5.0 roller shortblock

If you used your old balancer and your serpentine pullies...youwont have to change balancers. If you want to run Vbelt setup, you will need to change yoru pullies, not your balancer. As for your flywheel/Flexplate...changing that will depend on what transmission you intend on using. You can use your Mallory 289 distributor, but you will need a hardened gear. I believe everything else will bolt on just fine. You dont neceesarily have to change to a mechanical fuel pump. If everything is together already, you can buy an electric one for about $75 and then buy a regulator and you will be good to go. If you do that and dont want a fuel return line, make sure you buy a fuel pump that internally regulates it self to pump less fuel as pressure builds.

you MUST use a balancer and flywheel for a late 5.0 engine. remember the early models are balanced differently than the late models, 28 oz. for the early model and 50 oz. for the late model. if you want to use your early v-belt pulleys you need to get a balancer that has the early bolt pattern but late model balance, you can get them from almost all of the major mustang parts suppliers. same thing with the flywheel you MUST use one that is compatible with the late model engine. i would go ahead and change the timing cover so you can use a mechanical pump if you want to, but allcarfan's suggestion about the electric pump is a good one, a carter "street pump" electric pump is self regulating and is a good pump. you'll also need to change the oil pan and pickup as well, since the fox motor has a rear sump pan and the early car needs a front sump pan, so you might as well buy a new pump and pickup at the same time. if you go with the v-belts you'll have to use a water pump for the early model and the serpentine requires a reverse rotation pump. another thing you'll want to consider is the radiator, the early model has the lower inlet on the passenger side and the reverse rotation late model pump has the outlet on the driver side so you'll have to change the radiator or have the inlet on your current radiator moved to the driver side. all of the big parts suppliers carry the "conversion" radiator that has the inlet on the driver side already or your local radiator shop can move the inlet to the other side pretty easily. as for the distributor you should be able to get the correct STEEL gear from mallory without any problems. the rest of your combo sounds pretty good, if you already have the D0oE heads and they are already ported they are a dood choice and will get you a little more compression as well. if you are going to pay someone to port them i would invest in some different heads, either some roush 185's or some gt40-p's, if you go with the p heads you'll need a special set of headers for them, though. one more thing the vac secondary carb is good for either a manual or auto tranny but if you are running a manual tranny you could go with a mech. secondary carb pretty easily, but i wouldn't use one with an auto tranny. oh yeah are you planning on using a manual or auto tranny? if you go manualo you will need to get either the special ball fulcrum that bolts on the tranny or go with a cable clutch since the 5.0 does not have the boss in the block for the ball fulcrum for the stock early model clutch linkage. if you go with an auto tranny you have some other issues to worry about there too. if you use a c-4 you'll need a special flywheel that has the late model balance but the smaller 154 tooth with the c-4 convertor bolt pattern, if you go aod you'll have to have a different tranny crossmember, different exhaust since the aod is so much bigger than the c-4, different driveshaft and then you'll have make sure the tv cable is set right at the carb and you'll need to get a special tv cable adaptor for the carb as well. you'll have to change the tranny cross member and driveshaft if you use a t5 also. i think that covers most of the stuff you'll run into, but probably not everything. if you have any more easy questions let me know

WantaGT said:

so is this swap worthwhile? i mean i can sell the 289 in my car right now and some other stuff to finance it. my question is, is it worth the time and effort?

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oh hell yeah it's worthwhile, and i know it looks like it's going to be expensive but i think if you use the v-belt setup, you'll actually get out cheaper since the balancer for that is only like 125 bucks or less, and the flexplate for the late model balance and c-4 trans (if that's what you have now) is only like 45-50 bucks you might be able to get it cheaper if you get a stock replacement for an 82 mustang with a c-4 trans, but it might be kind of hard to find, i haven't really checked. tell me more about the combo you have in the car now and what you were planning on doing and i can be a lot more specific. i wasn't trying to discourage you in anyway, just wanted to make sure you were prepared is all.

WantaGT said:

right now i have a small cam and a performer intake, stock convertor and gears but this winter i want to go to the combo in the first post.

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what car do you have, what tranny etc.

WantaGT said:

oh, i have a 1967 mustang coupe (right around 3000 lbs. is my guess) with a c4 auto and stock gearing

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well if you are planning on keeping the c-4 my last reply should just about do it. but i'll condense the big stuff too


early model oil pan
new "conversion" balancer from mustang vendor for 50 oz balance 5.0 for v-belt pulley system
new "conversion" flexaplate from mustang vendor for 50 oz balance 5.0 or possibly flexplate from an 82 mustang with 5.0 and c-4
early model oil pan, and oil pump pickup recommend new oil pump
early model timing cover and water pump, you might have to change the dowell pin on the roller cam so you can use the mechanical fuel pump eccentric, but you might be able to remove the dowell from the 289 cam and use it, if not you should be able to get on from your cam supplier (it might actually come with the cam kit, mine did)
steel cam gear for the mallory distributor

that should cover most of it. you never did say if you already had the d0oe heads ported already or not, but even if you don't port them they'll still outflow the late model heads and give you about 1/2 point of compression, which is a good thing if you go with the TFS cam.

any other concerns i can help you out with?

WantaGT said:

I already have the heads. I have one question. Will this make a nice little street motor? like low 14's possibly? thanks for all the help and quick replies, I really appreciate it.

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yes that would make a great street mototr, with the right gears you might even get high 13's