Engine Junk yard 285-300rwhp?

jakeklein89

Active Member
Apr 8, 2019
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michigan
Hey guys i have a stock 94 motor with 89 upper and lower intake in my 89foxbody can i hit 285 to 300 with junkyard parts ? What is a good hci combo for this but also keep in mind i cant lose street ability i daily drive my fox i just wanna a little more girth to fox around with
 
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Hey guys i have a stock 94 motor with 89 upper and lower intake in my 89foxbody can i hit 285 to 300 with junkyard parts ? What is a good hci combo for this but also keep in mind i cant lose street ability i daily drive my fox i just wanna a little more girth to fox around with
Are you talking flywheel HP at the engine or rear wheel HP? There is approximately 10%-15% power loss in the drivetrain to the rear wheels. The 300 rear wheel HP works out to be 352 flywheel HP using the 15% drivetrain loss figure.

Not likely to get the numbers you want with junkyard bolt-ons. The stock heads, even GT40 & GT40P, don't flow enough air without extensive port work to make anything near that kind of HP. Even then, they still flow less than a good set of aftermarket heads. The explorer intake can be ported to get good airflow numbers, but that is some specialized work done by someone highly skilled.

Trick Flow makes a nice HCI kit with all the parts, but the end cost is somewhere in the $2500-$2800 range. Check out https://www.summitracing.com/search...rdMatch&SortOrder=Ascending&keyword=trickflow and see if there is anything you like enough to spend the $$$


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Far too many people put a dab of this and a dollop of that, and then wonder why the car doesn't run worth beans. Then they think off the shelf computer chips will fix their mismatched parts problem. It won't

You have to have a plan for what kind of performance you want: Hot street. Street/Strip, Pure strip, Autocross or Road course. Each one requires a different strategy and a different set of components.. Mismatch the components and you’ll have a car that falls flat on its face when you demand performance.

Everyone thinks HP! HP! HP! and thinks that peak HP is what they need. Peak HP is great for a drag strip car when it has the proper gears and tires to get the car up into the high RPM range where it develops that high peak HP near the finish line. On a street car, that strategy will have Honda Accords outrunning you, because you will never get the engine RPMs high enough without running over everything in your path.

Here’ the strategy: Always remember that there are some tradeoffs in any engine combination. Most of us don’t have enough money to “have it all” as if it was possible by some masterful combination of parts and tuning.

The following recommendations are for 5 Speed Manual transmission cars without NO2 or pressurized induction, stock short block.

1.) Hot street: Broad flat torque curve, high velocity airflow in the intake and heads for best throttle response. Gears suitable for reasonable gas mileage and long road trips without excessive engine RPMs. Stand on the gas pedal from a rolling start to squeeze into that gap in traffic in front of you, and it jumps quick and hard to get you there. Max RPM’s are 5200-5500 RPM for best power. Lopey cams may sound cool, but run poorly in a low RPM street environment.
Use stock cam, stock, GT40 or mildly ported stock heads, Cobra or Explorer/GT40 intake, advanced timing, stock 19 lb injectors, stock fuel pump. Use some good 1.6 or 1.7 ratio roller rockers for extra punch. Use a King Cobra clutch, with stock iron or steel billet flywheel. MAF cars can use a 65 MM TB from the Explorer intake manifold and a 70MM MAF from a 94-95 Mustang. Drive train: 3:55 gears with soft tread compound tires. Use some Ford Racing unequal length headers, stock 2 1/4” cat pipe and some mufflers that don’t drone or get too much attention from the law enforcement or neighbors. The stock computer will handle all this with no problems and doesn’t need any help in 90% of the cases. No skinny or grossly undersize tires for the front: remember you still have to stop quickly in traffic. Make sure all the rubber bushings in the front and rear suspensions are in first class shape. Leave the emissions equipment intact and working. Removing or disabling it won’t get you any more HP or performance. Do not convert to carb or remove A/C: either one will reduce the resale value. Carb conversions cannot be titled for street use or get tags in some places. They definitely won’t pass smog inspections.

Street/strip: A little more slope to the torque curve with a gently sloping peak. Use slightly larger port volumes on intake and heads for more peak HP. Uses 3.55 or 3.73 gears to get the RPM’s up into a higher range quicker. Be prepared to sacrifice some low RPM throttle response in exchange for high RPM power. This by necessity will be a Mass Air or Mass Air conversion on 86-88 5.0 Mustangs, since stock speed density will not run well with the changes in engine airflow. Don’t get too crazy on any one engine part since you still have to drive the car on the street, and a mismatch can make street driving miserable.
Use stock or mild aftermarket cam, Ported GT 40, or 165-180 CC port volume aftermarket aluminum heads. Use a Trick Flow, Edelbrock Performer or equal intake manifold. Take a 73 MM aftermarket MAF calibrated for 24 lb injectors, and 24 lb injectors, 155 LPH fuel pump, Kirban adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Be prepared to shell out some $$$ for a custom burned chip using data gathered from a dyno run. Mass market chips will not get the job done. Use some Ford Racing unequal length headers, aftermarket 2 1/2” cat pipe and some mufflers that don’t drone or get too much attention from the law enforcement or neighbors. Drivetrain: expect the stock T5 to fail, so save your money for a super duty 5 speed trans. Tremec 3550, TKO 500 & TKO 600 are the best choices. Different gears in a stock T5 case work for some, but there is only so much power you can pass through a T5 in race mode before it breaks, even with stronger gears. Next are the Chassis mods: full length subframe connectors, different springs, different shocks, aftermarket lower and upper control arms with rubber or urethane bushings. Buy all the parts from someplace like Maximum Motorsports, Griggs or Steeda as a kit so that you know that all the parts fit and don’t argue with each other. Carry spare tires and wheels for the drag strip: skinnys for the front and drag radials for the rear. No skinnys for street driving! Over 85% of the breaking power is generated by the front tires, so skinnys won’t do the job in a panic stop situation. Disconnect the front anti-roll bar at the strip; reconnect it before you drive home. Leave the emissions equipment intact and working. Removing or disabling it won’t get you any more HP or performance. Do not convert to carb or remove A/C: either one will reduce the resale value. Carb conversions cannot be titled for street use or get tags in some places. They definitely won’t pass smog inspections.

Strip only: High RPM, High flow heads (185-215 CC port volume), wild cam, high flow intake manifold, 70 MM or larger TB, 80 MM or lager MAF, strip everything out of the car that doesn’t make it go faster. Carbs are OK if that’s what you want, but remember that as the temp/humidity/ barometric pressure/altitude changes, you have to re-jet and readjust the carb. EFI eliminates most of that with its built in compensation or you can tune of the fly with a high end Motes or Tweecer system combined with a wide band air/fuel ratio meter. Use custom headers, dumps and minimal mufflers. How fast you can go on 5 liters is a function of the skill level of the driver/mechanic and the size of your wallet.

TRAILER the car to the race track since it won’t be legal to drive it on the street. Drag slicks in the rear, skinnys up front, use 3.73 or bigger gears (4.xx) in the rear axle. Since you won’t be driving on long trips, the big gears with work with the high RPM power curve to get the best results. Drivetrain: TKO 500 & TKO 600 are the best choices. Different gears in a stock T5 case work for some, but there is only so much power you can pass through a T5 in race mode before it breaks, even with stronger gears. Next are the Chassis mods: full length subframe connectors, different springs, different shocks, aftermarket lower and upper control arms with rubber or urethane bushings. Buy all the parts from someplace like Maximum Motorsports, Griggs or Steeda as a kit so that you know that all the parts fit and don’t argue with each other. Remove the front sway bar, put an airbag in the rear spring of the side that spins the tire the most. Plan on a roll cage if you are truly serious about going fast: most strips will require it once you get to a certain ET range.

Autocross is a combination of Hot street engine and street strip chassis prep. The engine must accelerate quickly from low RPM and needs a broad, flat torque curve. Next are the Chassis mods: full length subframe connectors, different springs, different shocks, aftermarket lower and upper control arms with rubber or urethane bushings. Buy all the parts from someplace like Maximum Motorsports, Griggs or Steeda as a kit so that you know that all the parts fit and don’t argue with each other. Most of the time you’ll never hit third gear, so some 3.73 or bigger gears (4.xx) may help a lot. You’ll have to spend some more money on brakes since it kills brakes quickly. Rear disks, larger rotors up front, stainless steel brake lines, different brake pads. A 87-88 T Bird Turbo Coupe or SN 95 rear axle will be your best bet. Autocross will severely strain 1st & 2nd gears, so your T5 may take a premature dump. Save your money for a super duty 5 speed trans. Tremec 3550, TKO 500 & TKO 600 are the best choices.

All out road race is the most difficult of all: an engine that will run at high rpm hour after hour and never fail, yet pull hard out of the hairpin turns that will require a lot of torque at lower RPMs. In my opinion, guys that can successfully build a winning road race engine are the cream of the crop. Top this off with a chassis built for strip only duty, but with changes to the settings of springs, tires, roll bars brakes and shocks. It’s a whole other world of racing.
You’ll have to spend lots more money on brakes since it kills brakes quickly. Rear disks, larger rotors up front, stainless steel brake lines, different brake pads. Air ducting to cool the brake rotors will be a must. The brake rotors of cars on a high speed road course glow red after several hard laps of racing. Drivetrain: TKO 500 & TKO 600, and T56 close ratio are the best transmission choices.

See http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/engine/mufp-0610-engine-building-mistakes/ for some excellent engine building advice.
 
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Are you talking flywheel HP at the engine or rear wheel HP? There is approximately 10%-15% power loss in the drivetrain to the rear wheels. The 300 rear wheel HP works out to be 352 flywheel HP using the 15% drivetrain loss figure.

Not likely to get the numbers you want with junkyard bolt-ons. The stock heads, even GT40 & GT40P, don't flow enough air without extensive port work to make that kind of HP. Even then, they still flow less than a good set of aftermarket heads. The explorer intake can be ported to get good airflow numbers, but that is some specialized work done by someone highly skilled.

Trick Flow makes a nice HCI kit with all the parts, but the end cost is somewhere in the $2500-$2800 range. Check out https://www.summitracing.com/search...rdMatch&SortOrder=Ascending&keyword=trickflow and see if there is anything you like enough to spend the $$$
I would love to get all of that but im trying to stay more budget i was thinking about an explorer or cobra intake with tfs stage 1 cam and gt40 heads what kind of power do you think i could make with this ? Will that cam clear gt40 heads ? Should i just go with an e cam ?
 
When you say custom came what kind of cam are you referring too ? Something like the cams I mentioned


Something like: You get all of your parts together and gather them with an eye on each of those parts matching (these guys can help with that).

Then you go to someplace like the FTI website and you fill out the cam sheet (in its entirety / get help from these guys if you don't know something)... and FTI custom grinds cam to get the most out of your components (more aptly: He selects your cam based on your info. I'm sure he's seen your combo before).


"It's the wand that chooses the wizard Harry" ~unknown
 
Pick cam last.

Mostly junkyard parts? GT40 (not gt40P) heads., explorer intake, explorer 65mm TB, 94-95 GT/V6 70mm MAF,

Unless you want to drop $800 on a custom grind cam and spring kit, i'd probably stick to a stock cam with 1.7 RR's. It won't make all the top end HP you want, but it will give you tons of nice low end torque and plenty of streetability.

There are probably other cams you can use as well, but like I said...pick cam last. Unless of course you want to build a combo around a B303 cam.
 
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Pick cam last.

Mostly junkyard parts? GT40 (not gt40P) heads., explorer intake, explorer 65mm TB, 94-95 GT/V6 70mm MAF,

Unless you want to drop $800 on a custom grind cam and spring kit, i'd probably stick to a stock cam with 1.7 RR's. It won't make all the top end HP you want, but it will give you tons of nice low end torque and plenty of streetability.

There are probably other cams you can use as well, but like I said...pick cam last. Unless of course you want to build a combo around a B303 cam.
This is probably the best advice yet because yeah i really cant drop 800 on a cam if i could id be getting better heads n intake yeah i am thinking about building around a b or e cam also heard about tfs stage 1 being good whats ur thoughts
 
Like I said, pick your cam last. Get all the other parts in hand first then decide on cam. Reason I say that is because you could be looking for a set of GT40 heads and come across a great deal on a set of AL heads instead. The cam is what ties the final combo together.
 
Go with a gt40p setup with an explorer intake. There is a ton of info and documentation on them and it’s a bulletproof combo. Plenty of guys have made good power usually in the ballpark of 260-280 depending on the cam. I spent $1700 TOTAL that I added up in a spreadsheet including every gasket, rtv, bolts etc. for an explorer heads and intake with an E303. Ofcourse the aluminum heads will make more power but if you spend that money on a nice head you’re not gonna put an explorer intake on it and it snowballs into more money on a setup that might make 40 more hp at the tire. Also good to note is that a set of ported gt40p’s flow nearly identical cfm as the comparable AFR or trickflow heads up around 5500 rpm but the gt40ps carry a higher runner velocity which means more torque down low.
 
So, here’s my setup. I have stock heads with a 5 angle valve job, titanium Manley valves, comp cam dual springs, intake side ported to a gel pro 1250 with factory rockers. 24lb injectors our of a 2005 GT. GT40 intake port matched to the heads. 70MM BBK TB. Comp cams XE270HR cam degrees at 0. BBK longtime headers, off-road X-pipe, varitune mufflers. Oh, and bored .030 over(didn’t have a choice). I say all that to get to this I make 250whp/300wtq, out of a “junkyard build”. Those numbers aren’t big, but the fun part is that I have max power at around 2600RPM all the way to 6k. jrichker makes good points about that. For a street car, you want that power there all the time. The peak numbers don’t mean much. My dads 2012 camero SS makes 420hp at the crank(eh, math), but his power curve is absolute garbage so I push him down the road when we go out to the twisties.