It kind of looks like Grant and I missed our deadline for the Bumpside Build-Off-and yes I'm not calling it the Bulletside Build-Off anymore. That's the first revision in my game plan, and I'll get to the second one in a couple of paragraphs.
No doubt by now if there was anyone who showed up to the Goodguys show held in Scottsdale, Arizona, last November 16-18 to check out Grant Peterson's '68 F-100 from Classic Trucks or my '72 F-100, they were in for a little bit of surprise. Or maybe not. After all, it seemed everyone but Grant and I thought that we had bitten off a pretty big chunk (check out the latest edition of Classic Trucks to see where Grant is on his build). Well the Scottsdale deadline has come and gone, but that doesn't mean the Bumpside Build-Off is over. On the contrary, we have both gathered a new full head of steam, and the race is still on!
And now to the second deviation in my game plan: True to our motto that at Custom Classic Trucks we make the mistakes so that our readers don't have to, my initial plan had a slightly flawed premise. I figured since Grant was building a slammed truck with an open budget I'd take the super low-buck road with my jacked-up gasser. Instead of buying exactly what I needed to get the job done properly, I tried to rework and reuse as many stock parts as possible to save money. When I got to the stage of trying to soup up the stock 302 truck heads, things went completely sideways and I lost a lot valuable time-not to mention money that I didn't need to spend.
Before I get into discussing the RHS alloy heads we're featuring in this story, I'd like to reveal some of the problems that I ran into with the stock truck heads and why they ultimately had to be scrapped. It was a simple plan really. I called the folks at Lunati and explained that I was trying to extract as much horsepower as possible from the OE 302. It was decided that in addition to a mild Lunati camshaft to help pull the ponies out, a set of Lunati pushrods and roller tip rockers were in order. This is where the proverbial poop hit the fan. Everything would have been fine if the rocker arm studs in my stock heads had 3/8 fine threads at the top of their 3/8- inch shoulders, but this wasn't the case. The threads on my 302 truck heads choked down from a 3/8-inch shoulder to 5/16 inch.
I called my contact at Lunati and he thought I was crazy, or, at the very least, mistaken. I said, "No man, I know 5/16 fine threads when I see them. Do you have any 5/16-inch locknuts I can use to lash the roller tip rockers down?"
He returned to the phone after a few minutes and said, "No." That was as far as we got that day. I had to get back on other projects that we had going at the magazine, so I let the stock heads mari- nate in my gunk tank for a while. This was at the early stages of trying to get the top end back on the 302, and I was already about a month behind the eight ball before I could get back to it.
 One of the first things that...  One of the first things that needed to get handled before we can start reassembling the 302's top end was to get out the Year One Speed Shop catalog along with Year One's '64-73 Mustang catalog and order a Mr. Gasket complete overhaul gasket set and a Mr. Gasket O-ring-type chrome thermostat housing. Insisting on quality parts from a reputable source is the key to good results. |  Ditto for using the highest...  Ditto for using the highest quality hardware available. In addition to ARP rocker-arm studs, we will be using ARP intake manifold bolts to ensure the ProCharger can inflate the intake ports without leakage. |  Here we have the second pair...  Here we have the second pair of factory cast-iron Ford Windsor cylinder heads. They might or might not have worked out okay, but they sure are heavy. Now that we have replaced the stockers with RHS heads, we can use these old ones as boat anchors. |