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Engine build options

79rustyk10

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The 302 in my 89 f-150 is about due to be replaced, it has 190K miles and leaks like crazy, Im serious the oil mileage is almost as bad as the gas mileage. I dont want to put the effort into replacing all the gaskets and have it die in 3 months anyways. Its a little tired but still seems fairly strong for what it is, heres what Im thinking

Option #1. Motorcraft reman long block, complete from lower intake to the oil pan, has the front cover and harmonic balancer, valve covers, etc... 3 year, 100K mile warranty for a grand total of $2500.

What I like about this is that I swap engines and its back on the road

Option #2. have local shop rebuild the shortblock, do a little bit of the basic stuff, have the rotating assy. balanced, new hypereutectic pistions, .030 overbore. buy a pair of the gt40p heads from a late model explorer, I hear these are the vortecs of the ford engine world, maybe a step or 2 up with the cam. I think I could get this done for close to the price of the motorcraft engine.

I really like the idea of potentially more power, but I down want the thing to be down for 6 months while the machinist gets around to getting my chit done.

Option #3. parts store reman short or longblock. Im not sure about these, I dont like parts store parts, seems everything I get from them has to be replaced again shortly, and I cant afford to do this multiple times.

What do you guys think? this is just a parts runner work truck kinda thing. please feel free to tell me what you think.
 
I had a friend go with option 3. It had a warranty from the parts house however there was something wrong with the engine shortly after install. He had to take out and get another one which ran fine.

I think option 1 is a good option because of the warranty, I doubt a local shop would offer that type of warranty. If you are satisfied with the stock power I would go with option 1.
 

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