|
Among the parts I thought I’d use on the new engine was the 289’s flexplate. I removed and mounted it to the X302 with a set of fresh flywheel bolts and lock washers and then mated the new trans to the engine. From there I moved to the front and began to swap the front crank pulley as well—that’s when I found that the old pulleys wouldn’t fit the new X302 anyway. This problem resulted in a bit more investigation and thankfully I learned another important difference between early and late Ford small-blocks. Later engines use a 50-in/oz balancer and flexplate combo not a 28-in/oz setup as used prior to 1981. Come to find out, if I’d been able and did use the older flexplate and balancer/pulley assembly I would have severely damaged the X302. So, the time I saved by making my own plugs for the heads was used to order up the correct flexplate and to find the matching pulleys needed. View Related Article
|
|