Does anyone know what the redline is on a stock 302 3spd Grabber? I have one in my car but dont quite know what the car could be pushed to. my enigine is mildly built. comp cams, 600 holley, has had head work and heavy duty valves and springs installed, an intake from a 5.0 HO, and prolly a few other modifications by the PO, but with stock manifolds. I push it to 5500-5800 and she still pulls but its really screamin, Ive heard that a decently built 302 loves higher rpms and can handle 6500 or so. im not lookin for an exact answer but a ballpark of what you guys think it would redline at.
The machinist that use to do my work (till he died) always said stock rod bolts were good for 6500 rpm. But who knows, depending on mileage and previous abuse?
and those stock bolts are tiny! If you can find a cheap place to dyno the engine I'd do that to see where it stops making power. Check out the local mustang forums, most of them have get together where they rent a a dyno and you can get it tested for like 30 bucks
I know for a fact mine are good to 6400 RPM with a nice violent power-shift at the end I still have the 40 year old short block with a cam heads and exhaust and a 5-speed. It idles when hot at about 3 PSI oil pressure and has a badly leaking rear main. P.S. The 302 in the Grabber has the special rod bolts that are exact copies of the regular 302 rod bolts.
stick it to the wood, when she kicks a rod out look at the tach, you want to be about 500 rpm under that! ten thousand comedians out of work and were all here on this site, next show at 11
I bet with that setup you are out of the power curve by 5500. Anything past that and you are putting unnecessary strain on the engine. Sure the car may still be accelerating but its doing it at a decreased rate because you have passed the horsepower peak. An earlier shift may get you faster times as you get it inthe next gear and back in the power curver. Just because the egnine will stay togethor until 6500 rpms dosnt mean you should be shifting at that. On my built stroker motor I was getting faster times shifting at 6000 then when i ran it to 6500. Just happened to work better with the gearing and power curve.
a motor red line is determined by two things. the power band the bottom end strength the power band is determined by alot of things. easyest way to figure that out is to have it dynoed. that will show where your power band is. the bottom end strenght is determined by the strength of the rotating assembly parts and the block. in a stock 302 ford the rod bolts are usually the weakest link and as stated above, you really dont want to go past 6500 rpm. if you dont want to pay for a dyno then goto a drag strip and try shifting at different rpms. you will find the rpm that gives you the best time. a shift light really helps with this.
Remember back in the day the testers discovered that shifting the 87-93 5.0 Stangs at something like 4800-5000 RPM yielded the best results?
thanks for all the replies. I wanted to know what most people thought till i pushed it past 6000. You can really feel the power run out after about 6200, so 5800-6000 is prolly my best bet. I wanna get it dynoed, theres a place around here that charges $75 for 3 pulls which sounds alright considering its the only place around here.
By the time you can feel a loss in power you are probably 20% over the actual peak power output rpm. That would make your peak power at about 5000 rpm. With a really flat power curve you can go 10% over that without losing time so shift at 5500 rpm and you should be very close. The best way is still to put it on a dyno to get the actual power curve.
