[crazypete]

Granted this is a school project so try to get the project moved over to the cylinder head porting instead of the engine rebuild. A 70k motor has at _least_ 50k of life left in her if not more. My 127k original motor has oodles of life left in it. Just fill her up with motor flush and ring sealant and she's good to go. The cam and the heads make all the difference in power but if your looking for low end performance, the stock cam is built for that already so stick with it.

I'm not sure if the later heads interchange with the 79 heads but even some e7te's from a junkyard (87-93 5.0 ho stock heads) for $30-40 for the pair would add some umph over the 79 smoggers. Then port those as the school project if your teacher's willing. Rebuilding a 70k motor only makes sense if you're one of those 12-13 second track racers that need every ounce of strength from their motors. You'd gain back maybe 5-7 hp for all your time and effort from the better ring seal. If you port heads alone, you could gain 20-30 hp.

But someone help me out: do the newer heads fit to the older 302 blocks? I know the intakes interchange, thats why I think the heads might too. Maybe the roller setup uses different length pushrods??

If it does work: take your entire $300 budget and get a set of assembled gt-40p's and the "p" headers and then port those heads instead. MASSIVE hp gain above the 79 heads for maybe $3-400 +$175 for the headers (or get shortplugs and 90 degree wires and strip the boots off and rtv silicone them and then you dont need new headers).

Just what I would do. Porting cylinder heads yourself takes weeks with a dremel (trust me =) ) and would be a fitting project in and of itself and much more fruitful.