Need advice on 302 rebuild (Use of local seattle companies prefered)

[User1234]

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!

 

[S_bolt19]

To be honest, there really isn't a "hidden headache" with an EFI swap. It is pretty straight forward and if you get a good harness, then electrical failure goes way down. If you use a car, not a truck, EFI swap, it will fit under a stock hood, no body lift. I have had that set up going on about 7 years now. Your MPGs will also go up. On average, an EB in stock form gets roughly 10-15 mpg, where an EFI rig can consistantly get up to 25% more mpg. Right after I finished my EFI, I was getting 25 mpg highway, but it has since gone down into the 15-18 mpg range. Price is where you might get a little sticky. I had my block rebuilt with roller rockers, and 87 5.0 heads. Not GT40 heads, which I wish I would have done. The total cost to me, installed (at the time I wasn't able to do the swap myself, so I had someone do it for me), was right at $2200. Here and there, I have had little electrical problems because I used the original EFI donor car harness. I would recommend getting an EFI harness from fordfuelinjection.com because they are brand new and are built by an EB guy. The problem you are gonna run into is that $3500 threshold you are looking at for a B&B'd engine. I know a Ford builder here in town who is extremely good and his "out the door" engines are running in the $3500 and up range for B&B.

 

[Bully Bob]

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!

Look up Broncoholics on this board... he's in Wash. & would likely guide you.

'69-'70 are already the highest rated (E.B.)302's ----at least on paper.

With all that horsepower (your looking for) ....suspension work may come into play.

(he knows suspension)

---IMHO-- that's a lotta eng. in a veh. meant to be a "stump-puller"...?? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[User1234]

Cool guys thanks for the quick reply. I currently only get 8-10 mpg so EFI sounds like it will pay for it self over a few years and worth a little bit of headache for at least the dual tanks part of it. As far as horsepower I don't need it for any other reason than a few changes and planning could get me there for a nominal amount of money. Funny you should say stumppuller because that is the only thing I have used it for in the last 4 years. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I will PM Broncoholics and see if he would be willing to share some info on local shops and his experience.

Let me know if there is anything else worth considering or sharing.

 

[MUZZALL]

Try our local site.

http://www.northwestclassicbroncos.com/

 

[User1234]

Thank you I will join and hopefully see you guys on the road this spring. Quick update I picked up a 91 5.0 ** mustang engine with an aod transmission in good shape with 91k miles for pretty cheap. And I was smoking crack with needing 300hp I thought it was 290 stock. I will post again as soon as I figure out next steps.