Thread: 302 Stroker??

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Going to look fan-freakin-tastic!!

Man I LOVE those dual four set-ups, I've always wanted one, they look so cool and command real respect when you pop the Hood-I can't wait to see it all together! Beautiful-

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Should be one heck of a nice set-up!!! Used to see them occasionally in SCCA racing, wonder who's shelves the rest of the dual quads are sitting on???

Might have just been the tune-up and gearing, but they were never that much stronger out of the corners but man would they come on at the end of a longer straightaway!!!!

I had never seen one until I tripped over this one. On the Shelby American forum, it looks like maybe 10 are known. A few guys have the single quad top as well as the dual quad top! Also gotta remember that these were initially for the 289's & 302's but the "hot setup" had become the Boss motors. So these fell by the wayside. But I don't think any of these motors would be considered a "torque monster"!

Originally Posted by rspears

Going to look fan-freakin-tastic!!

Thanks Roger! I hope it runs as good as it looks!

From late '63 until mid '70 the Windsor head more then held it's own until the Boss head and engines became available to more racers. (SCCA stuff). I was crewing on a team in '74 that ran an IMSA car and we had a very unique engine set-up right out of Gapp & Roush, a Hi-Port Cleveland head with cross-flow Kinsler mechanical fuel injection. The heads were made in house at Jack's place from a set of 351 C 4V Ford castings, then a section of the exhaust port side of the head cut away and a new piece put in!!!! Kind of an early R & D version of the Trick Flow head now! Anyway, there were about 6 sets of these heads and injection out and about, would give my left arm to get a set. I do know where a few sets are, but I've never even seen enough money to get hold of them!!! I've got a few really first rate pieces stashed away for my Boss 351 I will build for my (yet to be found) '67 Fastback project--done up in SCCA of the late 60's style. The Gapp & Roush heads and Kinsler injection would be the ultimate setup for the car, but I doubt I'll ever be able to get my hands on a set of the originals!!!!

In the summer of 74 ("maybe" 75) I crewed on a local drag racers Maverick. He had purchased a 351 Cleveland out of the Gapp & Rousch camp. I believe they were cleaning house at the time. We disassembled that motor to discover all the secrets from a shop that had been so successful.. The only 2 things I remember now that we marveled at was, 1 - the front and rear main seals. They had absolutely no numbers one them and the "friction fit" on them was almost non-existant! and 2 - you could spin that motor, completely assembled (without spark plugs), with one hand on the front balancer.

We dropped the rear ratio to 5.13 I think and he routinely spun it out to 9 grand and she never missed a beat! Always a wheels up launch and a smile on my face! We won more often than lost and finished 2nd in points that year.

I don't remember what heads were on it and I lost track of the car... AHhhhhh the good ol' days! LOL...

Yuppers, saw some of that stuff!!! A number of the Gapp & Roush drag racing engines went to some very good homes, sounds like your friend had one! The man (Roush) did some miracle work with the junk we had to work with back then compared to some of the over the counter race parts that are available now!!!!

The shop I worked in then was out back of the dealership shop, whenever the rumor got out that we were going to check/freshen engines it would really draw a crowd from the dealership mechanics! I doubt the Cat in the Hat gets much hands on time in the shop any longer, but he sure can make a Blue Oval engine run strong!!!! One of the things on my bucket list is to somehow come up with an invitation to spend time at Roush's and at Yates' shops!!!! Not the public walk-through tour, but one of them friend of a friend visits!!!!!

We met with Gapp & Rousch at the New Hampshire drags.. probably 71 or 72.. we were pushed off into the dirt pits 'cause the big names were in town..

My boss Ben had struck up a conversation with one of them and we were later invited to their rig. I was in awe! but by todays standards it was not much!

I want to say they were running the Tiajuana Taxi but I just don't remember the car! I was maybe 19 or so and standing in front of 2 guys who had done it all as far as I was concerned!

Rousch is/was a mathmetician / engineer. Back then I didn't know anyone who might be an engineer! Never mind a mathmetician!

Ben had made a name for himself playing with 351's. The first year of the cleveland we ran a big question mark on the hood scoop as the track had a hard time keeping up with which engine was which, and we would swap out the windsor for the cleveland or vice versa.. so we kept the competition guessing and taking the weight advantages!

Then toss in the 2 barrel heads vs 4 barrel heads... it took the tech inspectors months to get it all straight! And then they started threatening teardowns each weekend.. After that Ben started to play "nice".. On weekends that we'd go to Englishtown, Ben really had to behave as those guys had no sense of humor!

Definitely good times!!!! Then, just when the "other guys" figured out the difference between the Windsor's and Cleveland's, out come the Clevor's!!!!!

I need to go find my old pictures.. I should have a pic of my old cougar. It was a rolling test bed for the Maverick. The Maverick was "our" points car and the Cougar was the grunt. Plus at times it had to fill in as my daily driver! That car was back halved loooonnngggg before anyone ever heard that term! It wasn't anything special at first but it got beat on every weekend with 3 or 4 different motors and a top loader. I got really good at replacing pushrods as I was almost guaranteed to bend at least one! All a part of the wierd combos we were coming up with. If it was a small block Ford from the late 60s and early 70s then it took a turn in that car. Carbs, ignitions, cams, valves.. pushrods.. we threw it all at it!

We didn't know what we didn't know and we tried all sorts of stuff to prove that it couldn't work.. I really wanted to copy the SOHC and even went so far as to cut up camshafts to weld'em together and mounted them on pillow blocks just to visualize a layout. I lost interest as I had neither the time, money or equipment to take it further.

I had named it "White Line Fever" after seeing the movie!

Were the bent pushrods from a Cleveland project??? First Clevor set-up I ran, could have changed my named to Mr. Push Rod Changer!!!! Finally got Mike (the other Mike, my machinist buddy) to cut down the stud bosses and put some studs and guideplates in, got a set of custom length pushrods (as in the right length), and no more problems!!!!

You're right, we didn't even know what we didn't know and went fast in spite of it!!!!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Were the bent pushrods from a Cleveland project??? First Clevor set-up I ran, could have changed my named to Mr. Push Rod Changer!!!! Finally got Mike (the other Mike, my machinist buddy) to cut down the stud bosses and put some studs and guideplates in, got a set of custom length pushrods (as in the right length), and no more problems!!!!

You're right, we didn't even know what we didn't know and went fast in spite of it!!!!

Yep! Anything cleveland would eat pushrods 'til we learned what guideplates were for! ROFL!! I remember playing with pushrod lengths and different mounts, playing with angles.. driving myself NUTS! But we would spin'em to the moon!

The last time out with the coupe it wasn't shifting right, didn't feel right, just pissin' me off. I haven't touched the car since as my aggravation level was just to high. So tonite I figured I better do something with it and after thinking about it all week, I decided to first verify the Throttle Valve pressure setting and discovered that the linkage moved and I had zero pressure when I should've had 22 to 26 psi with the special tool installed.

For those that know, this spells instant death for an AOD, don't supply the right pressure to the clutch packs and bands and they overheat and cook instantly.

My fluid is still pink so I'm holding out hope it'll be okay. But, we'll see tomorrow when I'll try it out. Not a great start to the weekend.

Originally Posted by 34_40

For those that know, this spells instant death for an AOD, don't supply the right pressure to the clutch packs and bands and they overheat and cook instantly.

My fluid is still pink so I'm holding out hope it'll be okay. But, we'll see tomorrow when I'll try it out. Not a great start to the weekend.

Yikes, Mike!! I hope you caught it in time!! Fortunately mine was already set from the donor car. Let us know what's up. Here's pullin' for good news!!

Thanks Randy! Took her for a spin and it seems to be okay! (WHEW!)
Then about a half hour into riding around it started doing it again. Seems the linkage isn't secure enough and slips under the nut.
What bugs me is that it was fine all last year. Not sure why it won't stay put now.
I'm not sure I'll but to much energy into it as I have to rework all the linkage for the dual quads anyway.
But the tranny seems ok! And that makes me very happy! LOL..

Got the linkage "more secure" and took it out early Sunday morning before it got hot out. I think I want to adjust the Throttle Valve just a touch more to hold the shift points just a bit longer.

At one point on the ride I jumped on the highway and ran it up to 70 / 75 and suddenly my gauges go flukey.. Tach swinging all over the place, speedo the same - it was weird!! So I've been thinking about and I'm thinking it was the cooling fans freewheeling and acting like generators. I know others have had this happen but don't remember what they did to negate the effect. I've been mulling over installing diodes to stop the backfeed..

So anyone remember this saga and what was done ??? TIA