479hp Ford 302 for $4,991 - Best Buck Banger

The bore is 4.030, so that is the ring compressor we used. The rod-bolt socks prevent dinging the rod journal.

We also used the Lucas goop on the rod caps. Watch for the index marks to tell you which way the cap goes on.

The cam is really too big for the street unless you like loose converters or clutch pedals. The Comp Cams mechanical flat tappet was hardened using a process called pro plasma nitriting that uses pulsed nitrogen plasma to infuse nitrogen ions into the steel and make it resistant to high-rpm violence and cam lobe failure. It also ensures that the cam isn't going to go flat during the break-in process. We used the Comp Cams assembly lube and Lucas Valve Train Extreme Pressure Lube on the cam and lifters, just to be sure.

The new Competition 185 heads use a new intake- and exhaust-port design and are available in 72 cc or the 58cc version that we used. For a bit more money, you can have the 58cc head milled as low as 52 cc and the 72cc as low as 59 cc.

The exhaust port has a slightly higher exit (0.125 inch) but still uses off-the-shelf headers. On our flow bench, it flowed 90 cfm more at 0.500 lift. That is 72 percent!