engine block

Engine Assembly

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The pieces are painted, so now they all need to get back together.

I started off by grinding the gaskets off of the valve covers so the new ones would work well. This was hard to do. Old cork casket was on there pretty good. Replaced the gaskets and set it back on the block.

I found 4 thermostat housings in my box of “Stuff that make it go Vroom”. Ultimately, went with a chrome one, with o-ring gasket, and replaced the thermostat with a new one my dad had bought as well.

All the wheelies went back on, including the fan. Needed to buy new bolts, as we couldn’t find them.

Purchased new spark plugs and plug wires. Connecting them was easy. Are they in the right order? I guess we’ll find out when we try to turn it on. My cousin manually turned over the engine while I used a screwdriver to help find the position of the 1st piston, and place the first plug wire. However, there are 2 different firing orders for my 302. So we chose one, and hooked up all the rest of the wires. If it doesn’t work when we try turn it on later, we’ll repeat this step with the other firing order.

Playing Dress Up

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Trying to look our best!

Dressing up the engine and engine bay is what we focused on this weekend. My cousin was able to paint the engine pretty well while in the bay. With most of everything removed, it became easier to access as much of the block as possible. It looks pretty good in the Ford Blue rattle can I bought.

Also turns out the valve covers that were originally in the trunk with the original manifolds fit the engine. They have Ford written on them. Hit the letters with some sand paper after painting, and it looks great.

I spent the time updating hitting the rest of the engine parts with a semi gloss black. I think everything looks really sharp, and makes it pop much more.

So today was a lot of brushing, prep, paint, wait, paint, wait, paint, and set a aside.

Also, do you know how expensive battery trays are??? Mine is rotted, so will need to be replaced. Original used parts are $160! For something that holds a battery and will probably rot again from leaking battery acid…no thanks. I’ll opt for the $12 reproduction. I’m sure you won’t tell.