What's a good site to get information on the 302? Buildups, parts to use, and everything else related to it.

 

You haven't done a search on this board, have you?

The topic comes up here or the Tech forum every couple of weeks.

Basically, you're sacrificing the torque of the longer stroke for the increased cylinder filling of the larger bore. You build the engine like you would for any SBC - the way you want it to run. If you build it to make up for the lack of stroke torque, you keep valve size small, cam duration short, header primaries small, etc. If you build it for power to make up the lack of the displacement of, say, a 350, you build it to wind up, with a bullet-proof bottom end and maxed-out valve train components, with gear train to match.

 

You build a 302 the same way and with the same parts as you would a 327 or a 350, except for the pistons, which must be for a 302.

The heads, cam, etc etc.... are all done the same as a 350 would be.

 

Well here's a question I had for a while actually maybe you can shed some light on it for me. I know that the 350, 327, 302, are all the same bore so why do ya have to use special pistons for the 302 I'm guessing that the hole the rod connects to is at a different location to make up for the smaller stroke so the piston is still at the proper angle. Am I close ? if not exactly why ? thanks alot see ya!!

 

That's it. You want the crown of the piston to come up to the top of the block deck (or close to it), so the wrist pin has to be located in a unique place relative to the crown for each stroke.

 

That's right. The compression height is different.

The comp height is the distance from the center of the wristpin to the "face" of the piston.

The 3" stroke of a 302, w/5.7" rods, needs pistons with a comp height of 1.8".

IMHO, it would be better to use 6" rods for a 1.5" comp height.

FYI, those calculations are based on a total height of 9".