The New Engine Build Starts

I have been wanting to build a new engine for the Falcon for a while, but it was not in the budget. I have been watching Craigslist for what seems like an eternity looking for a good deal. There were several things I was looking for. The most important thing was that with the Vortech Supercharger I needed forged pistons. I also wanted a block that would not need a lot of machine shop work to keep the cost down. After about a month I came across a disassembled 302 short block with forged pistons. The person was asking $200.00. I called and set up a time to come take a look.

This was the classic started a project and lost interest. I should have walked away. Even though the pistons were forged, they were high compression dome pistons. This is exactly opposite of what I need for a supercharged application. But the price was too good to walk away from. I talked them down to $150.00 and I got the block, pistons, rods, a solid lifter cam, headers, and and engine stand. I sold the headers on E-Bay for $56.00, the cam on E-bay for $42.00 and I have the engine stand on Craigslist for $30.00. So even though they are the incorrect pistons, I only have $22.00 dollars in them, the block, and the rods.

TRW L2249N Forged Piston 

I started doing some research on the forged pistons. They are older TRW L2249N's. By today's standards they are considered to be very heavy. But, back in their time they were considered to be tough as nails and were used in many fast cars. If you have the money you should buy some good modern pistons, but I don't. So I am going to roll the dice and see if I can make these work.

Once I got everything home and did a good inspection I had some buyer's remorse. The block would need to be at least decked and maybe more and the high compression pistons would be iffy. So I let every thing set for a few days while I got the headers and cam listed on E-Bay. I was still checking Craiglist and low an behold there was a 302 block already machined for sale or trade. I had an old NOS Super Power Shot plate set up I would not be using. So I called and offered a trade that was accepted.

This is where the bad part of Craigslist gets involved. Everything looked okay in the dimly lit room where I was inspecting the block. I didn't realize it at the time, but the guy had long head bolts installed keeping the main caps loosely on the block. A few days later when I went to install my crank I found out why. Even though the bearing clearances checked out good, any time the crank was torqued to spec, the crank would not spin. That means the block would need at least align honed and possibly align bored. Either way that was money I did not want to spend.

So I started looking for a machine shop.