Boneyard Explorer 5.0 Motor

[JayF]

Hey Fellas, glad to be here- it looks like there are a lot of knowledgeable dudes posting on this site....


I had an 89 LX 5 liter back in the day, but I've been out of the game for a while.

I'm building a '64 Mercury Comet, and I acquired a low mileage 5 liter Explorer motor with GT40P heads that I'm going to put into it. The plan is to also put a T-5 in there.

I'm aware of the header/plug angle situation with the P heads. I had some other questions though:

I'm not going the fuel injection route on this car, and I don't need to worry about emissions. So, I'm going to carb it. I'm thinking something along the lines of an Edelbrock 600 cfm carb, Air Gap manifold, and a B303 cam? The B303 is the biggest question and I've gone back and forth with it. I know that I need to upgrade the stock valve springs on the motor right out of the gate. Does it make sense to put 1.6 roller rockers on this thing? I am on sort of a budget and I don't want to go crazy right away.

Rearend is going to be a Ford 9 inch with 3.73 gears

Has anyone run the above combo or something similar who can tell me whether they've had decent luck with it?

Thanks very much in advance,

Jay
Massachusetts

 

[stykthyn]

Stock rockers with an anderson cam or a tfs1. B cam will just make it lopey, not a lot of performance.

 

[Mr. Rustypwnz]

just put a stock h.o. cam in it, if thats all your gonna do. you need springs regardless. get away from the letter cams, they sucketh, the tfs stg 1 or 2 would do ya good.

 

[JayF]

Awesome- thanks guys

 

[mob]

For seeing how cheap you can get some of the letter cams I would put one in there. I am a little biased but I think it also makes sense. You definitely do not want to use the stock explorer cam. Most used stock HO cams are probably going to have a lot of miles on them and I know mine is sitting under my tool bench rusted to hell. I sold my B cam for $70 I think and it was in great condition (switched to TFS). Over a stock HO cam you may only notice a shift in power band and different idle.

Judging by the car you are putting it in, I assume you are not going so much for performance, but more for show and sound (correct me if I am wrong). Trust me when I tell you the B cam sounds GOOD. Stock cam? Meh, no fun when you show up in a car show parking lot and sound like an under powered V8.

Like mentioned before the stock rockers are fine, and you need to upgrade the springs because the stock explorer springs aren't even rated for a stock HO cam. Only benefit imo to finding a stock cam is you may be able to pick one up for free. Hopefully it'll really be a HO cam and hopefully not a lot of wear on it. If you are gonna go through changing the cam mine as well put something better in there, if the stock HO cam was already in there I would say leave it.

 

[Mustang5L5]

What he said.

A b cam or even a tfs1 have nice lope and are plenty drivable. Plus they are relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things.

If you use a HO cam, i would suggest an 85-88 version with 1.7rrs. From 1989 on, ford changed cam profile a few times to quiet the valve trains, so the 85-88 cam is the most potent OEM modern 5.0 cam made by ford. Granted....that's not saying much

 

[LarsD]

I'd take a TFS1 over a B cam any day.

 

[FastDriver]

What does an explorer make bone stock? 220-230ish rwhp?

 

[stykthyn]

Something like that.with a cam swap I would go as far as 250 on a good day.

 

[jkgriffs]

what's the balance on the 5.0 explorer motor, I'm putting this in a tiger clone started as an EFI will be carbureted going to use Edlebrock heads which should solve the spring problem just need to out a flywheel for the T5.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

what's the balance on the 5.0 explorer motor, I'm putting this in a tiger clone started as an EFI will be carbureted going to use Edlebrock heads which should solve the spring problem just need to out a flywheel for the T5.

You would do better to ask that question in your own thread,..but since you have already done so here,..all 5.0's are 50oz imbalanced engines.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Hey Fellas, glad to be here- it looks like there are a lot of knowledgeable dudes posting on this site....


I had an 89 LX 5 liter back in the day, but I've been out of the game for a while.

I'm building a '64 Mercury Comet, and I acquired a low mileage 5 liter Explorer motor with GT40P heads that I'm going to put into it. The plan is to also put a T-5 in there.

I'm aware of the header/plug angle situation with the P heads. I had some other questions though:

I'm not going the fuel injection route on this car, and I don't need to worry about emissions. So, I'm going to carb it. I'm thinking something along the lines of an Edelbrock 600 cfm carb, Air Gap manifold, and a B303 cam? The B303 is the biggest question and I've gone back and forth with it. I know that I need to upgrade the stock valve springs on the motor right out of the gate. Does it make sense to put 1.6 roller rockers on this thing? I am on sort of a budget and I don't want to go crazy right away.

Rearend is going to be a Ford 9 inch with 3.73 gears

Has anyone run the above combo or something similar who can tell me whether they've had decent luck with it?

Thanks very much in advance,

Jay
Massachusetts

If you aren't trying to set the world on fire, why in the world are you installing a 9" rear unless the car has it already?

If you don't have that rear, a fox 8.8 is very close to the right width to fit under that car...I helped a friend convert a 8" rear out of his 68 Mustang over to an 8.8 and all we had to do to do that was cut off the lower control arm mounts, and weld back on a set of spring perches that we cut off of the 8" rear.

Oh, and show some pics,..I do like me a 64 Comet,...I personally own a 78 Cyclone.