Engine and Transmission Tech

Junk yard? (pull it and run it without much work)
Parts car?
Rebuilt locally?
Remanufactured engine?
"Crate" Engine?

I've never had much money into my TR7, so I hate to spend a bunch on an engine.

I thought I'd be happy with my parts car 302 for atleast a few years, but I'm ready to upgrade after about putting about 100 miles on the car. I have next to no money into the current engine I'm running, and I'm not sure I want to put any money into it. As nice as it would be to drop $4,000 or so on a nicely built performance engine, I hate to do it. Just curious what you guys are running and how it is working out.

This looks pretty good:
[www.latemodelrestoration.com]

Upgrade to what? More power? Sorry, the bad news is HP=$$$$

You know the saying, "How fast can you afford to go?"

Mike, Carl is absolutely correct, horsepower is money. To save money I started by tearing down and rebuilding a bone stock 302 from a friends donor Mustang even though I knew at the time my personality would be able to accept that approach for just so long (I should have listened to Tim Allen to begin with) so I recently went through the process you're contemplating. Even though it didn't cost a lot of money to build it stock, I could have saved a little by building the engine I really wanted to start with. I ended up selling a set of cast iron heads and the comp cam that people said wasn't the right cam for my other components, and buying the Lunati cam I wanted in the first place. Decide what you want to do, how the car is going to be driven, develop a plan and parts list, think it through a lot, and run it past people who have done it as you're doing now. I don't pretend to be an expert on this, but there are a lot of knowledgeable builders on this site. Still, I don't regret doing all the upgrades; nothing beats setting at a red light and listening to a big Lunati cam and a Magna-Flow exhaust to bring a smile to your lips . Good luck with your project.


Paul

I recently picked up a complete, low mile 302 off Craig's list for $100. It's at the machine shop now. I'm not a fan of "crate motors" as I like to pick my own components. I've been building everything from street only to race only engines for 40+ years. Decide your intended use and build it accordingly. Don't build an engine for the track and try to live with it on the street. You won't be happy.

I'm not really looking for more power. Smooth and quiet is the goal. My worn out (but free) 302 with low oil pressure and a noisy overhead isn't enjoyable. Paul is probably right- If I don't do what I want, it will only be temporary. I built a fantastic BBF for a Cobra I built, but it was expensive. I pulled into a big car show (1500 cars) kind of late, and the announcer/MC got on the mic and said "that's the best sounding car I've heard all day". I'll never forget that. That car is in Germany now. I guess I need to think carefully about what I want and just do it.

Dang, now you've got me digging through old pictures.









Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2014 10:19PM by Addicted.

Since we're sharing pics. of Cobras we've built:

Very nice.

Likewise! They sure are fun.

Mike, I've gone about this just about every way possible I think, and if what you want is really what you said, the best approach in my opinion is to find a wrecked late model Mustang with low miles and use the engine as-is. With a little judicious searching you can probably get a good engine for about $500. Run a leak down test before you buy and if that's in the upper end of the normal range it should give you a long service life with no issues. Do that, and I wouldn't even pull the pan unless it just has one that won't fit.

Jim

Circa 1965, Matosians' Auto Wrecking, bought wrecked 1956 Dodge truck,$75/delivered, 241" Red Ram V8 ! This went nicely into my 1950 Stude PU., engine/trans and Dodge gauges/wiring harness. 3 on tree became, home made shift floor shift,w/o "shift rods, thanks dad. Those were the days, roverman.

Well, I drug home another 302 and T5 today. It's from a 93 Mustang that had 34000 miles on it. A friend of mine who is a top notch local race engine builder recommended it and got me in contact with the guy who had it. He knew the car it came out of, and drove it before it was pulled out. Wish me luck on this one!

I paid $1100 for the complete engine and transmission. I wouldn't have paid that to a junk yard, but given the recommendation, I went for it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2014 02:17PM by Addicted.

Sounds like a winner.

Jim

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you. The motor sounds like it's good but as far as used transmissions go, they seem to fall into one of two catagories, just rebuilt or needs to be rebuilt. I always buy new ones because I hate putting something together only to find out I have to tear it all apart. I have a new Ford T-5Z sitting in a box waiting for my conversion.