Ford 302 build ?s
 

I am looking to build a 302, marine block, 300hp min-400hp max. This build will be somewhat on a budget. What cam/heads/intake would you use? Pistons? Is this reasonable or not. Thanks.

not sure if they are good for marine use BUT trick flow twisted wedge heads, decent cam and intake will make 300 without breaking a sweat; 350 should be easy enough. There are endless combs but I have had really good luck with the trick flow stuff on the street and on the strip. If you want to stay with iron heads you can get some from salvage yard for 5.0L explorer they are the GT-40P heads and are still a good base. IMO you must change the heads to build anything over 250hp efficently. I have quite a bit of experience with the 302 and will help any way I can.
scott

Ford 302's are great little over(4" bore x 3" stroke) square high winding engines. I had a 78 F-18 Formula that had a 2bbl 302 on a 888 Merc that ran 49 MPH stock with 19" prop.

I put a 289/271 HP cam in with a Edelbrock performer running a 600CFM double pumper Holley. The heads were freshened up with a 3 angle valve job and gasket matched on the intake ports. The boat would run 65 MPH with a 21" Merc Stainless spinning 5800 rpm....through stock thru hub exhaust!! Ran it for 7 years here in SE Florida..12 month season...600 plus hours..never had a problem.

These are great little engines for a light boat. I'm guessing I was running 300 + horse power.

didnt the merc 188's come with 351 heads??

Don't know...never heard that one....except with the 302 Boss, it came with the "Cleveland" heads that first came on the 351 "Cleveland" engine. If you really want to warm a 302 up...put a set of Cleveland heads on it:evilb: ...but good luck finding marine exhaust manifolds for it.

My 73 NOVA did.

Cleveland heads will require some mods and not ideal for marine but went down that road many years ago for a mustang and did work well at the time but was a high revver. Cammed etc for 8k.

You consider stoking to a 347 and a set of trickflows be my go to platform if committed to 302 base.

JMO

I just built a 302 for my Mustang that I think would be pretty stout in a boat.0.030" DSS piston 9.3:1, H-Beam rods, ported ProMaxx 180 heads, Comp Cams Extreme Energy 274 HR, Holley dual sync multi-port EFI. Should be around 400 we believe.
S#it, just saw this is a 12yr old post.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...33bd66dc04.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...bb25233c9e.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...2dfb32b38c.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...d0b1d68c5b.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...0e5ca11b10.jpg

I hadn’t caught the age of post but not all bad to bring back to life. Nice build! I got the 408 finally rapped up this summer after much aggravation. The j302 heads exhaust pattern like a bbc made it a bit of a header challenge. It is a strong runner though.