Once all of the necessary disconnections are made, Greg lifts the lower intake manifold from the block. The stock fuel rails and 19-lb/hr injectors can remain in place during this step. They'll be replaced with BBK's big fuel rails and 24-lb/hr injectors, which Greg won in an eBay auction.
Pulling the stock heads requires some muscle, as will lowering Dart's new iron heads. Greg actually used heads from an '87 302 (E7) for his rebuild. At 1.05 inches wide x 1.90 inches tall, the intake ports on the stock heads are considerably smaller than those on the heads being used for our upgrade.
As H/C/I swaps go, we've evaluated combinations sold in package form that average $3,000. For this project, we selected Dart's Iron Eagle cylinder heads; a BBK Performance fuel-pressure regulator (PN 1706; $99.95), cold-air kit (PN 1557; $165.95), and a single-stage intake manifold system that includes a 70mm throttle body and fuel rails (PN 5002; $559.95); and Anderson Ford Motorsports' N-41 camshaft (PN AF-N41; $299.00). Not shown are Harland Sharp's new Diamond Series 1.6 ratio, 7/16-inch, stud-mount roller rocker arms (PN SD4003-7; $365.00) and the ARP 3/8- to 1/2-inch stepped head bolts (PN 254-3708; $177.16) required for installing the Iron Eagles.
Using a little Royal Purple Max Tuff as a prelube, the new camshaft is stabbed in place. The prelube isn't a requirement with a hydraulic-roller camshaft, but it makes Greg comfortable.
Since the 302 short-block has only 220 miles since its rebuild, the double-roller timing chain and hydraulic-roller lifters are reused for this cam swap.
This is a close look at the 58cc combustion chamber of Dart's new Iron Eagle cylinder heads. The heads feature 1.94 (intake)/1.60 (exhaust) stainless steel valves, which are totally compliant with the engine's stock pistons and the new Anderson camshaft. The valves are also available with 2.02 intake valves. Dart flat-mills its Iron Eagles 0.006 inch per cubic centimeter, and it angle mills the heads 0.0075 inch per cubic centimeter.
Iron Eagles' exhaust ports also blow away those of stock 5.0 heads. These ports measure 1.325 inches wide x 1.350 inches tall, flowing 159 cfm at 0.500 lift. We dig the standard exhaust bolt pattern, which allows Greg to stay with short-tubes or eventually bolt up any standard long-tube Fox-body headers he desires.