U/SA 302 ffffford build

[goinbroke2]

Well, I picked up a engine that was supposedly just built, ran it for a couple hours and it started knocking. I got it because it has the D8OE heads I need. As I'm tearing it apart I'm noticing an "assembler" problem. Somebody spent a lot of money to slap it together without checking anything.

Piston/wall clearance was .001 at most. (two pistons are scored quite bad)
Cam endplay was .120!!
Cam lobes all starting to wipe but engine started knocking before it ate the cam completely.

Now, the good news. I noticed the rod caps are all ground from a balance job(except one of course) and I see ARP rod bolts as well. I see slugs of mallory welded in....ummm...there's an eagle stamped into the first counterweight!!
The head bolts are ARP as well.
I checked the pistons, Hypereutectic CP, 30 over.
Looking closer at the rods, they are D1VE which are 1971 rods....interesting.

The Cyl's were just bored and are perfectly straight and round. I decided to hone it out to .003 (calls for .015-.029) to get rid of the scratches and it worked on 6, the two bad ones are still noticeable.
Cam endplay was .120 instead of .001-.003 I looked at the frost plug behind the cam and they used a tiny socket to beat it in causing it to push the center in but it was never seated. Seated that with a proper sized driver and it went to zero. A little manipulating and I got .002 endplay.

I did some block work opening up oil returns and was going to relieve all the holes but wife got home, lol!

Since i got it so cheap, I'm going to fix the assembly errors and put it back together. The cam bearings look pretty rough which could cause low oil pressure but other than that, bottom end should be ok. Put the stocker heads and cam in it and see if it will last until my good engine is built?? I just have to check these pistons.

Forgot to mention, I have a Deano carb and a stocker cam on their way!