slimjimandtherats
Active member
K, so over the weekend, I found myself picking up a mighty fine 1980's 200cid engine. The gentleman was very helpful in tearing down the head and checking out the guts with me, and she checked out with flying colors. The heads look fantastic, as if a rebuild was in the very recent past.
I have several questions to be addressed after hunting around online for a while.
On a 300$ budget, what basic replacements/upgrades would you throw at the engine before dropping her in the wagon?
I like doing a thermostat, waterpump, timing chain set for kicks, since shes out and their relatively inexpensive for piece of mind. I was looking at taking a weekend and installing new freeze plugs for kicks as well.
As for upgrades, one of the biggest that people rave about seems to be a simple cam swap; which leads me to asking everyone out there to lend me their personal preference on a cam they've used and can recommend. The wagons currently running stock fordomatic and a 7" rear end[(unaware of the gear ratio)(with intentions of swapping to the c4/8")]. Exhaust is 6-2, running thrush packs. With this in mind, she'll be my daily driver, but I wouldn't mind a thumpy cam for mid rev hotrod pleasures I liked the summit kits which included new lifters and timing set with the comp cam. Between the two profiles offered in the kit (252/.425)(260/.440) I was leaning toward the more aggressive of the two. Once again, your experience is greatly appreciated.
My old 170cid motor had electronic ignition, so that will be swapped over.
As a side note, i have an adapter plate, and early 80's rochester 2v carb sitting in the shop that was removed from my 170. I didn't try too hard to tune the setup, and ultimately swapped over to a stock weber single barrel which eliminated all fuel deliver issues. I may fiddle with adapting this carb back on this motor in due time. Any suggestions here?
How would one determine if the head had been milled to accommodate for thicker headgaskets? The one we ripped off was a metal felpro (looked brand new) I'll try and get a part number and research the thickness of the gasket.
What year did they begin using hardened valve seats on the 200's?
Is there any other items about the later 200cid engines that'd be good information to know? From what I've seen, this blocks got the updated bellhousing bolt pattern to be easily modified to fit v8 pattern bellhousings, and the log intake is quite a bit bigger than my 1961's measly intake manifold.
So yeah, that's where i stand so far. More questions to come. Thanks in advance for all advice. And always, party on wayne. Cheers
I have several questions to be addressed after hunting around online for a while.
On a 300$ budget, what basic replacements/upgrades would you throw at the engine before dropping her in the wagon?
I like doing a thermostat, waterpump, timing chain set for kicks, since shes out and their relatively inexpensive for piece of mind. I was looking at taking a weekend and installing new freeze plugs for kicks as well.
As for upgrades, one of the biggest that people rave about seems to be a simple cam swap; which leads me to asking everyone out there to lend me their personal preference on a cam they've used and can recommend. The wagons currently running stock fordomatic and a 7" rear end[(unaware of the gear ratio)(with intentions of swapping to the c4/8")]. Exhaust is 6-2, running thrush packs. With this in mind, she'll be my daily driver, but I wouldn't mind a thumpy cam for mid rev hotrod pleasures I liked the summit kits which included new lifters and timing set with the comp cam. Between the two profiles offered in the kit (252/.425)(260/.440) I was leaning toward the more aggressive of the two. Once again, your experience is greatly appreciated.
My old 170cid motor had electronic ignition, so that will be swapped over.
As a side note, i have an adapter plate, and early 80's rochester 2v carb sitting in the shop that was removed from my 170. I didn't try too hard to tune the setup, and ultimately swapped over to a stock weber single barrel which eliminated all fuel deliver issues. I may fiddle with adapting this carb back on this motor in due time. Any suggestions here?
How would one determine if the head had been milled to accommodate for thicker headgaskets? The one we ripped off was a metal felpro (looked brand new) I'll try and get a part number and research the thickness of the gasket.
What year did they begin using hardened valve seats on the 200's?
Is there any other items about the later 200cid engines that'd be good information to know? From what I've seen, this blocks got the updated bellhousing bolt pattern to be easily modified to fit v8 pattern bellhousings, and the log intake is quite a bit bigger than my 1961's measly intake manifold.
So yeah, that's where i stand so far. More questions to come. Thanks in advance for all advice. And always, party on wayne. Cheers