well by accident i ordered spark plugs for a 76 maverick with a 302. they wouldnt thread into the holes, too big. trip back to pepboys got me a set of plugs for a 96 5.0 explorer. they aparently have platnum tips or something(and are more expensive), they went right in. i never did plugs on a stock v8 mav with stock manifolds but looking at the GT40 heads next to a set of old 302 heads i cant see how it could be any diffrent. it was still a pita with the headers and shock towers. i pulled the engine hoist back out and lifted the motor up in the front away from the shock towers. i guess you can say i cheated a little bit BTW, anyone happen to have a plug wire diagram?
if it's a 5.0, here http://www.moddedmustangs.com/reference/firing-orders.php 302's have different cranks than the 5.0
Cranks are pretty much the same, other than balance weight. 302 have different cams than the 5.0 HO, producing a different firing order. 5.0 non-HOs kept the 289/302 firing order. You can swap cams between the 289/302 and the 5.0 HO/351w and change nothing but the firing order. So the question is "Do you have a 289/302 cam, or 351w/HO cam?"... Then you just wire it up to the correct firing order. I have a 351w/HO cam in my 72 302. They say the revised firing order takes some stresses off the crank. Or better said, it spreads the load across the crank. The old firing order focused some consecutive firing pistons onto single arms of the crank. The revised FO essentially makes your crank stronger, without doing anything other than spreading the stresses better. Edit: I want to condition my earlier statements by clarifying... Some later engines, generally designated '5.0', both regular and HO, have hydraulic roller cams. These cams/lifters will not go right into a non-roller block. Some mods are needed. I just wanted to put that out there. Didn't wany anyone to misunderstand and skew their thinking towards just any 5.0 cam for an early block.
Fwiw: Use the 5.0 link for a visual diagram. They are all layed out like that. If you have the HO firing order, then use the firing order from that link. Or a 351w cam for that matter. If you have a 289/302 cam, use everything from that link except the firing order. 1 5 4 2 6 3 7 8 is the FO you want to use with that diagram in that case. Everything else is the same. The cap is marked with a "1" over one of the posts. Only use that as number 1 wire/cylinder if you have made sure to clock the distributor into that position, while the 1 cylinder is TDC on the correct stroke. Otherwise, you can save time by just finding where number 1 cylinder is at TDC, in relation to your rotor. Then just use the nearest post as number 1 wire, to number 1 cylinder.
not to :deadhorse but they do sell "Maverick" valve covers just like that ().... all over ebay and autokrafters... some like them, others don't. I was going to get them, but needed extra clearance for the hardware i'm using inside. Oh, and sometimes cost is an issue.
