be careful what you do, a 78 302 is a very dangerous engine to work on, they have about 10 billion too many vaccum lines. there are ways of fixing this, along with getting a few extra HP be eleminating the smog equipment, might wanna google that though, i dont have all the specifics, but you would have to remove a lot of the vaccum lines that are for the smogpump. there are a few holes you would have to plug on the block, 2 of which are under exhaust valves. once all those steps are accomplished, you need a new belt to remove the smog pump and keep all your other things running, its really not worth the effort though unless you plan on rebuilding the engine, because it requires a topend teardown... and once you teardown the topend, might as well tear it all down... and i'm guessing since your friend drives a 78 fairemont, he cant afford a rebuild at the moment