I have a 70's 302 that I am going to put in my 70 Maverick. I'm looking for anything I can do to it to add horsepower and torque without using nitrous or a supercharger. Thanks
Cam, pistons, heads, intake, roller rockers, headers. The sky is the limit. Use the search function. Start here http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=73806&highlight=motor+builds
Turbocharger. Sorry I had to. I would start with a roller motor but if your stuck with the flat tappet motor thats OK. Exhaust,headers,gearing,carb/intake. depends what you want your end result to be. Could get into cam swap,cylinder head work or swap. The parts have to match the cars set up. Budget being a huge factor obviously. A minor build to me would be a cam swap,timing chain,dual plane intake,600 holley,headers,exhaust,rear gear change. Perhaps a something along the lines of an Edelbrock kit. Takes the hassle out of picking matching parts.
I want the car to accelerate fast on the road and do pretty good at the strip. How do I change the cam and how do I know whats going to speed the car up?
Don't we all. What's your budget? What year is your engine? D4 casting blocks (74-77) are low compression. Is it completely stock now? Can you afford aftermarket heads or will you run factory irons? Intake, heads, cam, and exhaust are where the power comes from and they all have to be matched to work together.
I think its from 73 but I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to work on it slowly because I have hardly any money.
Bear in mind that the engine is an assembly of components. to get the most out of any change you need to change the other components to match. To a point a cam will increase your power but in order to get all the power it can provide you need higher compression, a better intake and exhaust and heads that will handle the flow. Lets say you put a mild performance cam in; 220* duration at .050" with just under .500" lift at the valves. You will have to add about 1500 rpm to get to that power (6200 rpm). You should balance the engine and add a scraper or good windage tray. You should have a minimum of around 9.5:1 compression (new pistons), make sure the block is in good shape (bore and hone). You will need better flowing heads than the stock ones (even ported) like AFR 165. You will need a better flowing intake (Performer RPM or similar). You will need a set of 1 5/8" long tube headers and a free flowing exhaust (duals and freeflowing mufflers) using 2.5" pipes. You will want at least a stock electronic ignition with the distributor recurved for your application. If acceleration is your true love then you will need some lower gears (3.55 for street use would work). You may need to improve your transmission to take the new power that your engine produces. There are a lot of details that have not been covered but that is how you know that it will give you an increase and "go faster".
I havent been working on the car long so I dont know much about the engine components and how they effect the power. can you explain, Thanks for the help
An internal combustion engine is an air pump. More air in (intake), more air out (exhaust), BUT...................................you have to also have the fuel and spark to take advantage of more air/fuel to make more power. Your 73 only has an 8 to 1 compression ratio. Not good. 9-10 to 1 would be better. What you can do is replace the stock cam with a Comp Cams 268H, this cam works well with the stock comp ratio along with the heads and valve springs. Next replace the intake with a high rise dual plane aluminum intake (Edelbrock RPM, Weiand Stealth, Ford A321)and a 500-600 cfm 4 bbl carb(Holley's 570 Street Avenger is my favorite) or if you're on a budget, swap out the stock 2 bbl carb with a Holley 500 cfm 2 bbl. Then add headers and dual exhaust. Any mods more than these parts will be a waste with the stock heads (or at least in their present form, the exhaust sides are extremely restrictive, but can be ported to fix that) A better ignition will also help, your stock points ignition is now and will be afterwards a constant source of headaches. Just replacing the points with a Pertronix unit will do wonders for starting and running.
Can you look at the side of the block and tell us the casting number? Should start with a "D____-_____"
Good. As Bad mentioned, get a good aftermarket cam that will increase cylinder pressure (and change the timing set, too, 'cause Ford retarded the cam timing during those years), rework the heads or pick up some newer GT40s etc, and have them milled to keep up compression, intake manifold as mentioned with a 4-barrel carb, and a free flowing exhaust, preferably with headers, play with the distributor initial advance and curve. Stiffer rear gears will add to the fun. Do the easy cheap stuff first while you save up for the more expensive items. Me, I would do the exhaust, rear gears and distributor before tearing into the engine.
That's the intake's engineering (casting) numbers. The block numbers are located above the starter and will have "6015" in the middle. "9425" is the part number for an intake manifold. The whole number (letter prefix and suffix) found on a part is the casting or engineering number.
