Legal pistons for a 1974 Ford 302 2bbl.

[Fred Elsass]

I have a 1974 Maverick that competes in R-U Stock Automatic. When I got the car I had no idea If the engine was legal. I finally found who built the engine and contacted him. He said that he had installed pistons that did not have a number of the top. Well that put pay to that so the engine has to come out.


I went to page 22 in the nhra approved piston list and guess what? There are four legal pistons for the 1972 302 engine. There are none listed for 1973 through 1974 and four listed for 1975 through 1976.



The only difference between 1972 and the 1973-1975 engine is that the 72 is a dish with a .063 depth and 8.3 volume. The 1973-1974 is a dish with no depth measurement and a volume of 10.3.


Now to have Ross make a piston for that engine is to submit an OEM piston, ain't going to happen, one of the approved pistons for 1972, not available any where. So what does one do??


One of the approved pistons is a TRW 2305F. There is a Ross that is listed with that TRW piston. I cannot purchase the TRW because it is no longert available however I can purchase the Ross and run it. If I get torn down it would appear that my next phone call would be to my attorney.


Thanking you all in advance.


Sarge