OK, Stocker "valve jobs".

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

Well, I sunk the seat of an intake enough to get 1.90 installed height, that gives me 130# on the seat and 290# over the nose. Still on the high side but livable.

Exhaust I sunk it as far as I like it and only got installed height of 1.805 which is still way to short.

I'm going to start calling around for valves +.100 and see how quick I can get them.


(quite the change from a bracket racing engine build!!)

Jim, not fer nuthin' but do you have a set of "stock", "legal" heads laying around? Take them, do a nice, clean, un-trick valve job on them and find a set of springs that will fit. Someone must make a spring for a "hot street" cam for a 302 that will give you 130-150 lbs. seat pressure. There are gains to be made with a trick-of-the-week valve job, changing seat angles and valve angles BUT you're not there yet and with the combo that you're doing that's the last thing that you need to be concerned with.
You've got a soft HP factor and (for the combo) a decent "stock" head. If you want to sink your intake valves, then go ahead. But not a lot. Sinking the intake will "get the valve out of the way" at low lifts and is a good thing. Don't sink the exhaust valve at all if you can help it. Low lift flow is the opposite on the exhaust side as the intake. Get the exhaust valve "out of the way" by opening it into the chamber so that exhaust gas can flow around it.
The main thing that you need to be concerned with to get started will be blueprinting to get your maximum amount of mechanical compression and don't get carried away with camshaft duration because your duration and "cam timing" will dictate what you will have for cylinder pressure. Cylinder pressure being very important when it comes to making torque and you're not going to make gobs of HP so you had better be able to make torque.
Now "professional" engine builders can (and probably will) come on here and argue my points but with the combo you've got and at the point you're at a well built and blueprinted shortblock and the correct cam selection (and a good set of "stock" heads) will get you a lot farther under the index than what you're doing right now.