1985 Mercury Capri - Gulping Again - Part 2

Using a puller, Glen Knell removed the harmonic balancer...

...along with the water pump and timing cover. At this point we also removed the pushrods and stock lifters.

This exposed the timing chain.

The chain simply unbolts and then slips off. Despite being fairly new, we replaced it with one supplied by Lunati.

Knell removed the stock cam.

The Lunati cam received a liberal coating of engine oil and was slipped into the bore.

When installing a cam, be careful not to catch the lobes on the bearing surfaces.

At this point the lifters and pushrods were replaced, and the Comp Magnum rockers were bolted down. We also noticed the lifters were beat up, so they will be replaced when we install the heads.

Knell buttoned up the rest of the engine and refilled the coolant.

Testing was done on the Dynojet chassis dyno at Crazy Horse Racing. We were careful to maintain consistent coolant temperature each time a pull was made. The Holley pump and Lunati cam kicked up the 302 to the tune of 22.8 hp and 28.9 lb-ft of torque at the peak.

Here is the graph showing horsepower and torque numbers before and after the cam and pump swap.

We started this project with the 302 making 207 hp. After installing a fuel pump, a cam, rockers, an intake and a carb, it's cracked 255 hp at the wheels. At the peak, that's 47 hp, however, at 5,500 there's 50 more hp on tap. Best of all, there's a 40hp-plus gain from 4,600 to 5,600 rpm. Likewise, torque is up 26 lb-ft at the peak, but over 40 lb-ft from 4,100 to redline. Next will be a set of the latest AFR 165 Competition heads.