The 68 Mustang project receives its heart!

Well its finally come time to drop in a motor to our project mustang. Now the options thanks to our suspension are pretty much limitless, but since this will be a daily driver (at least at first) we wanted something reliable with some good power and classic American muscle sound.

Our stock 302 block (which actual came from our 68 mustang)

There were a couple that fit our criteria a 302 & 351w. Since we had a 302 short block already. We went ahead and decided to start with that. The good thing about this motor is that majority of our parts can be reused if we later decide to change to the 351w (which who are we kidding, it will probably happen lol).

Now the 302 came in just about everything Ford made and there are several million choices of upgrades you can do to them. With that said, there are some down sides to the 302 sbf though. First building a Ford engine can cost you a lot more then a Chevy, why? Well to be honest, I'm not sure. But,  you can buy a basic Chevy 350 crate motor for around $1500 and a comparable Ford 351w will cost you nearly double (at least that I've seen). Also Ford 302's are notorious for leaking rear main seals. Ask any mustang 5.0 owner and they'll almost all tell you about the dreaded drip. Lastly the thermostat housing sits about an inch below the timing cover, meaning in order to replace the thermostat you need to remove or at least loosen the cover to access it (unless you change out the bolts).

We used some old valve cover when we put in the
motor so we didn't scratch our new crinkle ones.

So now to the good stuff. We did a mild build for this motor. Starting with a low mileage 302sbf short block (factory). We added Twisted wedge heads and Victor Jr. Intake manifold for better flow and slightly higher compression. A holly 4150 mechanical carb and some 1 5/8 pacesetter headers. On the ignition side we ran a msd distributor and 6al powered by a blaster 2 coil and ford racing plug wires. For this car we went with a flat black and brushed aluminum look. Nothing to fancy but clean and mean.

We used a Jegs one piece alternator and msd coil bracket, unorthodox under drive pulleys and ford racing air cleaner all with a custom brushed aluminum treatment. To achieve the look is pretty easy using varying grits of sand paper simply scuff the aluminum. Making sure to go in the same direction always. Takes about 5 minutes per piece to do (depending on size). Lastly we got a tuff stuff black coated alternator, ford racing crinkle black valve cover with breathers and all married to a freshly painted T-5 transmission.

And our finished product.....