1. The rod bolts are Pioneer brand. Not their stock replacements. They have a HP line. The machine shop that did the work for my brother chose them. He said he likes them better than ARP. What torque setting should I use for these?

2. Should I install the cam straight up or advanced?

Details:
68 302 block, .030 over. Stock crank std/std. No machine work was done to the crank journals. It was in very good shape. Just putting it back in with new bearings. Stock rods with above bolts. Speed Pro/TRW forged flat tops w 4 valve reliefs. Rotating assembly has been balanced. Before the balance job we had the pistons flycut for 2.02 valves and also made the reliefs deeper for a future larger cam, if wanted. Should be ok to .600 lift.

Heads: Box stock Performer RPM aluminum heads. 2.02/1.60 valves. Valves are prob too large now, but future upgrades are planned. Thought I might advance the cam to gain back a little lost torque due to oversize valves. Box stock Performer RPM intake. Harland Sharp 1.6 roller rockers. I had posted earlier about him buying Twisted Wedge heads. We had a few worries about valve clearance with them in the future and also found out the HS rockers won't work on the TW's. Returned them unused and exchanged them for the Performer RPM's so future upgrades can be done.

Cam is a Comp Cams 282S. .528/.528 236��236��@ .050 110 lobe seperation. Again, straight up or advanced?

Carb for now is a Holley 600 Vac secondary. Once it's in and tuned the carb will be swapped for a 650 DP. Headers are 1 5/8 full length Hedman's. Got rid of the Tri-Y's based on you guys' comments. Car has a C-4 w Trans Go shift kit, 10" 3500 (flash) stall PTC converter (ordered today). Gears will be ~ 3.70's when changed. Still has the 2.79's for the time being. Ignition is a stock distributor with a Pertronix module. Also just bought a Milodon aluminum water pump.

The plan for this weekend is to assemble the short block, checking clearances and piston to valve etc. Mount the heads and measure for pushrods. Basically everything but the pushrods and intake/carb.

Thoughts? Glaring errors?

Later,
David Cole

If those rod bolts are 3/8" I'd torque them to 50 ft #s. The 7/16 arp's in my 408w took 64 ft#s. But double check that and are you using arp lube or "moly" lube on the threads? You need less torque with the lube than w/o it. The above figures are with the lube.

quote:

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Originally posted by steve'66:
Dave,

If those rod bolts are 3/8" I'd torque them to 50 ft #s. The 7/16 arp's in my 408w took 64 ft#s. But double check that and are you using arp lube or "moly" lube on the threads? You need less torque with the lube than w/o it. The above figures are with the lube.

As far as cam timing, don't just advance it Degree it. Set it up at about 105 degrees, it'll have good bottom end torque there. Have fun!

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289-302's use smaller 5/16" connecting rod bolts. Stock units only require around 19ft-lbs of torque. ARP takes a little more. I'm not sure about yours... but you'll want to check.

Just don't treat them like 3/8" bolts, or you might run into SERIOUS problems!

Good Luck!

Everything went togehter well. Bearing clearances were good, a bit wide for a street motor, but it'll be 50% strip before long. .003 mains and .0025 rods. Rod side clearance was .016-.018. I degreed the cam in and installed it straight up after reading in the paperwork that the cam was ground 4��advanced. Piston to valve clearance was huge due to the larger flycuts in the pistons. .210 intake and .180 exhaust. It'll handle a much larger cam if needed. I was impressed with the heads. Even though they were box stock the ports on the heads and intake were almost a perfect match to the opening in the intake gasket and to each other.

The only gotcha I had was not fully reading the paperwork that came with the heads first. Already had the shortblock together when I read that early model 289/302 blocks lack a certain steam hole in the block deck. Later 302's and 351W's already have these holes. Early blocks must be drilled to use these heads. The head gasket and heads have the hole. I used the gasket as a template for the 1/8" hole on each side. Just covered everything up well and made use of lots of oil, brake cleaner and compressed air.

Finished up and checked the pushrod length. Turns out stock length was dead on. Just need to order them and it'll be ready to bolt up the trans and dop it in.

Thanks for the input.