289/early 302 water pump on a later 302

[junkyardjeff]

The 235 took a dump in my 37 Chevy p/u and tired of seeing SBCs where they do not belong so its time to put a SBF where it does not belong in my 37 Chevy,since the 70 and newer SBF have the lower hose on the drivers side I want to use a early water pump to get the hose on the pass side so I will not have to do any serious modifications to my radiator. This will not be a problem if I use a pre 81 motor but if I use a later motor I will have to use the existing balancer but will not be able to see the timing marks,does anyone know if there is a balancer made to use with a later motor with the timing marks for the earlier motor.

[wayne petty]

there is at least one brand of aftermarket harmonic damper that has 3 sets of timing marks on them..

it also has spacers to move the pulley in and out to align with the other drive pulleys..

[junkyardjeff]

That is what I needed to know,I am first going to look for a good enough 289 or early 302 so I wont have to mix and match parts or look for a 70 to 80 motor since all the front motor parts including the balancer will work from the pre 70 motors with no problems but I have a feeling the best motors available will be the 90s EFI motors that will require earlier parts to make work.

[wayne petty]

87/88 to 92 5.0HO motors actually came with FORGED pistons and the swapped firing order..  the 5.0EFI motors had cast pistons.. if they were rebuilt they will usually end up with cast pistons..  but most EFI motors had the reverse rotation water pump..  that required the specific timing cover.. you can swap the early timing covers and oil pans onto the motors.. and 5.0 motors came in explorers up thru 99.. or so.. roller cam motors ..

if you are going to use a later motor. please swap the oil pump.. the aluminum pumps can score the internals fairly easily.. reducing oil flow.

there is also an issue with the TFI equipped motors having a LONGER distributor shaft that sticks farther into the engine block.. i have run into serious issues with running duraspark distributors on a 5.0 block verses a 302 block..  the oil pump shaft is only engaged in the distributor shaft about 3/8 of an inch if that.. it's almost 1/2" of vertical motion when installed.  measured by eyeball..  i did not get a lot of time to take it all apart to measure..

i do have to create a little alert.. keeping the later light weight crank 5.0s under 5500 rpm is a good thing.. the blocks were lightened above the main saddles.. thinned out.. even the conventional aftermarket blocks had this issue for some reason..   as i have pictures of those with the cranks blown out the bottom taking the mains with them.  this usually requires some significant tire spin..  or over speed downshifting..

i have forgotten the year of the split between 28 ounce inch motors and 50 ounce inch motors..  be sure which you end up with..

the explorer motors are probably the best option.. as they are the newest of them all and usually have GT heads on them..    the 8th digit of the vin number will be  a "P"  97 to 2001 explorers had them.  cast pistons. light weight crank.. roller cam.. chromed valve stems.. hard valve seats.. half way decent ports. and not totally worn out in most cases..  also easily retrofitted to early models.  special Ford racing flex plate .. harmonic damper.. and all the early timing covers and accessory drives to your taste..

i don't recall off hand which firing order they used as they use dual coil packs.. and guess what..  i recall an article a while back about using the EDIS dual quad terminal coils in a stand alone situation..  i cannot recall where or how they did it..

[junkyardjeff]

Not going to make a screamer out of what ever motor I use,just going to add a 4 bbl and a good exhaust,I think the split between 28 and 50 oz is around 81 and since I will have to use a rear sump pan in this application I will check the oil pump shaft length situation since it will have a duraspark ignition. It all depends on what year motor I find and hoping to find a decent 289 or pre 70 302 so all I will have to change is the oil pan.

[papastoyss]

Sounds like you are fixin' to find out why the boring SBC is so popular!

[junkyardjeff]

Now that I know a balancer with multiple timing marks is made will make it much easier,I do not mind having to do a little thinking on my builds as it keeps the brain from going dead and no boring sbc for me even in a Chevy.