Ford 302 conversion?

[JeepsterCJ5]

I'm thinking of doing a conversion to the smallblock Ford. Does anyone have any experience with this?
It would be in my 1978 CJ5 has a 304 with a t-150 dana 20 transfer
any ideas from the more experienced Jeepers?

 

[benson_cj7]

are you goin fuel injection or carb? i would think the 302 swap wouldnt be that hard to do. i did a 350 swap and one thing i can see being easier about the ford swap is the you dont have to worry about your distributor because its in the front. but it also depends on whether or not your changing transmission or transfer case. figure out how much of your jeep you wanna change and then call advance adapters. they make an adapter for just about anything you wanna do.

 

[pertneer]

What do you want to know? I have a 5.0 out of a 91 in my 80 with a t-176 and a dana 300.

Does the t-150 have the butterfly pattern? I do not remember. If it does use a ford bell housing, ford pressure plate, ford flywheel, and a Chevy clutch disk (to match spline count on trans).

Motor mounts I used were from advance adapters. I used a set of 94 cobra headers (the shorty kind and they are stainless). The clutch I made to go around the front of the headers. I will try to get you a picture if you would like one.

Pertneer

 

[JeepsterCJ5]

Plan to stay with a carb engine. I already have the motor. my t-150 has the butterfly pattern but my biggest concern is driveshafts

 

[pertneer]

This will depend on the axles that you are running and the placement of the motor in the frame. The advance adapter mounts are set up to be welded on, but I drilled the holes that were in the frame of the original motor mounts for the previous engine. What I did was get the engine hanging in between the rails with the transmission and transfer case attached, put on the cross member to locate the trans in stock location to see if the motor will clear the radiator and firewall. if it does attach the motor mounts to the motor and mark the bolt locations through the frame onto the mounts so you can drill the holes (if the tires are off you may have room to use the holes in the frame as a drill guide to ensure accuracy) or tack them in place with a welder.

 

[pertneer]

I thought of something else. The motor mounts are fine, but if you have a serious amount of power and are in low range you can brake the bolts that hold them to the motor. Like in this picture

So when I pulled the motor to rebuild it I added a gusset in between the under side of the mounts as seen in this picture.

I used round tube bent to the same basin shape as this cardboard template. Also notice I made sure to replace the bolts with grade 8 hardware.

 

[JeepsterCJ5]

Very nice... that's a good idea

 

[SteelHeadz]

IMO, there would be less stress on the motor mount bracket bolts if the angle of where the motor mounts are positioned at 225* and 315* as opposed to a 180* and 360*..Just a thought.