Got a question for the engine builders

88GT17MA said:

What is the bore size on a stock 5.0 engine (1988)? I was getting ready to rebuild my top end but now im looking into freshening up my shortblock.....Could I do a rebuild with a forged engine kit without having any machine work done or am I asking for trouble?

I know the ideal route would be 306, but this has always been something I have wondered and never knew.

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Stock bore is 4.00 inches I believe. Most go ahead and have it bored .030 over to freshen up the cyclinder walls. I'm not sure if it's necesarry or not, but probably a good idea if you're going to rebuild. I am by no means an engine builder; we'll let Rick91GT and the others give the verdict

y not have the block machined for a few hundred more when your are going to spend $700 a least on the rebuild kit? That way you know the cylinders are straight and honed. Plus you get 4 more cubic inches out of it (not that you would feel that difference though...unless your making like 2+ hp/cu in)

Heh..$700.. New main/rod bearings, new rings, new gaskets.. $200.. hone it yourself.. Reuse STD pistons.. Wha la.. Overkill is overkill

88GT17MA said:

This is obviously the better route, but my question is, can you just use a rebuild kit and just keep the 4.00 bore with NO machine work involved.

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Let me know how your rebuild goes... i'm planning on doing the same my self, all i'm going to do is use a ridge reamer for the top of the cylinder walls, new piston rings and reuse the pistons... thats my plan anyway but of course if the piston to cylinder wall clearance is more than .005 thousands of an inch i may have to bore it out. this is where your budget/goals come into play, do you go with parts store pistons for the .20, .30 overbore, or do you go ahead and spend 300 or so on some nice low compression/high compression pistons. as you can see it can get relatively expensive, but in the end it'll be worth it if you do end up HAVING to go that route, then you gotta ask your self if you wanna spend the extra few hundred to get forged connecting rods also. if you were to go this route and did all the assembly work your self you could probably get this done for around 1K or so, but in the end you'd have "bulletproof" internals that would hold up until your block(the relative weak link) would give out.
My plan is to turbocharge this rebuilt engine with 8psi and be able to take it to 12 or so on race gas. theres so many little things/tricks to it that i could take a while to type them, but if you have any questions feel free to ask, i'm sure some here will be able to answer. my advice is read MM&FF for their "Redneck Rebuild" article in which they rebuilt their Junkyard engine for around 250. (safely assume you'll spend 500) which in the end isnt too bad considering you've got an engine that should last at least 100K miles(if put togeather right) good luck