Ford Engine Buildup

In the process of hot rodding a '41 Ford pickup, we had to decide what engine we wanted to use. The truck had already been outfitted with a small-block Ford engine, but it was obvious that the '65 289 was straight out of a wrecking yard. There was no telling if the engine was in good condition, how many miles were on it, or how long it had been sitting around. Since we were building a pretty nice street rod pickup, it was our decision to use the Ford engine and update it with some modern performance items. The nice thing about powering a street rod with a Ford engine is it's small and lightweight, will easily fit in an early Ford engine compartment, and runs cool.

The small-block Ford engine was designed in the early '60s as the powerplant for the new intermediate Fairlane, and was introduced as a 221ci engine in 1962. The engine ran well, had plenty of performance potential, and quickly grew to 260- and 289ci. In fact, the 289 engine came out in several configurations: a two-barrel base engine; a four-barrel GT engine; and as a four-barrel, solid lifter cam, high-performance engine. Rated at 271 hp, the high-performance engine ran very strong in a lightweight Fairlane, Falcon, or Mustang, but in the hands of Carroll Shelby, 306 hp was achieved, and the Mustang became the car to beat in SCCA racing.

Ford continued to develop the small-block which grew to 302ci in 1968. In 1969 Ford increased the engine's deck height by an inch and came up with a 351ci engine for the new Mach 1 Mustangs. Although other engines such as the 351 Cleveland and the 351 and 400 M engines have come and gone, the 302 and 351 Windsor engines continued to flourish until recently, when they were replaced by the Modular engine. They may be gone from production cars, but they are still available from Ford Motorsport/SVO and auto wrecking establishments all over the country.

The success and longevity of the Ford small-block brought about many great speed parts from a variety of suppliers. The most notable problem encountered with small-block Fords is the factory head design was always on the small side. Over the years, several companies introduced new high-performance heads to remedy the problem, and one of the nicest sets is made by Edelbrock. Because of their high-quality and aluminum construction, the small-block 302 we're working on is running a set of Edelbrock Performer heads, an Edelbrock dual-quad intake, and a pair of Edelbrock AFB carbs. We used Crane for the cam and valvetrain components which consisted of the cam, lifters, pushrods, and roller rocker arms. Timing is going to be handled by an Edelbrock gear drive. We decided to use an MSD ignition system to light the fire, and Rodworks Street Rod Headers to exit the exhaust.

Performance Automotive Warehouse (PAW) was responsible for the entire rebuild starting with a Superstock Crank Kit which includes a crank, pistons, rods, rings, and bearings. We wanted a few extra cubic inches, so we installed 302 crank rods and pistons. PAW offers a huge supply of speed equipment, so we got all of the Edelbrock, Crane, and MSD electrical components from the company. It's hard to beat one-stop shopping, especially at PAW's excellent prices. PAW also has a complete machine shop facility which is where all of the engine machining took place. We also had to order a top-quality set of engine brackets for the alternator and air conditioning compressor, so we contacted Zoops for its award-winning units.

We disassembled the '65 289 engine and delivered the parts to PAW, which cleaned the block and checked all of the parts for damage. When everything checked out OK, the block and crank were machined for the new parts. Here's an overview of what happened.