Ford 302 V8 Engine Assembly - Summit Stroker

1. The Summit stroker crank is actually a Scat piece that Summit buys in bulk for the cheap deal. Summit passes the savings on to the consumer, and it brings the stroke up to 3.400, which with a stock bore, changes the engine displacement to 347 ci.

2.Trick Flow has a series of pistons made by Arias that fit the twisted-wedge design. The problem with them is that we were looking for more compression. As you can see, the Arias piston is lacking the anti-detonation groove and pressure groove, which inhibits optimum performance.

3.Unlike the Street Wedge head by Trick Flow, the Track Heat head is not 50-state-legal. Because we aren't building a smog-emissions-legal combo, we decided to increase the compression. We're not afraid of running race gas, so we employed JE Pistons to provide us with a premium slug to fit the killer Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads. The JE CNC-machined piston is equipped with all the latest tricks. An anti-detonation groove, ring pressure groove, barrel-faced skirt taper, and deep drag valve pockets provide maximum performance. This allows us to push the awesome combustion chamber design of the Twisted Wedge heads. This piston also has the pin journal in the ring land to make room for the 5.400-inch rod length. The long rod corrects the rod-to-stroke ratio when the longer stroke is used.

4.Joe Jill, owner and founder of Superior Automotive, employs the latest in digitally controlled equipment. This allows Superior to true and square the block's bore centers, deck, and crank journals to free up power and reduce wear.

5.Our little stroker begins with a Ford standard SVO 302 block. The deck height is stock at 8.200 inches. This makes the engine a good drop-in for minis with limited space. Much like the Chevy small-block stroker, the lower area of the cylinder must be relieved to allow room for the increased crank stroke.

6.To achieve maximum compression, Superior cut 0.065 inch off the head surface. The valve clearance was checked to make sure plenty of valve-pocket room was available for the 0.700 lift cam. After the cut, the head was measured with a 51cc combustion chamber for the final conclusion. So with a 4.030 bore, the deck of the piston protruding 0.003 out of the block surface, and 19 cc total dome volume, the 51cc combustion chamber produced a compression ratio a little more than 15 to 1. Of course, if you measure the compression ratio the engine builder's way, with the piston 1 inch in the cylinder bore, you find this calculation changes. In fact, if the math is done this way, the compression actually comes to 13.8:1.

7.The stock heads flowed 253 cfm at 0.500 lift, but after Superior massaged the cylinders, they flowed up to 281cfm at 0.600 lift.

8.Joe added a monometer to his flow bench so he could find the trouble spots in the runners. The use of this device provides helpful insight on the runner's flow, but you've got to know how to use it.