It was just before Christmas when Four on the Floor from this site ,who was visiting family in NY,helped me drag the 302 GMC bare block and parts into my cellar for assembly after the machine shop drained my wallet.
It's been up and running for a week or so,started on one revolution,the only problem was a minor coolant leak,easy to fix once I took the water pump on and off 3 times,lol.
The Venolia 9.25 compression forged pistons are quiet even when the engine is cold,the cam I had ground to my own specs by Colt Cams in Canada gives a smooth powerband from 1000-4500 rpm,the cam is really quiet,almost no tappet noise at all.Even my home made tube headers don't leak!!!Some lucky quessing on my part
The swap to GMC 302 from a Chevy 261 was easy.moved the radiator foward about an inch and a half by modifying the radiator side brackets,and welded up a front motor mount plate to reposition the mount about an inch foward,everything else fit like it was designed for the swap.
The engine is very smooth,idles with a moderate lope at 800 rpm,and runs very strong.I don't really break in engines so to speak,I just start em and drive like usual.
An interesting note,the 390 Holley 4bbl that was on the 261,went directly on this GMC engine.Now the Clifford manifold on the 261 and the Patrick's designed 4 bbl intake on this 302 are a slightly different design,both are water heated.On the GMC,I had to jet down the primary a few sizes to get the proper part throttle mixture.And although the GMC has higher actual compression nad the same distributer advance curve and full timing advance more or less that the 261,the 302 doesn't ping on 93 Sunoco like the 261 did sometimes.I guess the GMC head design is more detonation resistant,besides breathing better.
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