Progress Thread New To Me 1988 GT - trying to set up vacuum lines for upper intake question

[pindude80]

My friend dropped the Cobra intake off tonight. It looks a little bit better / cleaner than I remember.

I had bought some Eastwood Alumablast paint and matte 2k clear coat that I was going to use on it. After looking at it, I'm not sure it's needs to be painted. I am thinking about just cleaning it with some Simple Green, seeing what it looks like and maybe then just clearing it? What do you guys think?

 

[DadLife0724]

The duplicolor perfect match works pretty good. Lots of colors to choose from. I do like the natural color though. Mine was a real y black, so I repainted it with an 8oz can from Advance Auto. I'm pretty impressed with how it's held up.

 

[gkomo]

I painted my intake with high temp argent silver spray paint and cleared it with 1k high temp clear. Looks fantastic IMO and OEM looking.

 

[gkomo]

A picture for reference:



I've put many heat cycles on it, its holding up great.

 

[91AOD5.0LX]

A picture for reference:



I've put many heat cycles on it, its holding up great.

Looks great and clean! Nice job. I did mine five years ago and it still looks perfect so I’m sure yours will hold the same.

If you want to make that plaque look factory, spray it black then sand the surface. The high spots will turn silver and the low spots will remain black.

Before and after examples (either way yours looks nice!):

 

[gkomo]

Looks great and clean! Nice job. I did mine five years ago and it still looks perfect so I’m sure yours will hold the same.

If you want to make that plaque look factory, spray it black then sand the surface. The high spots will turn silver and the low spots will remain black.

Before and after examples (either way yours looks nice!):

Yours looks great. If i did anything to mine i would use like a high gloss epoxy paint just to fill in the "5.0" and "H.O.", and maybe the ford logo. I don't want the black lines though.

 

[General karthief]

I used cheap house paint on mine

 

[pindude80]

The duplicolor perfect match works pretty good. Lots of colors to choose from. I do like the natural color though. Mine was a real y black, so I repainted it with an 8oz can from Advance Auto. I'm pretty impressed with how it's held up.

I like the natural color / look also. That is why I bought the Eastwood Aluma blast. It has a very close to factory color.

I guess the factory ho manifolds were painted but it doesn't look like the Cobra intakes were?

 

[pindude80]

I painted my intake with high temp argent silver spray paint and cleared it with 1k high temp clear. Looks fantastic IMO and OEM looking.

That's what I'm going for, OEM look.

I didn't think about the high temp clear. I'll have to look to see where I can find some high temp clear.

 

[pindude80]

I used cheap house paint on mine

Did the paint hold up or flake off?

 

[General karthief]

Did the paint hold up or flake off?

https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/attachments/20241119_084554-webp.727200/

Looks pretty good to me

 

[DadLife0724]

https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/attachments/20241119_084554-webp.727200/

Looks pretty good to me

That ain't too shabby at all. I'm diggin it.

 

[Noobz347]

Spray Max 2K Clear Coat Aerosol High Gloss Finish

Get a durable, UV-resistant high gloss finish with Spray Max 2K® clear coat. Easy spray application, quick dry, and long-lasting protection.

steelfxpatinas.com

 

[pindude80]

Hey guys, I'm at a bit of a crossroad right now. I have the upper and lower intake off and I also have the factory headers off. I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep myself from making upgrades while I have the engine taken apart.

I bought a used set of Hedman shorty headers and off road X-pipe. The header fit is garbage and I'm not going to bash my floor in to make them work so they are off the table.

It seems kind of silly to put the engine back together stock but I'm trying to figure out what to do. So far, these are the options I have in mind:

1.) a light port on the factory E7 heads, maybe just remove the smog bump in the exhaust port, install the Cobra and lower intake I have and re-install the factory headers with an off-road mid-pipe.

2.) Install GT40 heads that I have on a parts engine, put a better cam in it- I'm probably limited to a factory cam since it's a Speed Density car. Maybe find a mass air HO cam? Maybe put the factory headers back on or upgrade to a set of SVE shorty headers.

3.) Go big and get a set of SVE 185cc CNC heads or Trick Flow 11R 190 cylinder heads, cam, headers- probably long tube headers, injectors, etc. I like this option but it is a Speed Density car so I would have to switch to mass air or maybe upgrade to some type of aftermarket EFI system.


When I bought the car my original plan was just to do short tube headers, off-road mid-pipe, and a 3.73 gear. The current project started because my valve covers were leaking, I had to take the upper intake off to change the valve cover gaskets. Since I had the upper intake off I thought it was a great time to upgrade to the Cobra intake, and well, you know how that goes, while the engine is taken apart, and it's winter, it would be silly to put the Cobra intake on factory heads and this gets the snow ball rolling!

My goal is to have a fun street car, that sounds good, pulls good, has enough power to slide the rear end around, etc. I really like the idea of making around 400 flywheel. I think that would be a fun street car but that would be option 3. If the car were mass air already option 3 would be easier, and cheaper, to pull off.

Anyway, just wanted to see what your opinions are. I should add that the engine compartment, and engine, are both pretty grimey. At some point I would like to pull the engine, clean it, clean the engine compartment, etc. Maybe right now I should just focus on getting a little more power out of the current setup and do option 3 if / when I get around to pulling the engine?

 

[AeroCoupe]

Not to crush dreams and all but those GT40 heads are most likely not going to get you 400 fwhp. Not saying it cannot be done but its going to be a challenge going naturally aspirated. All that aside I would just get it put back together and plan to build the motor when you pull it to clean things up. You can tune a speed density car so don't think you have to go mass air to change cams.

 

[pindude80]

I know the GT40 heads won't get me 400 fwhp, I would think closer to 300 fwhp. You may not have seen it but I wrote 400 hp would be option 3.

Would you not touch the heads, put it back together just with the Cobra intake and then do a good build when I pull the motor to clean the engine and engine bay?

Thanks for letting me know Speed Density cars can be tuned. I was always under the impression that if you wanted to upgrade the cam it needed to be Mass Air.

 

[AeroCoupe]

The reason is why spend the time, money, and effort for very little gain? E7 heads are boat anchors. Don’t get me wrong you can put some money into them and make power but that would be a stock motor class effort. If you were going to do they you might as well put the GT40 heads on the car. I don’t think you will realize 100% of the gains from the heads due to the speed density. Realize this is me looking at it from my perspective and if I am going to spend money, time, and effort it’s going to get maximized.

Putting the upper and lower on will gain a little, it’s will look awesome, clean things up, and the valve cover leaks will be fixed.

Get the TFS heads and a good cam (Ford letter cams are old school tech so I would avoid them) for when you want to complete the HCI swap. Other things you can do is make the decision to go MAF, upgrade the stock induction from the filter to the throttle body (don’t will love more air), and definitely upgrade the exhaust. You can play around with the stock 19 lb/hr injectors but I would tell you to just go ahead and get some 30’s or 36’s (I ran 42’s because I got them cheap) and tune for them. With that you should look at a minimum of a 190 lph Walbro (watch for knockoffs) or Aeromotive (there are other brands but these two are proven) fuel pump to keep up with the combo.

Hitting 300 rwhp with a 302 has been done a lot but don’t expect much more without spending some coin.

 

[pindude80]

if I am going to spend money, time, and effort it’s going to get maximized.

This is pretty much where my mind originally was but then I got to thinking since the engine is already apart maybe I should do something to get a little more power. I pretty much agree that the E7 heads are a waste, especially since I have a set of GT40 heads sitting there. I thought it might have been neat to grind the smog pump bumps out of the E7 heads just to see how they picked up, since it would be cheap and easy, but probably not worth the time.

 

[Noobz347]

I might go another way:


I might put that engine back together with all the parts you already have. Cam, intake, heads, the whole nine yards. Don't upgrade a thing. But...


Spend your money on a blower that will wake the thing up and is also suitable for your [next] build. Maybe you run 8 to 10 lbs now and add an intercooler kit with a new engine combo later.

The cool part is you can keep your SD EEC for now, upgrade your fuel pump and add an FMU.

You would be well over 300 HP [At The Wheel] while you take your sweet time with an engine build.

 

[gkomo]

I’m MAF, so not sure how much of a difference it is, but I have a Novi1220SL on a completely stock long block including throttle body running only 4-6lbs of boost and it actually feels pretty solid once you get past 3k rpm’s. I do have full exhaust (but with a catted Magnaflow mid pipe) and 3.31 gears.

That could be another option like Noobz suggested. If you went with even more boost like he said, it would only be more fun.