An important thing at this point is to be honest with yourself. What do you want it to do and what will you REALLY use it for. A full race motor on the street is as bigger pain than a stock motor on the strip. Sadly there isn't much new info on these old engines. Bill Fisher's book was done in the early '50s and deals little with the 302. A lot has been done with 302s since then. Small block V8s didn't even exist she the book was written so no SB valves are mentioned or the use of MOPSR rear seal. Talk to as many guys that run them as you can stand. Be sure to note what they were doing with their engines. A lopey,snorting Jimmy is cool until you get caught in traffic.
My dream 302 would be bored to clean up, maybe .040 or .060. It would have forged pistons, a mild super charger friendly cam. 1.86" intake valves and 1.60" exhaust, an old two piece cap Mallory Duel Life distributer, Fenton cast headers, and a McCulloch supercharger blowing through two split base 2 barrel carbs with the second barrels of each set up as secondaries. Dream on…….
