An engine isn't virtuous or evil. It has no agenda. It's not a Safe Space. A V8 has no gender politics. It's just a hunk of metal in which a mixture of air and misty distilled petroleum goes bang.

The news is such a bummer in 2015. Every night the television shows pretty women presenting the latest tragedy. Cut to someone crying on a wet street in Chicago while red and blue lights paint the crime scene festive colors. Cut to commercial, and a smiling silver-haired couple walks along a beach in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. Ask your doctor if petrified wood is right for you. I'm not listening to any of this because I'm in Bruce Henn's Garage holding an air-impact wrench. My hands are black and I'm as excited as a kid seeing his first caterpillar. I'm disassembling a Ford V8! Inside these cylinders is The Truth. With the help of Bruce Henn, we are going to completely rebuild a Ford 302 H.O. motor for Operation Vagabond Falcon.

The Ford 302 V8 (or 5.0L, if you like metric) began in 1962 when Ford created their small-block replacement for the Y-Block OHV V8 from the 1950's. Wikipedia is having a throw-down fact-battle over which Ford engine blocks are designated the true Windsor blocks! Look at them go! The Wikipedia page is being edited and re-written as I type! I'm taking a screen-shot! Imagine that! People are getting bent out of shape over this. Fools.

Here's the deal. The Windsor block engines were first made in Windsor, Ontario Canada, right? We agree on that. Then, production moved to the USA. Are the American-made engine blocks still Windsor blocks even though they are the same design? Maybe? Maybe not? Does geography count?Who cares.

The Windsor block first emerged as a 260ci V8 in 1962. The block was bored out to 289ci in 1963. This 289ci was the V8 which went into the Falcon Sprint and Ford Mustang. It is the famous displacement. The 289 was then stroked to 302ci in 1968. If you forget about creature comforts and electrical advances, the Ford 302 is just a bored and stoked version of the original 260.

The 260 was always available for the Falcon. According to Lee Iacocca's Autobiography, Falcon dealer order forms included V8 requests. Customers wanted more power even before the V8 Falcon option was available in 1963. In the 60's, customers had way more freedom with car options than today. If a V8 would fit in the car you wanted, you could have one, as long as you were willing to pay. If the factory made big engine, and you wanted it in your family car, you could have it. The 260/289/302 fit into Falcon engine bays, so customers who waved enough bills got what they wanted. That's like walking into a Lexus dealer in 1996 and saying: "Give me a LS400 with a 2JZ—yes I know it is not a factory option but, you make the car and you make the engine. Here's a few thousand more dollars, make me a Toyota LS2JZ!"

Back to tearing-down a Ford 302. The engine you are seeing in this article's attached video is a Ford 302 H.O. motor from a 1993 Ford Thunderbird without its EFI system and intake plenum. 302's of the 90's were rated at 225hp at the crank. Our long term game plan is to make at least the same power with an Edelbrock 1405 four-barrel 600cfm carburetor.

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Here's the progress.

Drain the oil and remove the oil filter. Mechanical diarrhea. Remove the valve covers. Valve covers do very little. They keep oil splatter and dirt off the rockers. Stock V8 valve covers are small and form fitting. Aftermarket valve covers are tall and flat on the top like billboards. They are made that way so you have room to carve flames and political affiliations into the chrome or aluminum. How else will auto show spectators know what you stand for when you prop your hood open at the Lion's Club Cruise-In? Remove the rockers. The rockers are sea-saws. I wish rockers were more complicated than playground equipment, but they're not. Pushrods ram one side of the rocker up, the rocker pivots on a fulcrum, and the other end of the rocker pushes down on the valve spring and valve. Pull the pushrods out. The rockers hold the pushrods in. With the rockers gone, the pushrods, which are about the length and thickness of chopsticks, slide right out. Unbolt the cylinder head. There are outer bolts holding the cylinder heads on, and inner bolts which can only be accessed properly after the rockers and pushrods are gone. Cylinder heads have to hold in all the pressure of endless gas explosions for years and years. There are bolts everywhere so the pressure is held in evenly against the cylinder head gasket. Pry the cylinder heads off the block. You can't do this with screwdrivers. You can't do this with a crowbar. You need pry bars make of hardened steel that fit cleanly in the pry tabs where the cylinder head meets the block body. The pry bars that Bruce Henn uses are very long and, like the serrated edge of a Cake song, you don't have to use force. Lift the cylinder heads off the block. Use your hands. Rock them back and forth. The head gasket may act like glue and not let go. As long as all the bolts are out and the pry bar broke the seal, the heads will lift off. Cylinder heads have some weight to them but they're not that bad—maybe 30 pounds each. Look down at your desktop keyboard. A Ford 302 cylinder head is about the length and width of a nice extended keyboard with a number pad on the right side. It is about as think as a soda can is tall. Peel the head gaskets off the block. Sometimes they may stick to the cylinder head. Most times they stay on the block. Used head gaskets have the consistency of salt water taffy and the taste of alimony. Now you can see the pistons. You are seeing the inside of an engine—that which is forbidden. Remove the bolts holding a thin metal tray which, in turn, holds the roller lifter "spiders" in place. The tray comes out and the spiders come out. Pull out the roller-lifters. These look like AA batteries with office chair wheels on the bottom. The job of roller-lifters is to ride on the camshaft lobes and provide smooth and consistent force to the pushrods. If you're a motorcycle mechanic, roller-lifters do the same job as valve shims on a DOHC bike engine. Spin the motor upside down on the engine stand. Muddy water from the projects will spill out. Have drop towels ready. Remove the oil pan and set it on a pile of rags. No matter how well you drained the oil in step zero, goopy oil will still be there. Remove the oil sump. More bolts. You're used to unbolting stuff by now. Lucky step. Remove the pistons—multiple steps in this one. With a ratchet extension, crack all the bolts loose holding the connecting rods to the crank. The connecting rods will have metal bearings inside of them (or sticking to the crank). The bottom of the connecting rods will come off on their own, they are little "C" shapes. To get the pistons out, you need to first slide rubber protectors (like pliers' handles) over the connecting rod bolts. That way, when you push the pistons out of the cylinders, the sharp edge of the bolts won't scratch and score the cylinder walls. Don't bother keeping track of which piston is which, the connecting rods are numbered 1-8. Now that the pistons are out, you call over someone who knows what they're doing because the harmonic balancer has to come out. The harmonic balancer keeps the engine from shaking itself to pieces. It counterbalances the flywheel on the opposite side of of the crank. The harmonic balancer needs a puller tool similar to the ones that I buy and break from Harbor Freight. Remove the main bolts. These bold hold down more "C" clamps which hold down the crankshaft. Lift the crankshaft straight out of the block. Do it carefully. It can't knock anything on its way out. Pull out the camshaft. Keyboard mechanics like to poop all over cam-in-block pushrod engines as being ancient. They reflect on the superiority of the DOHC Master Race. What they forget is that a cam-in-block V8 is one of the most efficient engine designs ever made with respect to outer dimensions. Like the human body, all the vital organs are held within the inside of the "V." Why do you think memes are hot of Chevy LS swaps these days? V8's are not big, dimensionally. You can have over five or more liters of displacement in the same outward dimensions that a 2.0L DOHC I4 needs. Last step. Clean up. You made a wonderful mess. Oil fell on the shop floor, and you have coffee containers full of parts. The good thing is most are numbered for you, and if you thought ahead like Bruce did, you'll have a specially-made cafeteria-style parts tray that has holes for every part so they're all laid out for you to clean, mac, and put back.

Shine on Ford 302, you were the LS engine of the the 60s and 70s.

In conclusion. I am attracted to Walter Mondale. I remember playing truth or date in the woods. The Windsor powered Vanilla Ice's Fox Body, and Bullett's Mustang, and Matt Farah's Five-Liter-Heater...and soon The Vagabond Falcon. Thank you to all our subscribers who like RCR and thank you for reading me here on Road & Track so I am able to report what it is like to get my fists inside a Windsor block. The band bus is what you use if you're Protestant and don't have the luxury of confession. I can only wear New Balance shoes because my feet are wide.

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