Sorry fpr the long read in advance.

Hows it going everyone, new member with questions on a z28 302 engine. My father had a 56 Belair with a 68 z28 302 engine. He sold the car to me.for $1 about 10 years ago which had been sitting for a long time. It used to get hot and stall out and would not start again for about 30-60 minutes. When I got the car I changed out all the fluids, put in a new electronic distributor, new wires, new radiator, ect but the problem still was there. I finally found that the fuel line was basically laying on the headers and was causing vapor lock. My next step was to reroute the fule lines. Before I could do that we moved to a new house, while driving it to the new house just across town it died on me. As I tried to start ot back up it caught on fire from a bad wire and fuel vapor.

I got the fire put out fairly quickly but not sure where to begin to restore everything. I know the engine is going to have to be pulled and Im going to rewire the entore car. Im assuming the engone will need to be taken apart and inspected and new seals ect. Im not a huge motorhead so not sure what all needs to be done so looking for some advice. I want to get the car restored for my sons to drive one day.

My questions are should I keep the 302 or sell it and put in a LS motor? Like I said im not a motorhead but my dad always told me that Chevy only did the 302 for a couple of years and that it was probably worth more than the car. Any ideas on a value for this engine in current or rebuilt condition? I know someone with a 67-69 Camaro would love to have it but I just dont know what I should do or where to start. Any info I can get would be much appreciated.

 

If he motor has its original stamping next to the water pump you should post the partial vin number on as many Camaro websites as possible. If the original cars shell got restored like many did after the 90's that motor could be worth 15k to the current car owners as it would seriously increase the value of the car. Depending on the story of how your dad got the motor it could be proof that a car is a real Z28 vs a clone. In the 90's many cars that were considered parts cars got repaired, by about 2005 if you had a rotted-out shell with a vin number and title you could sell it. I remember one car that was just a vin tag and a title on ebay and they wanted 5K for it. They did not even pretend it was a whole car.

FYI I am a former GM tech and I can tell you the fire damage engines are almost always worse than you think. These cars run at about 220 degs normally. At 250 degs they can warp or crack heads at 300 degs you can warp and crack the engine block itself. A fire will burn at around 1500 degs? Heating cast iron or aluminum unevenly is just the worst thing you can do to it. I have seen cars with about 8" of damaged paint on the hood need new heads and intake and carb. If the fire burned long enough to melt wires your carb is most likely a goner.

While I was in school a friends Monte caught fire, there was no paint damage I could see and very little wiring damage. I had it in the schools shop the teacher warned me about fire cars. I figured how bad could it be? It was a 3.8 with an aluminum intake. I spent so much time with a hand file trying to get everything to seal. I filed the carb , air horn, body and base then the intake, I even ran double gaskets on the intake trying to get it to seal. I got it and it lasted about a week. We ended up swapping in a SB 400 into the car in my back yard after I finished school.

 

Well I'd definitely replace the 302, was never a good street engine to begin with, no low end and really high strung.
Gret race engine, street not so much.
LS would be nice but even an old school 350 would be fine and it's a straight up bolt in swap.

 

Thanks for the info, Ill try to find the stamp with the vin. My dad bought the car when he was 18 and used to take it to the drag strip. He always told me it was bored over 10-1. I know it was a monster but definitely not great for driving around town even without the vapor lock problem.

 

Agree with the value of the 302
If you confirm it's a 68 Z motor by the numbers, I would sure try to sell that
I just picked up a spare Boss 302 engine for my n69 Boss 302
Those are rare and expensive as hell too
There are tons of Z-28s out there missing their 302s
My 69 had a DZ suffix and the cars partial vin stamped on the block
You find those numbers and a build date for the block and sell it

 

You may be getting your terminology a little mixed up. Bore is relative the diameter of the piston. 10-1 is a compression ratio. Meaning when the piston is all the way down there is 10 time the area in the cylinder than there is when the piston is all the way up.

The 302 from GM is a factory designed race engine. They were advertised to be 290hp. That was because they wanted to sell the SS cars. They rated the SS 350 at 295. GM way under rated the real power of the 302. 302 was designed for the transam race of champions which had a engine size limit of 302.

I watched a interview with Carol Shelby, ford asked him to build a trans am winning car for Ford. He knew he had to go against the Pontiac Trans Am and the camaro so he went to a GM dealer and bought all factory parts to build a GM 302. When he built the motor he did all the “normal stuff” a race team would do. Back then you could not just buy better aftermarket parts. He ported and polished, did a detailed balancing. He dyno just under 500hp. He told Ford no thank you. He knew the ford 302 and he knew there was no way to get there. The head size would simply never be big enough to flow the air. This is why the 302 boss was made by Ford in later years.

The GM 302 never had street manner. If you talk to any old time GM motor head they probably had a 302 for a year. They always seem to forget why the sold them. It was because they got tired of fighting the race engine to get it to go slow. Without EFI engine tended to be one trick ponies.

 

Thanks for all the info guys, I watched a few videos on where to locate the casting #s. As soon as I get some free time Im going to start removing parts that were damaged in the fire and clean it up. Hopefully I can get to a point where I can see the #s without having to remove the engine. Ill keep you updated and add some pics for reference.

 

The build date numbers are on the back of the block
You can tell what crank is in the engine by the flange
Those 302's had a mostly round flange
My sorrow
[img alt="My old matching #s DZ
"]https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/camaroforums.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/69_z_28_8e1b16c09d2b7ff5ffcf03d4b20257b60761e0da.j pg[/img]
My old matching #s DZ