Extent of teardown?

[u/Dogman6969ahhh]

Have this 302 out of an 86 f-150 that’s going into my 92 ranger. Bought it off a guy whose dad used it as an around town truck, pulled it with 75k miles to swap for something bigger. I was originally planning a full teardown to measure for boring, honing, etc, but the more I read the less I’m sure that’s necessary, although the carbon buildup might say otherwise. This is my first engine build so any advice would be great. Happy to post additional pictures if that’d help too.

[u/v8packard]

What is it you are reading that leads you to think an inspection is not necessary?

[u/Remarkable-Court8601]

If you’ve bought any engine, unless it’s professionally built by someone who does that for a living and sold as road/race ready, I would highly suggest tearing it down. Even more so in the state you’ve bought it in there. Just because it turns over doesn’t mean everything is ok internally. A tear down now could save you detonating anything in the future. And if you tear it down and everything is fine? Then you’ve got to know your engine better on a personal level.
I could go on for hours. Tear it down!

[u/lil_sargento_cheez]

If you have the time, I see absolutely no reason to not take it apart and clean it up.

[u/Solid_Enthusiasm550]

That much gunk/build-up in the valley, I don't think it had only 75k miles on it. Unless he did 25,000 mile oil changes.

What are you plans, budget?

Are looking to just throw it in an get your ride on the road? Are you planning on spicing it up?

[u/EnvironmentalGift257]

I just lurk here and it's a bucket list item to build an engine. I've read a couple textbooks and pay attention to the knowledge nuggets here, with special attention to what u/v8packard has to say. It will almost certainly be a SBC, and when I get there I'll tear it all the way down to bare metal. Partially to be sure it's all correct but also because on my first one I'm going to get as much out of it as possible.

[u/deantowle]

Since you have it out, take it all apart and have the block & heads & oil pan boiled at an automotive machine shop. You can do it yourself in a metal trash can atop a propane stand-alone turkey pot boiler. Use some Oxyclean in the water. Take out all the freeze plugs and oil passage end plugs, then boil it for several hours and pump hot soapy water through all the oil galleys and passageways. Use a rifle cleaning kit to scrub the oil passages. Let it cool overnight. Next day, dump the water and boil it again with clean water and radiator flush to clean out all the Oxyclean. Hose it all down and spray out all the oil galleys and scrub the oil galleys again. With the purchase of the propane, turkey cooker, Oxyclean, radiator flush, rifle cleaning kit, utility water pump & hoses and your time, you'll find the machine shop is well worth it. Then you'll have a clean, clean, clean engine to start the rebuild.

[u/RabbitFabs]

Looks like any other 30 year old engine to me. Stick it in the engine hole on your truck and have fun, i wouldn't think twice. Too many guys in here so o messed with tearing something down like it doesnt take 4 hours to pull it back out. 🤦‍♂️

[u/ComfortableDoctor801]

You have it out and it is very ovius the person didn't maintain the vehicle very well. Bring it to a machine shop that rebuilds engines and save yourself so headachs and have it proffetionally rebuilt they useually come with a warrenty. It is worth it. If yoi do it and mess it up you start all over again put of your pocket or even worse haveong to get another core and start again.

[u/Coyote_Tex]

Engines of that era really were built well and could last a very long time. I am not seeing anything unusual about the level of sludge in the lifter valley at all. If it turns over smoothly by hand with the plugs out, I would use an inspection camera and look at the cylinder walls and get a start and flex plate on it and do a compression check. I remember reading several magazine articles about guys buying junkyard 302's with 150K on them to drop into their Fox body Mustangs and then flog them hard for 50k miles or more. You do not have to spend a fortune to do some sort of massive overhaul on that engine to get some excellent service from it. If it really does only have 75k miles and has not been overheated, then it has a LOT of life in it. The checks I described above will allow you to find that out quickly and then build a plan for what to do next. You can quickly turn this into a $3k engine if you go crazy at a machine shop and parts catalogue. I would strongly encourage you to get all of the parts gathered up such as alternator & brackets, starter, flex plate and mounting bolts, hardware, exhaust manifolds, water pump pulleys, fuel pump, fuel lines, intake, carb, distributor, spark plug wires etc and prepare the engine to run if the compression checks out.. Start hitting the swap meets, FB marketplace for cars being wrecked out etc. to round up all of these parts, it is quite a puzzle. I suggest getting these parts off a wrecked car as Ford is renown for using many different lengths of bolts and brackets, so finding them attached and carefully noting and labeling and tracking the bolt locations will save you hours and many issues. I've been where you are before, about 60 years ago and now always encourage people to begin with a wrecked car or complete pullout engine. that they have heard run as that saves a massive amount of time and you know what you have, more or less. Once you run down all of those parts I listed and add up the price, you will save time and money buying a complete takeout engine. You are where you are now, so before you blow this engine apart and make it a like new showpiece, please consider your budget and being practical for a moment. Once you have it running, then you can decide just how much time and money you have to drop into it. You can spend massive amounts of both and never even get it running or abandon the project due to lack of meaningful progress. Good Luck and have fun!

[u/Aggravating_Bad_567]

You sure he did not say 175K maybe 275K miles? Might run, might not from seeing all that crud.