Installation and Conclusion
With the engine completed, all that remains is to determine if we met our goal of 400 HPpower. While we would have desired to load the motor on an engine dyno and report true flywheel numbers, unfortunately we

"Project 11.99" - this '67 coupe will receive the new 302. More on this car.

did not have access to an engine dyno at the time of this article. Therefore our next best option was to get the motor in a car and drive over to a chassis dyno.

We decided that the lucky recipient of our new 302 would be the editors 1967 Mustang coupe. A fairly typical street/strip car, the Mustang had already been setup with a T5 manual transmission and 4.11 gears. This would open up the opportunity to get the car to the dragstrip and find out what sort of ET's the 302 could produce. In fact we were so confident of our 302 buildup that we termed our project car "Project 11.99." The goal from here on out would be to break into the 11's with this motor.

We dropped the motor into Project 11.99 and it immediately roared to

302 installed in '67 Mustang.

life. The solid roller surprisingly made no fuss, and immediately settled down to a smooth idle. Not having to break in the cam is reason enough to go with a roller cam. We initally observed oil pressure to be lower than we had expected, so we ended up replacing the standard volume pump with a high volume. Initially oil pressure wa about 20-25 psi at hot idle, and 55 psi max at high rpms. With solid lifters, this isn't a problem, but we wanted more on the order of 10 psi per 1000 rpm. Because we planned to spin the motor to 7000 rpm, 70 psi above 6000 would be a safer pressure to run to keep the bearings adequately lubed.

After a couple days of driving time and break in we arranged some dyno time at our local chassis dyno shop. Without giving away the entire dyno results, we'll say that we were pleased with the results, and we left knowing there may still be a bit more power with some track time and tuning. Be sure follow Project 11.99 closely as we'll have plenty of updates from the track, as well as informative articles on optimizing the car and engine to meet our goal of breaking into the 11's in the quarter mile.

Related Articles

Project 11.99 Introducing the Project Car

Project 11.99 Dyno Results for 400HP 302

Project 11.99 Initial Track Testing

Project 11.99 March 2000 Track Results

Project 11.99 June 2000 Results from the Track