U/SA 302 ffffford build

[goinbroke2]

Since a lot of the talk of valvejobs and what I was doing went on the other thread, I thought I better recap here.

So, after all the drama with spring pressure..I got a set of comp 926's and with +.050 locks and the moly retainers and then some .030 shims I forgot I had, I got it!!

Break in pressure is 50 on the seat and 150 over the nose on all + or - 5#
Running pressure will be 110-120 on the seat and 265-270 over the nose
Once that was done i rechecked all the stem heights and found a couple too tall so i trimmed them about .020 on the 4-5 i had to adjust.

Next up was a way to check the springs on the head. I cant find my checker (of course) so i made one that fits the rocker arm and a 1/4" drive torque wrench. By taking the springs on and off to confirm, i found 50" is equal to 50# on the spring. 90" is 90# etc.
Now i can confirm spring pressure on the car.

Another benefit to the tool is, i bolted the rocker arms down, then used the tool to compress the springs .400 or so and after using red marker on the tips i was able to (crudely) approximate where the rocker and spring contact. Almost all are a thin line on the stem but some are a little towards the outside which means the rocker arm is too high (or you have too long of a pushrod)
Obviously its not perfect, might of pulled too far or not far enough which would affect where it marks but generally it was pretty good.

Another good thing was when I pulled off the intake, I found that I had ground out the oil return holes and covered them with screen and epoxy...this was just an engine to move the car around the shop but apparently I took my time with it? Lol!

More good news was finding the .030 shims packed away. I also just found some hardened pushrods (for guide plates) and a HD oil pump drive shaft for a 302, new, still in the box.

Last pic is the complete intake and carb ready to install.

Bad news (there always is) I dug out some head gaskets and...they don't look right/not windsor gaskets?? I had to order some.
Since I have to wait until tomorrow anyway (NOTHING IS IN STOCK HERE!), might as well install cam and lifters and put the cover on...wait..what's up with these gaskets??,,,,chev?? WHY DO I HAVE CHEV GASKET SETS???? Then I remembered the guy across the road from me in NB ran chev open wheel stock cars and I did some heads for him and some other guys, apparently the boxes of spare gaskets are sbc/460 stuff with a bunch of sbf mixed in. This happens when you are posted every 3-4 years in the army, lol!! Movers just box it all up together.

Also bad, I have 4 sets of headers, 3 of which are for fox body mustangs with 302's...should be good right? WRONG! Fought with the long tubes and pulled the starter and still couldn't get them to fit before I realized, a lot of the longer tube headers only fit manuals and not auto's...sigh...nothing is easy. So, I painted my old trashed ones and will be reinstalling them. (the black ones in the picture to the right)