (with 4.11's I couldn't go on road trips!, and some open headers. That put my little automatic 289 into the mid 13's. I was hoping that if I did the same to the Z it would be a good 11 sec car and still be track worthy. You are breaking my heart! Okay if I do the stroker thing (there was a guy with an 89 LX and a stroker 347/13.1 compression/racing fuel/mustang that was doing 145 at the end of the front straight at Thunderhill, not streetable though) can you offer your wisdom to me? Please! I got out of the whole racing thing, (getting married and having kids or visa versa, and bench warrants will do that to a guy) and gosh darn it, now I think I can afford to enjoy myself again. That's the reason I was gonna go with the GT-40 crate engine/non fuelie (EZ power?). One thing about getting older is you have more money than brains! Anyway, I'm gonna call the engine builder you req. See what they have to say. BTW, what gives you the credentials to give me so much anxiety? Anyway, I'll keep you posted. I'll also take lots of pics regarding this swap. I got a diff. idea about the motor mounts et al. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 Heh, a crate motor should get you into the 11s IMO or darned close (can someone run the numbers?). However there's much more out there than box stock 302s to choose from these days. Folks have taken the old 302 and come up with TONS of options. Lot's of folks are building "crate" motors of all sorts of sizes and power ranges. Pick up a copy of Fast Fords, Muscle Mustangs and review some of the ads. If in the end you choose to stick to a crate GT-40 (Ford sells them too - with warranty!) you will NOT be disapointed. If you convert it over to a carb though you will have to be aware of a few things like the distributor and it's gear since it'll have a roller cam. Buying a distributor from an '85 Mustang 302 will fix that though How much power, realisticly, are you looking for? What trans do you wish to run? If you want a T5 don't go nuts on power, go with a mostly stock crate motor, and be happy. If you want more than something like 240HP or so then consider some of the strokers out there. If you want to save some money then just get a 302HO motor out of a wrecked late model Mustang - 87 through about 91 - and drop it in. For that matter some of the guys have put in the motor EFI and all with few problems. (shrug) As for "qualified"... I've been fooling with Mustangs since about 86 or so. The 88 I've owned since new has a 351W (EFI) and an ATI blower. Prior to that it had a Paxton on the stock 302 and then a pair of turbos. I've not yet got it on the road with the ATI blower since I got distracted with the Datsun but I did a great deal of the work swapping it myself. I have been researching Ford stuff forever and if I need an answer a good froiend of mine owns a Mustang performance shop He did work on my car too including the blower install - he does almost exclusively Fords. If I don't think I know the answer to a question I'll tell you so. Trust me - the Ford world has grown up in a really big way since about 1985 when I first got interested in Mustangs. Lot's of options and more heads for the small block than you can believe! I'd have done a Ford motor in my car but the SBC was much better documented (shrug). Enjoy the ride Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 Did a little research this morning for ya'... The motor you're looking at is the Ford SVT motor. Shoping around you MIGHT beat the Summit $3495 price. That's basiclly a stock Mustang motor with a B303 SVT cam installed and GT-40 aluminum heads. It's got a warranty I believe. Some things to note - it will have Hyperuetectic pistons which means take it easy on NOS or a blower. It may NOt have roler rockers, I'm not sure. Some other options - Central Coast Mustang www.centralcoastmustang.com has their own line of engines built on stock Ford shortblocks. One of those has Ford X305 aluminum heads which are BETTER than the GT-40s and a wilder cam. Price is $2895. Note that they sell a high compression 302 with iron heads that have a better design than the GT-40 - it's rated at 340HP. This makes the 345 rating of the SVT motor sound a bit optimistic. Do NOT get a motor with the GT-40P heads from Dennis or anyone else unless you want to tinker with header selection. The P heads are a production unit from the Explorer and ahve the spark plug location moved from previous designes making header selection more difficult. Look at some of the motors D.S.S. offers too. www.dssracing.com Their ads have mostly shortblocks but they do full engines as well. For a motor intended for a light Z to just cruise and have fun with you will NOT need fancy rods or forged pistons. Go forged pistons if you're going to put NOS on it or a blower though. I wouldn't sweat "girdles" or other main cap supports with what you're considering doing. Most ANY of the later heads, including production items, will probably beat an older style head. A roller cam would be a good option since they're everywhere and rev quickly. Roller rockers are cheap so if you can get them installed I'd go for it. 1.6 ratio is fine. The weak point in a current Ford motor is the cranbk ripping out of the mains. At about 450HP or so this becomes a danger and it usually is the guy running NOS or a big blower that grenades one. Stock blocks can take 6500RPM or more but I wouldn't want to zing one up past that very often I've seen a couple of late model 302s make well over 100K miles with oil consumption due to the low tension rings being the biggest "issue". They're strong motors! Hrm, the motor you linked? Realize it requires a core motor in exchange. It has many stock parts in it and some nice aluminum heads. Not a bad motor but it's over $4K if you don't have a core to exchange. Hope this has helped even if I've managed to ramble some. Realize too that I'm giving you opinions and that most everyone else is liable to have one too. In the end you'll probably want to learn a little bit about these motors on your own - overall I don't think you can go wrong if you've choosen a decent shop to assemble it. Worse comes to worse drop in a motor out of a wrecked Mustang and built it up slowly as you feel the need for speed - lot's of parts out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 Thanks BLKMGK. Great info ! Yeah, back in the day you wanted everything to be forged too. Thanks for pointing out which technologies have improved over the old school stuff. You know I was just kidding about the quailfied thing right? Dang, I'm going to have to print this stuff out! I'll keep you posted. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 15, 2001 Share Posted September 15, 2001 Heh, print it out and then call a few of those places, maybe see if there's a Mustang shop in your area too. Get their opinions, ponder them, post them here for everyone to take potshots at, hold your nose, take the plunge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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