Which Distributor?

[ken0275]

I purchased a remanufactured 85 Ford 302 **, CFI and the 351W firing order, or at least it was supposed to be . The block casting number shows its a 86 Thunderbird block. Through my hours of research and head scratching on the web, I found Ford did put a ** 302 in the Thunderbirds, but they were not the good Mustang **'s with the roller cam & lifters. Also 85 was the only year where they used the 351w firing order on certain the **'s. In 85 Ford made both a roller lifter and a hydraulic lifter motor, with the 351W firing order. As near as I can tell its just a regular lifter motor. I know the Roller motors have a steel billet cam and require a steel gear distributor. So, I thought it was going to be easy and I would have to get the cast iron gear distributor, BUT I then found a bronze gear distributor. Which one would be better?

Would the best place to get the distributor, be a Ford Dealer or any other recommendations?

This is what I get for buying a no paperwork surplus 302, rebuilt by AC/Delco, off the internet. Price was right though 615.00 and no core charge.

Thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ken

 

[4xfan78]

Sounds like you got the "shaft" on that deal. The steel gear would be the beter choiuce.

 

[ken0275]

Hopefully, I didn't get screwed too bad, I am still thinking 615 bananas for a remanufactured engine wasn't too bad of a price. Motor is going in my 76 Bronco, which I am not making a ultimate off-road vehicle. I am trying to make a decent summer cruiser, that I can just turn the key and go. With any luck I can figure out what I have and by summer and be on the road.

Thanks

 

[BLADE262US]

No you didnt ***** up Ford did use a roller motor in 86 not sure of 85 but from 86 up pretty much all of the 5.0,s are roller even in the trucks and yes they do use the 351W firing order because by doing this they got away from firing 2 cylinders on the same crank journal a standard 302 firing order is 15426378 see how the cylinders fire one after the other on the same crank journal now a 351W firing order is 13726548 see how there mixed up so that no 2 cylinders fire on the same crank journal at once just takes a little stress off the motor . and I am thinking that about all 302,s after 86 are the 351 firing order . Now on the the distributor if your motor is a roller motor you absolutely CAN NOT run a distributor with a cast iron gear on it as the cam is billet steel and will eat the gear literally right off it has to have a brass or bronze gear on it also you can not use an older distributor in these roller blocks without changing the oil pump drive and the roller motor distributors are about an inch longer not sure what they were thinking here but thats the way it was I converted my 86 5.0 ** out of a lincoln sport coupe to run a carb and in doing that I had to change the distributor to the older style and change the oil pump drive I also kept the roller cam and changed the gear on the distributor to the brass one that msd offers . As for checking to see if its a roller motor or not you can either pull the intake off or take one of the rocker arms off and pull a pushrod as they are shorter in the roller motor that in a standard lifter motor . If it is a roller cam in it and you have a cast iron gear on the distributor you have to change that or youll be rebuilding it soon . Hope this helps if it is a roller motor and it has the good 86 style combustion chamber heads on it then you have a motor with alot of potential . I have done one so I know what im talking about . If you have any questions feel free to ask /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[ken0275]

The intake is off the motor and I can see the bottom of the lifters and they are not rollers. The oil pump should be 85 or 86, I already planned on buying a new distributor, but I wasnt sure which one to buy. I am planning on going to Ford and just get a stock replacement distributor, unless there is something better and will plug right into the factory wiring harness.

I have a 84 factory aluminium intake and will be putting a holley street avenger 670cfm on it.

Me

I just want to say thanks for all the help!

Me again

 

[BLADE262US]

If it was an injected motor and your converting it to a carb you cant use the factory distributor because there is no advance weights in it it depended on the computer to take cake of all the timing ford called this ignition TFI ( thick film ignition ) but seeing that you have an older non roller motor you can easily drop in an msd 8582 and an msd 6a box and youd be all set . Ebay is a good place to get the stuff reasonably priced . Hope that helps /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[ken0275]

It did thanks. I am going to pick up the MSD distributor and MSD ignition. Hopefully, by the 1st week in March I will have the motor swapped. Then the next thing will be the lift kit, tires and rims. I just have to find someone to buy the drive train out of my other 76 bronco and buy my 66 bronco.

 

[BLADE262US]

Got a complete front axle outta one of them with disk brakes ?? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[ken0275]

The 76 Bronco is complete, minus what fell off due to rust. I placed an ad in the classified section on this website for both a 66 and a 76 parts bronco. The 76 does have a front end with disk brakes.