Posted by 74merc (IP: 207.157.60.2) on December 20, 1999 at 01:21:27:
In Reply to: Re: 1974 Comet 302 V8-another question posted by WM on December 19, 1999 at 17:03:24:
it would take a small head(like the 289s you mentioned) to raise the compression. I plan to rebuild my heads and put another shortblock in there if the current spare block checks out. the 74 block has a slightly taller deck height, .023 in, mill it .020 and your as good as the standard 302 block. the 74 is suppose to be slightly stronger than the later blocks, I think 77 is when the blocks went to $h!t, all the way up to 83 or so. If you run standard flattops on a standard block with these heads, you should have a 9.3:1 ratio, with our 74 blocks and flattops, it would be around 9 or so, not a big difference, but its there...
definately port the exhaust on these heads if they're like the 77s, as I've been told, haven't been into mine yet. I will see soon enough, headers are working their way here slowly...
or, like the others said, get some 69-70 351 heads.