I have a 69 ford bronco that I have owned for 12 years with a 302 in need of a fresh rebuild. I am hoping for a little advice, direction, and expected cost based on some of my ruff requirements. I believe the current engine has been rebuilt to .20. I don't know if I would want to have it rebuilt or trade it as a core. I am comfortable with installing the engine if the block and heads are done, but do not know if there are any nuances with compatibility between some of the changes I may be proposing, such as newer 5.0 engines that have different oz on the balancer, bell housing bolt patterns and accessories on the front end. My budget is fairly flexible but it needs to be the complete cost and additions to price will need to be justified. I hope it is reasonable to expect $2000 - $2800 however I cannot seem to find a blueprinted and balanced engine to fit within this, I don't want to go over $3800.
Requirements:
Fits under an unmodified hood preferably without a body lift.
Uses as much of the existing parts and accessories not covered below as possible.
Blueprinted and balanced.
Over 300 horsepower
Open questions:
FI or 4bbl: I have read a lot of the articles about fuel injection and I just feel a lot of the headache of this conversion is being hidden. I also don't want to have this project impeded by a scavenge hunt or costs skyrocket because I could not find something used. Is there significant difference in fuel efficiency or horsepower? I don't care about altitude or hillclimbing issues with a carb. More or less I am looking for a good sell on the FI if I am going to take that upgrade on.
Aluminum heads: worth the cost, performance edge, etc? If fuel injection the GT40 heads seem as easy as the rest of the components to find without too much additional cost
Roller Rockers: Seems like they would be a good investment.
Aluminum intake manifold: What works best to fit under the hood looking to match it for low end torq with a good performance cam? As far as FI there are good posts and links in this forum to guide me there.
Engine Builder: (Most important question I have) I am in Seattle I prefer to stay local or work with a trusted national distributor. I am having a real hard time finding blueprinted and balanced engines without going to $3500-$9000 long block racing engines.
Thank you for your help!
Requirements:
Fits under an unmodified hood preferably without a body lift.
Uses as much of the existing parts and accessories not covered below as possible.
Blueprinted and balanced.
Over 300 horsepower
Open questions:
FI or 4bbl: I have read a lot of the articles about fuel injection and I just feel a lot of the headache of this conversion is being hidden. I also don't want to have this project impeded by a scavenge hunt or costs skyrocket because I could not find something used. Is there significant difference in fuel efficiency or horsepower? I don't care about altitude or hillclimbing issues with a carb. More or less I am looking for a good sell on the FI if I am going to take that upgrade on.
Aluminum heads: worth the cost, performance edge, etc? If fuel injection the GT40 heads seem as easy as the rest of the components to find without too much additional cost
Roller Rockers: Seems like they would be a good investment.
Aluminum intake manifold: What works best to fit under the hood looking to match it for low end torq with a good performance cam? As far as FI there are good posts and links in this forum to guide me there.
Engine Builder: (Most important question I have) I am in Seattle I prefer to stay local or work with a trusted national distributor. I am having a real hard time finding blueprinted and balanced engines without going to $3500-$9000 long block racing engines.
Thank you for your help!